# Forum Home Renovation Rendering  Repair Poor Cement Render Job

## MisterFixIt

Hey everyone! 
I have just had my house sponge finish cement rendered. I have downlights in my eaves that show up all the imperfections in the render ( The whole wall ) I''m not sure if I'm being too fussy, but was wondering if there is a way to fix this, by either getting the renderer back to repair, putting a texture coat/paint over it etc. Any help would be appreciated!

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## Artiglass

Photos ?

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## MisterFixIt

I will take some photos tonight an put them up.

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## gpkennedy

Don't use a camera with a flash.
Sometimes downlights come with gimbles which allow a small amount of rotation of the globe. If your downlights are adjustable, direct as much light away from the wall as possible, even a small adjustment can make a difference.

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## gpkennedy



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## MisterFixIt

the downlights are gimble type, although they are pointing straight down. They are about 200mm from the wall. These are some photos off my iphone with no flash. There is just 1 coat of sealer on the wall.

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## intertd6

Can you see the surface imperfections in the daylight or low light? It does look like the surface maybe beyond allowable finish standards & I don't know what those tolerances are. 
regards inter

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## Pulse

The lighting is more the problem, rather than the cement render job. As inter said, there may be standards. Plasterboard finishing has different 'levels of finish' which addresses this issue of critical lighting.  
Cheers pulse

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## MisterFixIt

Would anyone know of any solutions? I've been told that I will need an acrylic render over the top to take out the bumps. 
Cheers!

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## MisterFixIt

Having the house over-coated in acrylic render, will post pics when finished if anyone is interested...

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## art76

> Having the house over-coated in acrylic render, will post pics when finished if anyone is interested...

  Hi MisterFixIt, just been doing my own rendering/bagging on the house and feel some of my spots look similar to yours, so if you can send photos of what the over-coat did, and possibly what was used that would be great. Then I can see if I should try and do that to fix up some of my earlier work which is worse than my later work... 
Shame i did the the main areas first, where I was still learning, that not so visible areas are a lot better as I had more practise by then... oh well, live and learn.

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## MichaelT

Hello Good PEOPLE, I have been looking for this forum for ages.  I, too, have a very similar problem to MisterFixIt and have done months of research and quotes.  The person who rendered our 3 year old home is a concreter and should stick to concreting !  Enough said.  More impoertantly, my research as revealed that to get an even and consistent look, acrylic render would be required to a depth / coverage of either 2mm or 4 mm depeding upon the level of imperfection / inconsistency, etc.  I have reserached Dulux and Rockcote and have concluded that option one:a texture coat plus paint to desired colour is better and cheaper than option two: tinted (coloured) texture coat alone.  Both Dulux and Rockcote products are great !  With option one, you could get 12 to 15 years in Wagga conditions compared with 7 years with option two.  MisterFixIt and others:  i would be interested in your experiences / photos, etc too before i embark on my re-rendering for that close to uniform look throughout.  Many thanks.

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## mr-hilux

G"day people
Don't want to come across the wrong way.
I'm a cement render by trade and their isn't much that i cant do with sand and cement.
The reason that so many people have problems with bad finish in render is because most people doing it these days don't care about their work.
The most common reason for the bad looks when light hits a rendered wall is because the person who has done the job hasn't screated and floated the walls properly .This how ever is common practice today. I have come a cross people that do this type of job and when the person complains about the finish they say that's what render looks like, and then try to hit them up to do the job with acrylic render which in turn doubles the original price of the job.
Micheal t Have you looked at emer-clad products? look them up . You will find that it is a very good product and will cover most defects in the render and you can do the job your self saving top $$$$$$$. Just remember to use a texture roller when applying the paint, and try different rollers until you get the finish that you like. And you can get what ever color you want. 
P.S I have no interest whats so ever with any of the companies or products that i have mentioned . Products are from my experiences with them.

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## METRIX

Attached is an exert from the HIA workmanship guide. 
My views are the render job is a particularly poor job, done by someone who hasn't taken the time to do it correctly.
We commonly have walls rendered internally and externally, and it is very difficult to see imperfections in them, but our guys know what they are doing. 
Down lights will pickup up any faults in walls [internal or external] as they are so concentrated that any imperfections will show up like the proverbial.  HIA Guide to Materials and Workmanship.pdf

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## Bloss

I must be missing something - there are two different threads running here: mrfixit's one from early 2012 and the pcs attached to that show a pretty poor render job. Then in August MichaelT from Wagga re-starts the thread and has attached one pic - and that job from that one pic looks like a good job to me, aside from what seems some marks under the wall light in the foreground. Which is not to say the job isn't bad, just that the one photo is not evidence enough for my eyes. 
My experience tells me that the type of render is way less relevant than the person doing the job, what a surprise you say! 
The new acrylic renders and the polymer reinforced cementitious renders are easier to apply and can be more forgiving, but sand cement do a great job too. Coloured renders have been problematic forever and remain so - when the colour was by mixing oxides into sand/cement mixes then there would be variation unless real care was taken to measure, and even then variations in the sand and speed of drying, the substrate and when in place the impact of UV and heat often resulted in colour variations, fading or other problems. 
The acrylic and polymer reinforced renders and new dyes and colouring improved things, but the care taken in prep and laying on and the other causes still can create problems. My preference has been to render and paint to get greater consistency of finish and the same longevity. 
But as I said the skill and experience of the worker is what counts - and as with all trades word of mouth references and looking at recent work are the only ways to give a higher likelihood of getting a job done well. Using 'three quotes' is not. 
As to the MichaelT question - the suggestion about textured roll-on finishes makes more sense to me. That can be a god DIY solution and offers an rage of colours to with several brand name solutions that perform well.

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## MichaelT

Gentlemen,  Many thanks for the replies.  I will post some more photos, and will respond to each persons reply to my thread shortly...bit busy with financial planning clients at present.  Once again, I am grateful for your time and your advice is invaluable to me.  It's a $600,000 home in Wagga Wagga, and i really am eager to maintain the unique look as i am (God willing) not going to move for a while !   Thread soon.  Have a great day !

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