Rendering and render repairs in Paisley

Cracked render, a tired painted finish, or thinking of swapping old roughcast for something smoother? Tell us about the house and we'll pass it to one trusted local firm, who'll look at the walls and give you a price. Free, and no obligation.

The firm repairs existing render, puts new render on bare walls and extensions, and can replace failing roughcast with a modern render. If you'd rather keep the textured look, see roughcasting and harling in Paisley.

Render, roughcast, harling: what's the difference?

All of them are coats put on the outside of a wall to keep the weather out and tidy up the look. The difference is the finish.

• Render is smooth, or close to it. It's trowelled or sprayed on and finished flat, sometimes with a light texture.
• Roughcast is a wet mix with small stones in it, thrown at the wall to give a rough, lumpy finish. Harling is the Scots name for the same thing.
• Pebbledash (dry dash) is a smooth base coat with dry stones thrown onto it while it's still wet, so the stones sit on the surface.

Our harling vs roughcast vs pebbledash guide goes into this in more detail, with how to tell which you've got.

The main types of render

Sand and cement

The traditional one. A mix of sand, cement and water, put on in two or three coats and finished smooth or with a light texture. It's the cheapest to put on and any plasterer who does outside work knows it. The downsides: it's grey, so it needs painting to look good, and it needs repainting every several years. It's also quite rigid, so it can crack if the wall moves.

Monocouche

French for "single coat". It's a cement-based render that comes ready-mixed with the colour all the way through, so it doesn't need painting, and small chips don't show a different colour underneath. It goes on thicker than a thin-coat render, often sprayed by machine, and is usually given a scraped finish once it's partly set. You'll see it on a lot of new houses round Paisley and on newer extensions.

Silicone render

A thin top coat with silicone in it, put over a base coat. The silicone makes it shed water rather than soak it up, so it tends to stay cleaner and dries out faster after rain. It's also coloured through and more flexible than plain cement render. It costs more than the others. It can still grow some algae in very shaded, damp spots, which matters on north-facing walls here.

K-rend and other brands

K-rend is a brand that's become a household name in Scotland, so people often say "K-rend" when they mean any coloured render. The brand makes several products, including monocouche and silicone types. If a quote says "K-rend", it's fair to ask which product exactly.

Lime render

For older stone houses, lime render or lime harling lets the wall breathe and dry out, which cement doesn't. Putting cement render on old stone can trap damp in the wall. If you have a Victorian villa in Castlehead or an older stone cottage, mention it on the form so the firm knows to look at lime.

Render repairs

Render goes wrong in the same ways as roughcast. Fine cracks, then wider ones, then water getting in behind and the coat losing its grip. Tap the wall: a hollow sound means it's come away. Bulges, flaking paint and bits falling off are later signs.

Small cracks and blown patches can be cut out and made good. On a painted sand and cement wall, the repair disappears once it's painted over. On through-coloured render, matching is harder, because the new patch will be cleaner and slightly different in shade from the weathered wall round it. Sometimes the honest advice is to redo the whole wall, from corner to corner, so there's no visible join. For roughcast and pebbledash specifically, see our roughcast and pebble dash repairs page.

Swapping roughcast for render

Lots of people in Paisley's 1930s to 1970s semis and terraces ask about this when their roughcast fails. It's a common change. The old roughcast usually has to come off first, which is the slow, noisy part, and then the wall is repaired and the new render goes on.

Two things to think about. On a semi or terrace, your house will look different from next door's, which some people like and some don't. And if you live in a conservation area or a listed building, check with Renfrewshire Council before changing the finish.

How long it takes

A render repair can be done in a day or two. A full re-render of a semi, including taking the old finish off, is usually one to two weeks, more if the wall underneath needs work. Render, like roughcast, can't go on in frost or heavy rain, and some thin-coat renders are fussier still about cold. In a Scottish winter that can mean delays, so drier months are easier to plan around.

What affects the price

• How much wall there is, and how many storeys.
• Scaffolding, and how easy it is to put up.
• Whether old roughcast or render has to come off first.
• Repairs to the wall underneath.
• Which render: sand and cement is cheapest to put on, silicone is the most expensive.
• Extras like new beads, sills or insulation behind the render.

Our roughcasting cost guide has more on what pushes prices up and down for external wall work.

Sort the gutters and roof first

New render on a wall that's getting soaked from an overflowing gutter will stain and crack sooner than it should. Get the gutters and downpipes sorted before the render goes on. Our pages on gutter cleaning in Paisley and fascia and soffit cleaning cover that. And if scaffolding is going up anyway, it's a good chance to have a roofer look at slipped slates, ridge tiles or flashings while the access is there.