Acrylic render

Acrylic modified renders have been developed to such a high standard in recent years that they are now far more common than sand and cement render. Acrylic render is applied from 2-10mm and has superior adhesion qualities than sand and cement. Acrylic render also has the ability to adhere to multiple substrates including brick, polystyrene, cement sheet and Hebel to name a few. An advantage is that acrylic render is pre bagged which removes any inconsistencies in the mix. 

The different finishes are vast, from sponged finished oxides to polished concrete effect. The most common finish is then applying acrylic texture over the base coat of acrylic render, which can be tinted to just about any colour you might want on your house.

Below are some photos of a club house that was originally a mix of smooth render and stucco/rough cast which had a coat of paint. This meant that it required us to use an acrylic render that has extra polymer/glue to adhere to the painted surface then once it was troweled up and flattened off we were able to apply an acrylic texture ( colour matched to a sample). The end product was a transformed building that looked sharp and modern!

Lightweight wall cladding

In this day and age people are constantly trying to push the boundaries with design and architecture, with canter levered and inset first floor walls that need a lightweight building product like EPS / polystyrene is a must, this lightweight cladding system has amazing insulation properties and is more robust than you might think!

With space being limited these days when renovating quite often people are finding they need to go up instead of out and that is where this product shines, you can save money as there is no need for big costly steel beams to support heavy brickwork and the lightweight nature of this product is not only easy to Install but the insullation rates can be better than brick!

The alternative used can be cement sheet / blueboard but these cladding systems are heavier to install and even if you follow all the proper installation requirements the joints still move and crack as the joint is limited by the thickness of the sheet (typically 7.5mm), whereas polystyrene has a joint anywhere from 50-100mm in standard applications leaving you with a greater surface area that is glued together, also the insullation rate of blueboard is no where near polystyrene cladding.

Hiring a qualified installer is a must as there are many cheap installers out there installing low quality polystyrene and not using the correct screws and washers leading to problems in the future, in my opinion using pre-coated styrene is not the correct way to be using this system as just meshing the joints and patching the screws is like putting a band aid on the sheets, common sense would tell me that coating and meshing the jobs as a whole is a far superior way of using the polystyrene cladding system and that is the only way we install our cladding systems!

Polished concrete / Glass faced render

Polished concrete/glass face render is one of the most popular modern finishes on the market today.

Made popular by the block it is a very industrial raw look that can be applied to brick, poly syrene, cement sheet or even plasterboard, it is a difficult product to finsh as the base coat needs to be finished to a very high standard, lots of time and love need to be put into applying the finishing coat to get an even flat finish, the great unique feature of this product is every trowell stroke adds to the feature of the final finish making each job individual.

Rendering Melbourne

Rendering in Melbourne has its challenges. A typical Melbourne day can see 35 one day and raining the next ( or that afternoon) so planing jobs around the weather has become one of our biggest factors in booking jobs in, you don't want to tell a customer "yes we will definitely be there next Thursday" then have 2 days of rain that set you back from finishing the job you are already on!

One of our great advantages is having multiple teams that we can be more flexible and move them around to get the jobs started as soon as possible and be able to cover all types of rendering from a letterbox to a lightweight cladding installation to a multi unit commercial project.

The teams are also well experienced in heritage repairs, solid plastering, polished concrete and all types of acrylic renders and textures.

Rust Effects

These rusted pillars once were 5 boring brick pillars waiting to stand out and be the feature of the front yard and allure you to the entrance. 

It was a long process completed over several days, first they needed rendering to hide the mortar lines and give a flat surface to be able to apply a very smooth render finish, next was a undercoat to seal the render, then the transformation happened with the rust effects applied over 5 coats to give a deep rusted appearance, finally a sealer over the top to stop any leaching of the rust to surrounding substrates.

Once completed they certainly were the main feature of the front yard, with some plants and exposed aggregate surrounding them the rich rusty colours really stood out!