Hello,
Later this year I'm going to be building a shed with concrete blocks.
To make it a bit prettier I thought I would cover the external walls with cement render (Stucco?) and put some extra features on.
For example, quoins on the corners and for the windows I quite fancied a raised edge and a keystone on top.
I've seen this on a lot of older buildings and I think it looks really smart. I've often wondered how they did it in the past. Is there a proper name for this other than decorative raised cement render window mouldings?
I've read about two ways so far; one with polystyrene and one with wood.
Polystyrene allows for complex shapes but the idea of gluing polystyrene to a wall and then covering it with cement render sounds fiddly, messy and not practical. Also, I can't find any UK shops which sell polystyrene for external architectural features. (Plenty of US sites though, do we do it differently in the UK?)
I've also heard about features being made in wood. The wooden mouldings are screwed on, covered with a waterproof membrane with a wire mesh nailed on top to grip the render. To do it this way I'd be worried about the wood moving and cracking the render. I don't think this method would allow fussy details either.
I've attached a photo of the sort of thing I would like to
achieve. It seems to be popular on American buildings and old British buildings.
Does anyone have any experience with either technique? Perhaps there's another technique I should know about?
Finally, can anyone give me a definition of the difference between stucco and a cement render? The only difference I'm aware of is Stucco is a term usually used in the US.
Cheers,
Ian
Later this year I'm going to be building a shed with concrete blocks.
To make it a bit prettier I thought I would cover the external walls with cement render (Stucco?) and put some extra features on.
For example, quoins on the corners and for the windows I quite fancied a raised edge and a keystone on top.
I've seen this on a lot of older buildings and I think it looks really smart. I've often wondered how they did it in the past. Is there a proper name for this other than decorative raised cement render window mouldings?
I've read about two ways so far; one with polystyrene and one with wood.
Polystyrene allows for complex shapes but the idea of gluing polystyrene to a wall and then covering it with cement render sounds fiddly, messy and not practical. Also, I can't find any UK shops which sell polystyrene for external architectural features. (Plenty of US sites though, do we do it differently in the UK?)
I've also heard about features being made in wood. The wooden mouldings are screwed on, covered with a waterproof membrane with a wire mesh nailed on top to grip the render. To do it this way I'd be worried about the wood moving and cracking the render. I don't think this method would allow fussy details either.
I've attached a photo of the sort of thing I would like to
achieve. It seems to be popular on American buildings and old British buildings.
Does anyone have any experience with either technique? Perhaps there's another technique I should know about?
Finally, can anyone give me a definition of the difference between stucco and a cement render? The only difference I'm aware of is Stucco is a term usually used in the US.
Cheers,
Ian