K Rend

CouponWoman · 2 December 2017 at 7:28AM

Hi guys,
have any of you used K Rend. We are thinking of having this on the front of our house and wondered if anyone has any comments, good or bad about this product. Our builder thinks its wonderful, but is it ?

theonlywayisup · 2 December 2017 at 7:41AM

We are on our second property with K Rend finish and that spans about 20 year of "use". I think it's wonderful. No maintenance bar the odd (every 5 years or so) of washing down with a hose and some cleaner sprayed on with a garden sprayer. Conversely our neighbour (a quarter mile away) has standard render which has bubbled, blown and is constantly being patched and painted.

Furts · 2 December 2017 at 9:11AM

K Rend will be vastly better than render, but there are provisos. Make sure it is an Approved Contractor, and have a discussion about aggregate size, depth, finish, and colour in order to minimise future cleaning and potential problems.

If you want cheap, and to hell attitude with future maintenance then choose render!

CouponWoman · 3 December 2017 at 8:35AM

Thnak you. got to make my mind up by tomorrow. K Rend will save quite a bit of money initallly so wanted to make sure I did the right thing.

Furts · 3 December 2017 at 9:56AM

A random thought for you to ponder. K Rend is great on new build, but if you are thinking of an existing home then preparation will be key here. If you have existing dodgy render then carefully follow the manufacturers requirements.

A basic principle of building is you cannot render over existing render which is already failing.

Furts · 3 December 2017 at 9:58AM

Plus going for K Rend opens up the possibility of external wall insulation. Perhaps something else you want to factor in - or perhaps you already have insulated cavities?

CouponWoman · 3 December 2017 at 1:20PM

The house is a house wreck, total renovation. The roof is off completely off now and the front has to be altered to make way for a new window being put in upstairs where there isn;t one atm. There is some render but it has failed so has been removed. The builder said it would be cheaper to have the front done in K rend so they can use breeze blocks to rebuild the front of the house as it might look patchy if we have the bottom 6 foot at the front of the house in the existing bricks and new bricks above upto the roofline.

The architect said why not rebuild the entire front of the house in new bricks but that is very costly and tbh I doubt I can afford it as the house is costing far more than anticipated and budgeted for.

There is very old cavity wall insulation, a foam type and a lot has been removed by the builder as it is of poor quality.

Furts · 3 December 2017 at 5:02PM

Think long and hard here. I would tend to follow your architect. Starting render at 6 feet up is not normal - it should be above your window and door heads. Also what is the local vernacular? Render may look "odd"in your locality, or on your property.

Then consider costs. Roughly, the material cost of blockwork at £15 per metre squared versus brick at £30. This is an apparent saving for blockwork, but you then have to add the cost of the K Rend. With winter temperatures and rainfall you also need to consider if trying to apply K Rend is a wise decision!

If you are looking at the long term, say 20 years plus, then there is no doubt brickwork will be the stronger, longer lasting, low maintenance option.

road2manchester · 5 January 2018 at 12:55AM

K-rend is just one version of these breathable limestone based through colour renders. Webber, Decopierre, Parex are some others. K-Rend is not a favorite of many render companies as each one has different methods of getting right, K-rend is hardest to use in my opinion. No render should be added under 5 degrees temperatures anyway. There is also Stonecoat brick finish renders but all these cost +£50-70 sq mtrs if done by approved applicators.

K Rend

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