Anyone rendered their house?

[Babooshka1990]

The brickwork on our 1930’s semi looks quite scruffy, our dream solution is to render the entire frontage in white. Has anyone done similarly? Was it a massive job time wise? How expensive was it? Did it transform your home and was it worth it?

No, but I'm watching this thread with interest as I want to do the same to our house!!

I emailed our planning dept about a fortnight ago to ask for some advice but haven't had a reply.

I'm slightly concerned as it's a street of large semi-detached houses (all ex-council and they're all identical brick red. All of the houses have a side bit which was originally an outhouse but most have converted it to a utility/side entrance.

Our house is on the corner and we have an extra large side extension because there was also a garage. The problem is that our brick is mismatched and looks really ugly.

I don't know if the LA will grant planning permission for one house to look completely different from the rest?

Re cost, I've been considering companies that do insulating render - I don't know if you've looked at that? Our insulation needs improving in some areas and a white insulating render seemed like a good option that ticked both boxes.

If you google for it online, you'll find tools that can mock up a white render on your house if you upload a photo. Might help you decide if it's worth pursuing further?

Mine was done a few years ago & it looks so much better. I stay in a 4 in a block & im the only owner. The council undertook the work & I paid a share.

There was a lot of work done at the time but the actual rendering didn't take long & it was worth every penny

We used to live in a brick house and moved to a partially rendered one and have now found that we have to have the house walls 'painted' every few years, as the render shows the dirt / streaks that seems to just come from the rain.

It had never occurred to us that this would be necessary (not that it would have stopped us buying the house) but we wouldn't apply it out of choice unless there was compelling reason.

My advice is don't do it !

www.homelogic.co.uk/5-main-types-of-rendering-defects-to-consider

I genuinely don't mean to sound like an arse and apologies in advance in case I do, but articles like that are just fluff pieces. They're not written by experts - it's just general copywriters who have done a quick google to get some lightweight info after being given a title to fulfil. I work as a copywriter so I know. I'm also familiar with this website and who writes for them.

Also worth bearing in minds that particular website sells wall coatings so has a vested interest in saying that render is crap.

There may be genuine articles written by experts about the potential issues with render elsewhere but lots of these sites have a bias and are looking to push their own agenda.

Unless your going to maintain it don't! Rendering an old property means it can't breath as it's designed to. If water gets in behind the rendering it then can't escape. You need to make sure the rendering stays in good condition otherwise it will damage your bricks underneath. Personally I'd just get your house re pointed far more in keep with how it should be ☺️

We haven’t but want to after seeing a friends.
It took around six months, was very noisy at times as they sort of drill/hack off some brick? At least that’s what it sounded/looked like.
Cost around £20k- but was completed about six years ago.
It was worth it and looked (still looks) amazing.

6 months ours has always been rendered but it needed redoing so we had it all (3 bed 30s semi) chipped off and completely redone. It took them about a week and a half and cost £8,500 - we are in the north of England so you’d probably
pay more if it’s south

Mine was re rendered last year at ground floor level only. It’s a big house though so that area would be equivalent to a whole house for an average sized house.

it was £15k but we didnt need scaffolding because it was ground floor only. Old render was removed. Took about 3-4 weeks. Skip cost was separate

Ours was coloured silicone render so doesn’t need painting.

I had to rerender my rendered house, so when I did, I got it externally insulated at the same time. There was a council grant available which meant it cost me no more than just straight rendering. I highly recommend external insulation. It cut my heating bill by a third and what used to be a cold house is now warm in winter, and back in that July heat I barely noticed while my work at home colleagues were sweltering in home offices. Also, insulating means the render is thermally stable and isn't prone to cracking as you get with normal rendered walls

@fridascruffs oh this is interesting because this is what I want to do! Part of the old extension on our property pisses heat and the whole house is cold as a result. I want to render the whole lot.

I don't think we have a grant available - can you remember the cost, or even the type of render that was used please?

@StalkedByASpider I agree with some articles having an ulterior motive but the drawbacks are still real.
My late father-in-law was a brickie.
I was house-hunting 3 years ago and found no end of properties that had rendering that looked “dodgy” - either cracked/blown, and had damp issues.
Also, it can cover other problems in older properties such as wall-tie failure.
Bricks are meant to 'breathe' and covering them up can cause a host of problems.
The only cosmetic addition to property that's worse than rendering is stone cladding – thankfully it's not fashionable any more.

Some properties were built to be rendered though. Mine couldn’t be left bare as it’s soft brick rather than faced brick and it would be a disaster as it’s so porous

We have a small part of our house rendered as we bought it that way. It looks nice but does need cleaning, painting and anti fungal treatment regularly to keep it white. It starts to turn green in places if wet and looks terrible.

Benefit of the coloured silicone render is that all it needs is a jet wash

I personally wouldn’t, especially not that K render stuff that’s everywhere. It looks filthy after six months. My last house the neighbours got it done, by the winter it was so manky!

House by us got rendered because the brickwork was dodgy (new build) developer bought the house back and had it rendered in days not months!! (4 bed detached).

We had pebbledash render on our 1930s semi - to have that chipped off and smooth tender put on and painted cost about 7.5k last year in SW London. Messy and noisy when they were taking off the old render and scaffolding was up for about 3-4 weeks I think, but it was all very bearable. Personally I wouldn’t render over brick tho, it’s another level of upkeep and expense. Have the bricks repointed and generally tarted up?

I’ve been quoted 4k for mine, but having looked online I’m tempted to do it myself.

Just for balance, I have K render on my house, it's been on for 6 years and still looks perfect. Colour - very pale cream, not white. Not sure if that's would make a difference. So in my experience K render is a great choice.

We had a rendered property as our first home, the tender hid the fact that the exterior walls were not structurally sound- we lost £70k equity as we had to sell at a loss, I wouldn't touch a rendered property ever again

Quite a few houses where I live (west London) are having it done along with changing window frames to dark grey. It’s got to the point where it’s becoming quite common along with the plantation shutters. The houses look nice. These are 1930s semis and terraced houses.

k render is coloured silicone render. It can just be jet washed. Your neighbours just haven’t looked after it.

If your walls are solid not cavity well worth considering esternal insulation - it will cost more of course but if you/anyone were to want to do it later then they'd have to apy for the scaffolding and render parts all over again. Does depend on having/creating wide enough eaves though. Supposedly grants are coming in in spring for insulation on homes in council tax bands Ato D (??) which might help?

If a lot of the houses nearby are still with a social landlord then its likely that those homes will be insulated too at some point, so the appearance will change anyway. Or if course if you all have cavities then theyve probably all been done and you can ignore me!