Best finish to hide imperfections in exterior rendering?

My house has a smooth rendered exterior finish, but being over 100 years old it isn't perfect and there are many repairs/filled cracks etc. The overall flatness is still pretty good and I'll redo anything that's not up to scratch before applying the finish. However, without re-rendering the whole exterior, some joins will still be noticeable after painting so I'd like to find a suitable textured finish I can apply myself that'll hide the worst of any joins/edges. I don't thing the standard fine textured exterior paints I've seen at Homebase/B&Q will really be a coarse enough texture. I've seen some much lumpier finishes that look like they have an aggregate of several millimeters in a thick base that must have a consistency somewhere between Artex and a normal exterior masonry paint.

Anybody any idea where I might find such a finish?

I'm sure I can go to a specialist and get something suitable, but the cost is too high and these finishes don't lend themselves to future repairs and modifications. I really need something I can apply myself even if it takes some practice to get it right (even fine textures look naff unless they're applied with care).

Any render repairs are hard to blend in.

I'm assuming you want to fill cracks and then go over the whole lot?

I'm not really clear on what you are after - perhaps a rolled on High Build type of finish?

Are the cracks hairline or bigger?

Is the render 'live' behind them? ie does that area sound hollow when tapped?

http://www.decoratingwarehouse.co.uk/attachments/7076fa3547602e4fa6ad731c77371539.pdf

Thanks Micilin.

Various cracks and repairs have been made and the finish is as good as can be expected, but it's almost impossible to hide these completely in a smooth rendered finish. That's why I'm looking for a finish with a texture that will conceal any unevenness, otherwise I'd just use a smooth exterior paint such as Weatherseal.

The problem with most of the ready-to-use textured paints is that the texture is very fine - really nothing more than a coarse sand in the paint - and I don't think this will conceal well enough.

The high build finish you've mentioned looks promising. It appears that it's like an exterior Artex where the texture is achieved by rolling with a texture roller after application. I'd prefer not to have to trowel it on, but I see the notes say it can be sprayed so I'll speak to Sandtex about this. Probably best done by a contractor who's done it before.

I assume it's possible to get this coloured so as to avoid having to paint over afterwards, but have you had experience of this product yourself?

Yes I've used it.

You can trowel it on and then roll it, or roll it on.
Not seen it sprayed.
You usually roll up and down only

You may need to thin VERY slight bit with water,try it on a bit of ply or something to get the desired thickness/effect.

Different colours, yes but usually off the shelf in Ivory/Cream/Buttermilk type shades.

Make sure underneath is sound.

Give them a ring

you could use an acrylic render top coat with a 2mm grain like marmorit conni

I don't think that would have enough body at 2mm size to cover repairs, substrate would need to be flat.

These are really only a glorified paint. You'd need to trowel and feather a base coat on first

have you not considered a tyrolene finish. tends to hide most things

Micilin said:

I don't think that would have enough body at 2mm size to cover repairs, substrate would need to be flat.

These are really only a glorified paint. You'd need to trowel and feather a base coat on first

Click to expand...

i know

I just wrote a long and detailed reply, but because I'd been logged out I lost the lot and don't have the heart to do it all again. It's really annoying when this happens and I usually copy to clipboard just in case, but I can't help thinking it wouldn't be too difficult to design forum sites so this didn't happen.

Lucky break - I found my post in the spell-checker that was still open!!

Firstly thanks for some good suggestions. I might just get away with a coarse textured paint, but feel that a high build coating would be better and am leaning towards having it done professionally, particularly in view of the danger of it not being done at all if I 'do it myself'.

I hadn't heard of a Tyrolean finish until I recently had a contractor suggest it. After a site visit he suggested that the rear wall - currently uneven brickwork and repairs - should be firstly Tyrolean rendered with as many applications as necessary to cover the unevenness. He said the next stage would be to apply 'bagging' coats (apparently a thin render-like mix) to 'soften' the Tyrolean finish and fill in some of the surface 'honeycomb'. The final finish would be a self-coloured proprietary exterior coating with a medium grade texture, but he was of the opinion that the rendering on the other walls was good enough to not require anything else in order to produce a completely uniform finish. He did say that the 'joins' would require some preparation to achieve this, but reassured me that this was all part of the job and that this was what I'd be paying for.

He showed me photos of some jobs he'd done that illustrated most of the processes he'd discussed and the equipment he used to apply the final finish which is basically sprayed. He left me with a sample of the finish (in the colour I wanted) applied to a piece of board at about 3-4mm thickness and I can see that after several days it's still quite 'plastic'.

This is the most comprehensive approach I've heard and addresses all my concerns at a price I feel is very good so I've asked for a written quotation and can't see any reason to not go ahead.

The only bit I didn't like was when I mentioned I was considering cavity-wall insulation and that if I was to do this it would be best done before the finishing work. He said that the finish actually provided a similar degree of insulation and, as such, rendered ('scuse the pun) any insulation unnecessary. Now, I'm no expert, but for a coating to offer thermal insulation comparable to several centimetres of foam or rock-wool it would need to have exceptional insulation properties and it just don't seem plausible. I doubt I'll go for insulation because of concerns about ventilation in a property of this age, but that's another thread. It's a pity really because in every other respect his spiel was straight and bull-free. Still he's given me the manufacturer's name so I can check it out for myself. I'll let you know what they say.