# Forum Home Renovation Rendering  Waterproofing raised brick garden beds

## shona

Hi all, 
We have had 2 raised garden beds / planter boxes built from fastwall brick. 
The soil is very sandy and they are open at the bottom so drainage should be all good. 
Both are about 0.8m high. One box is freestanding. The other box is up against the house wall (house is double brick and already had unitex textured coloured render before the brick box was built). 
What do I need to seal the inside of the boxes with before having them rendered? 
Also I have read that the render should be left for a month or so before painting? 
Thank you in advance  :Smilie: 
Shona

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## JS001

I have rendered garden beds and have lined the garden side with plastic.  Even if you do use a waterproofing product I would use plastic also for piece of mind.  You wont see it once the soil and mulch are in.  There are plenty of waterproofing products around Hypoxy, Silasec, Granosite etc.  Others would be better placed to advise on that.

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## shona

thanks  :Smilie:  we will line the beds with black plastic as you suggested 
We ended up using 2 coats of Bitkote no 5 as it is thick enough to cover any gaps in the brickwork (the brickwork is fairly rough as the bricky knew it was going to be rendered & wouldnt be visible)

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## mainly-outside

Yep Bitkote will be fine, hover the plastic will protect the membrane. 
As far as the curing period, only site mixed render requires 28 days to cure as a spec from painting manufacturers, pre bagged render only requires 5 days.
Don't use a membrane or just a normal exterior paint however you will need an impact to reduce any efflorescence and cracking, you wont need to waterproof the capping if is not corefilled.

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