Rendering the walls

I am not very good at Rendering walls, I never seem to be able to get a good result. Usually the walls are never flat and not very smooth. So as I have to do the 3 external walls of the bath room before the bad weather sets in I thought that I would try something I had noticed in an old book. Using battens attached  to the wall to get an even thickness.

Before the battens were attached we had to chip the old render put up a plastic mesh to help the new render adhere to the wall.

Once the Mesh was up we put up battens and then started the rendering.

I did the first panel in one coat and had some problems with the thickness, too much render in one go. so decided to try the second panel in two coats. (I also did not have enough render made up for the one coat).

The second coat was put on after a coffee brake. and seemed to go on very well. The level was achieved by using a straight edge resting between the battens to take off the excess render, and then using a float with a sponge attached to smooth the surface down.

Once this was done it was left to dry, which was a small mistake as it was then very hard to take the battens out….

But this was fixed with a little render. I think next time I will remove the battens after each panel is done and before it sets. But I am rather pleased with the result. Only two more walls to do…