Rendering and Exterior Plastering

A properly specified and detailed render should give you decades. What kills a render early is almost never the material, it is a missing bellcast bead, a scratch coat that was topped before it cured, or the wrong system on a wall that needed to breathe.

Sometimes, but it deserves a proper conversation first. A lot of Lancashire stone was built to breathe, and sealing it behind a dense cement render pushes moisture problems inside the house instead of solving them. Where render is right on stone, a breathable system is usually the answer.

Spring through autumn is the sensible window. Render should not be applied in frost, and it should not go on in beating rain or in strong direct sun that dries it too fast. Winter work happens but dates have to stay flexible, and Lee will be straight with you rather than rushing a wall on a bad week.

Common causes are movement in the background, no movement joint where the wall construction changes, a top coat applied before the scratch coat cured, or a mix too strong for what it was applied to. The crack pattern usually tells you which. Filling it without identifying the cause just delays the same conversation.

On an exposed elevation, generally yes. It is through-coloured so it does not need repainting, it sheds water well, and it stays looking right in weather that would streak a painted sand and cement finish. On a sheltered wall the case is weaker and traditional render may be the better value.

For anything above single-storey reach, yes. It is not an upsell, it is how the work gets done safely and to a consistent standard across a full elevation. Scaffold cost is shown separately in the quote so you can see exactly what it is.

Yes, and where the rest of the wall is sound that is the sensible option. The honest caveat is colour: a repaired patch on a weathered wall will not match invisibly. Where that matters, doing the full elevation is the only way to get a uniform result.

Only if the damp is genuinely penetrating through the wall face. If it is coming from guttering, a roof defect, ground levels or condensation, rendering changes nothing and can make a breathable wall worse. The cause has to be identified first, and Lee will say so even when it loses him the job.

Traditional sand and cement wants several weeks to cure before painting, and rushing it traps moisture and causes the paint to fail. Through-coloured silicone systems do not need painting at all, which is a large part of their appeal.

Yes. New work is in some ways easier because the background is known and consistent, though the junction between the new build and the existing house is exactly where a movement joint belongs, and it is the detail most often left out by others.