External walls 4: Render

In order to do the rendering, the plasterer 'Damo' (short for Damian) wanted the scaffolding rearranged. With the scaffolding hop-ups due to come down the next day, Alan made some last minute tweaks to the roof trim. 

Next morning the scaffolders arrived.

I'm always very nervous when the scaffolders make a visit as they are not the most delicate of creatures... Despite them casually chucking scaffolding poles about and play fighting with each other high up on precarious unsupported structures, amazingly none of our new windows got smashed.

Most of the scaffolding around the upper level has been removed so that the render can be applied.

Before the render could go on, we needed the lead flashing to be fixed to the porch roof so we arranged for the roofer to come later that day.

The following Monday Damo and 'Hovis' (don't ask) started gluing plastic beading to the house.

Beading needed to be attached to all corners and edges of the house in order for the render to have crisp, straight lines.

Damo had forgotten just how many windows we had...

...we could hear many choice words being shouted as he worked his way around the house.

Every window and door had 3 sets of beads which needed to be lined up carefully to ensure they were level with the frame.





Alan asked Damo to put mesh over all the panels we made (see previous chapter) in order to reduce the risk of movement cracks in the render...cue more swearing!

After five expletive-ridden days, the beading was complete so the rendering could finally begin...or so we thought. Despite having previously approved the local Holme sand, Damo found it unworkable once he'd mixed a batch. Grrrrrrrrr! This left us with seven tonnes of unusable sand and even worse, no decent alternative readily available. The quality of sand is quite crucial to the finish of the render but unfortunately despite its many beaches, Cornwall does not have very good sand for rendering.

After much frantic effort Alan managed to track down some Dorset sand that seemed better quality. After even more effort, Alan managed to convince the rather-reluctant suppliers to deliver it well outside of their usual area. An extra bonus was that Alan also managed to get a refund on the seven tonnes of Holme sand.

At last we could start rendering...

...Except then it started raining and the rendering came to a halt before it had even begun. Since Damo(lition) managed to put his foot through the membrane of the porch roof we also had water flooding into the house (again). More grrrrrrrrr!

After a week of numerous delays we finally got to see some render going on the walls.

While Hovis prepared the sand, cement and lime mix...





...Damo applied the first 'scratch' coat of render which acts as a rough base for the final smooth coat of render.

Scratch coat completed on the west side.

Next day the scratch coat went on the front (north side).

A view of the drying scratch coat on the west side.

The next day the west side was dry enough for the top coat.

The Dorset sand proved to be very good (sigh of relief). Even Damo(lition) seemed happy with the results! After smoothing it off with a float and a sponge the render had the ultra-smooth finish we were hoping for.





Once the top coat was on, Hovis wiped down the roof trim, soffits and barge boards.







The west side top coat drying out nicely.





The day after the west side was finished, they began the top coat for the front of the house.

With so many reveals (edges of the wall around the windows and doors) on the front of the house progress was slow and Damo's swear box was overflowing.

Whilst the front garden looked like a bombsite...

...the walls looked smooth and serene.

Two sides down, two to go.

Every evening we cleaned down the scaffolding, put protective tape over the windows (which they would often pull straight off) and generally prepared the site for the next day.

The scratch coat getting underway on the east side. This was the biggest expanse of wall and therefore the hardest side to do.





The scratch coat completed. Alan made some temporary downpipes out of old packaging material to prevent any rain from the gutters washing off the wet render.

With the front completed Alan was able to repair the damage to the porch roof.

Heavy rain showers kept delaying our progress and with the scaffolding due for return in a week's time, getting the house fully rendered and painted looked like an impossible task. After torrential rain all morning, Damo was about to pack up and leave (again) when the sun finally did us a favour and came out just in time, so he was able to complete the scratch coat on the south side.

The next day the scratch coat on the south side was dry enough for the top coat.

Ironically, after so many problems caused by the rain, the sun started drying out the render too quickly so they had to keep spraying the walls down with water to prevent cracking. Three sides done and just one more to go...





After yet more rain delays compounded with Hovis going missing for a day (don't ask) we'd finally run out of time. Two week's rendering had taken over a month to be completed which swallowed up all the time we had allocated for painting. The scaffolding company we'd originally hired from had been sold halfway through our hire period and the new owners (unlike their predecessors) wanted the scaffolding back in a hurry. The east side had to be completed in one day, whatever the weather. Despite ominous grey clouds, the rain held off and allowed Damo to finish the rendering.

While the rendering was proving to be a rather stressful undertaking, more colourful, happy things were going on in the back garden.





One of the nice things about this plot is that we have an established garden that keeps surprising us when something new pops up.