Any tips on rendering? Recently rendered a shed for a friend, turned out really bad! Had loads of trouble working the cement, put it on ok, but when it came to finishing it either fell off or just looked bad, any advise on floating/finishing greatly appreciated!
you need very consistent suction throughout the rendered surface in order to finish a render successfully.
a scratch coat complete with retarder, plasticiser and waterproofer is a useful way to start.
this will give you an ideal backing coat from which to apply your finishing coat.
you can either get it as flat as you can with a trowel or rule it off with a straight edge. either way, it will be easier to polyfloat, the flatter you get the render.
you can only begin polyfloating once the render has started to firm up or 'skin up'. this is done by rubbing the poly float in circular or figure-of-eight movements over the render. any depressions can be filled by rubbing some fresh render onto the hollow spot with the polyfloat.
once it has been polyfloated you can the nap it up with a sponge. don't do this until the render is firm.
the sponge should not be substituted for a polyfloat. it will not be able to do the same job.
to be successful at rendering you need to be a quick and skillful plasterer.
ok i suppose you have applied pva and not skimped on the quality. The secret is in the sand (its hard to get good quality plastering sand).
you need a mixer as you will never do it by hand as the more its turned the better it gets. dont be afraid to get it wet and leave the fairy liquid alone. A plasticiser will make the mix more workable. Work off a spot as this helps to inspect the mix when drawing it onto your hawk. Technique is important and i would recommend a 13 inch trowel. you need to spread the mix onto the wall at least 5 mill thick and try to keep this consistent. overall thickness should be no more than 10 mill ( this includes the scratch). you will need to level the render with a featheredge this is where the screed box is vital. using a slight sawing effect is the way to go as this wont drag. when the wall starts to go off you need to start floating with a float i use a wooden float. working in circular motion apply fresh render to the imperfect surface. if you start dragging the render off it simply isnt ready WAIT!! . finally you are ready to sponge the wall. do this in the same way you float but nice and gentle and keep the sponge clean..
thanks for the advice, much appreciated, been general building and landscaping for 6 years, just never rendered before, so anybody needing any other advice maybe i could help, pretty good with plant/machinery too!
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