How to Repair Cracked Render

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Cracked Render Repair Services

Starting out as nothing more than a tiny fracture on your home’s exterior, cracked render may seem like a non-issue, but left unattended, it can easily spiral into a major structural issue (not to mention an aesthetic one). Damp can very easily become part of the furniture of your home, making it essential to address any cracks and crevices the instant they appear. The good news is that repairs can be swift and painless – close to two decades of restoring render in UK homes have taught us that.

If you have noticed a crack in your home’s external render, here’s how you can go about repairing it and ensuring that it never becomes an issue again.

What causes render to crack?

Low quality and ill-protected render will always be exposed in testing weather conditions. More often than not though, the way in which the render is applied is just as important as its quality, which serves to highlight the importance of hiring a cracked render repair service rather than taking matters into your own hands.

Applied in the wrong weather conditions, render will fail to last. If the temperature is too low (below 5°C), the curing process will stagnate, causing moisture to be trapped within the render. Too high, and the render will dry out too quickly, resulting in the formation of cracks.

Any form of precipitation is no ally of rendering either – rain, snow and sleet will adversely affect the moisture levels in the render, culminating in shrinkage cracks.

Why is it so important to repair render?

Cracked render is a route through which water can infiltrate your home. Water ingress will lead to perpetual damp in your home – rendering your home cold and damp – the opposite of what a home should be. Over time, continued damp will cause your home to deteriorate drastically; wallpaper will loosen and paints and plasters will decay.

Alongside the practical ramifications of living in a structurally unsound home, there is an array of associated health risks. Bacteria and dust mites flourish in damp conditions, allowing respiratory illnesses to run riot.

How to repair cracked render?

Firstly, we ensure that all areas not being treated are covered – paths and gardens with dust sheets and windows and doors with paper and tape. Small cracks are filled with epoxy resin while larger cracks are treated with special bonding primers before being filled with a sand and cement mixture.

After the render has been given ample time to dry and solidify – and a comprehensive cleaning process has been completed – it is time for the application of a silicon-based weatherproof wall coating. Mixed with an appropriately coloured final coating, the waterproof wall coating is applied using a pump that carefully regulates the ratio of coating to air, resulting in a perfect finish that will protect your home from damage for 25 years.

Contact one of our team today for a free quote

Get in touch with a member of our team today for a site visit and a free quote. You can contact us by: telephone (0800 169 2049), email (info@allweathercoating.co.uk) or through the contact form on our website.

Your guide to rendering pebble dash

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Pebbledash Repair

Pebbledash, a staple of home exteriors up and down the country, can be tricky to resurface when it begins to fall apart – which is inevitable given that the majority of them were first formed around 70 years ago during the post-war boom. So, if you’re stuck with a crumbling façade of sand, cement and pebbles, what should your next move be?

To help you answer this question, we have put together this guide to everything you need to know about pebbledash.

But first, we have to define exactly what pebbledash is. The exterior wall surface is formed when an array of pebbles are literally thrown at wet render, creating the pebble-strewn walls we are all so familiar with today. It differs slightly from roughcast render, which we could call its cousin. Instead of the pebbles being thrown into the render, roughcast render is formed when the pebbles are already incorporated into the mix of lime, cement, sand and water that we call mortar. Pebbledash then, perhaps the most haphazard of wall surfaces, can also seem to require an equally haphazard solution.

How to remove pebbledash?

Removing pebbledash is an extremely arduous and risk-laden endeavour. Ripping pebbledash forcibly from the walls of your home is bound to invite all kinds of structural issues – not to mention the potential invalidation of your home insurance.

How to cover pebble dash?

One of the first questions that generally pops into their heads of deteriorating pebbledash owners is how can I cover it up? And that is a good question for two reasons – aesthetically, patchy pebbledash is far from pleasing and practically, patchy pebbledash can allow heat out of your home and water into it.

As ever, the answer to this question depends on the ins-and-outs of the individual situation (we will always dispatch a qualified surveyor to comprehensively assess your site before beginning work). One solution which won’t work is the introduction of another layer of pebbledash – your home won’t be able to bear the increased weight. Pebbledash can be covered though; it just has to be done so with a substance that is up to the job, which leads me to the next common question…

How to paint pebble dash?

Paint, as a method of cover, is a no-go. Regular masonry paint is ill-equipped to create a protective weatherproof seal around brickwork. If that wasn’t already enough, the time-consuming nature of such an undertaking is enough to completely derail any hopes you may have harboured of simply painting over your damaged pebbledash. By hand, painting over pebbledash is excruciatingly long-winded and even once accomplished, you can’t be sure that you have covered all the cracks and crevices that are custom to a pebbledash exterior.

Weatherproof wall coatings are another matter altogether however. Many times thicker than traditional paint and infused with weather-resistant silicon, wall coatings are perfect for pebbledash repair. Applied using a highly sophisticated pump that carefully controls the ratio of air to coating, you can be certain to receive a perfectly distributed covering.

Book a site visit today

To get to the bottom of your pebbledash problem, enlist the services of All Weather Coating today by calling 0800 169 2049, emailing info@allweathercoating.co.uk, or using the contact form on our website. We can’t wait to hear from you!