How long does render last?

Ren­der is one of those things you want to fit and for­get – once it is on the wall, you want it to last a life­time. So make sure you get it the right first time!

Which type of render lasts the longest?

There are sev­eral dif­fer­ent fin­ishes and bases that you can use on your wall, and each will have its lifes­pan. Any BBA-cer­ti­fied ren­der that goes on your wall will have to have a 25-year lifes­pan as a min­i­mum (sub­ject to suit­able main­te­nance). Some will far exceed this, while oth­ers will only meet the tar­get longevity rather than exceed­ing it.

Sand cement ren­ders, which are the old­est (and for many years most com­mon) type of ren­der, can have a very short lifes­pan. They tend to crack more eas­ily than mod­ern ren­ders, and they there­fore open them­selves up to water ingress and bio­log­i­cal dam­age, as well as look­ing very unsightly. In less than ten years, even if installed cor­rectly, you will likely see crack­ing and dam­aged ren­der.

Mod­ern com­bi­na­tion ren­ders with an adhe­sive base coat and min­eral, sil­i­cone, or acrylic top coats are much more flex­i­ble and less liable to crack­ing so that they will have lifes­pans of 25 years plus EWI Pro has had their sys­tems cer­ti­fied by the BBA to last at least 30 years.Biological influence on renders

Even though a war­ranty may sug­gest a lifes­pan of 25 or 30 years, veg­e­ta­tion grow­ing on walls can significantly reduce that. Vines, Ivy fungi, and moss can all cause dam­age to the ren­der and stain­ing to the top coat. As part of our war­ranty, we always ask that the walls be kept free of all veg­e­ta­tion. This will help ensure a full lifes­pan for your ren­der.

Fur­ther­more, some ren­ders will con­tain an inhibitor that works as a fungi­cide and her­bi­cide to pre­vent unwanted bio­log­i­cal mat­ter build­ing up on the walls.

Maintenance

While some ren­ders will have inher­ent lifes­pans that are longer than oth­ers, the impor­tant thing to note is that unless the sys­tem is main­tained accord­ing to the man­u­fac­tur­ers instruc­tions, the lifes­pan may be dimin­ished, and the war­ranties may no longer apply. EWI Pro has sev­eral impor­tant stip­u­la­tions that cover their war­ranty – one being that the walls should be painted once every 8 to 10 years, for exam­ple. If these instruc­tions are fol­lowed, the ren­der should last long.

Pebbledash and durability

While it may look outdated and uncool, peb­bledash is still great for areas where a hard-wear­ing ren­der is required. Peb­bledash that 100 years or older can still be seen on many UK prop­erties, and the rea­son is that it that is so hard wear­ing and resis­tant to dam­age that it really can last that long. Hav­ing said that most of these older peb­bledash ren­ders are cracked and not work­ing entirely as intended. They are usu­ally sand cement, so non-breath­able, and are prone to fre­quent crack­ing. So it is prob­a­bly time to look at replac­ing these old ren­ders.

Remem­ber that when replac­ing old ren­der, you will need to strip it off the wall first, unless you are insu­lat­ing the prop­erty at the same time. Peb­bledash is arduous to strip and dis­pose of, so insu­la­tion is a suitable option.

It is how you install, not just what you install.

While the mate­ri­als you use are obvi­ously impor­tant, you also need an installer who knows what they are doing. A substandard installer can take the right mate­ri­als and pro­duce a poor fin­ish, which won’t last the test of time. If you com­bine qual­ity and cor­rectly spec­i­fied mate­ri­als with an expe­ri­enced and good qual­ity installer, you will end up with a ren­der that will last gen­er­a­tions.

Remem­ber that if you need a quote for your ren­der or insu­la­tion work, just get in touch with Be Con­struc­tive. We can quote you for a full range of dif­fer­ent ren­der and insu­la­tion sys­tems to suit your home, expertly installed by our expe­ri­enced teams.