A glimpse at the exterior of a building leaves visitors with a lasting impression. A beautiful, clean, well-maintained exterior render is essential to install confidence into the person walking into your building, whether it be a customer or your family member. In contrast to this, having a poorly maintained render with dark stains dominating the rendering and algae growth spreading will reflect on you poorly as you own/are associated with that building. This is why our team has written a blog explaining all you need to know about render cleaning and why it is essential.
What is render cleaning?
Once your render is poorly maintained you can either repaint it or clean it, both of them have their own benefits however if your looking for a cheaper alternative cleaning is the best option. There are many types of ways to clean your render, however, we recommend soft washing which is the application of chemicals on rendered surfaces to remove blemishes, algae, and other stains. By cleaning the render thoroughly, you’ll prevent further damage and keep it in the best condition possible. Cleaning your render can completely transform a property and can serve numerous benefits. If you’re a business owner, commercial render cleaning can help increase your brand image, and make you look more professional to new visitors who are approaching your building.
What causes staining on render?
When it comes to stains on render there are two things that play a part in it, this is either organic or atmospheric factors.
Organic staining: Houses built in the United Kingdom are at risk of developing mould, moss, and algae. This is due primarily to the optimum damp conditions that the UK produces, because of these conditions mould can rapidly spread through buildings through the render and can then be very hard to remove by yourself.
Atmospheric Staining: Buildings, often located near roads, and located in busy cities and towns, are more likely to develop dirt accumulation on the exterior surface. While the accumulated dirt will not display itself as fast as organic growth, the render will start to wear and look faded, specifically if lighter colours are selected for the render.
How do I clean render?
It is extremely important that you continually monitor, and clean, the render of your property. This is one of the first things that people see when visiting your property, however, you may be a bit confused about how to actually clean your render. Before you start cleaning your property render it is important to do an overall health check of your building to make sure there are no other issues on your building.
Even though cleaning your render is something you can do yourself we recommend that you hire a team of professionals to clean your properties as they have numerous pieces of equipment and chemicals to speed up the process and deliver a better overall result. We obliviously recommend our services for your render cleaning however if you are looking to do it yourself we recommend that you:
- Try and schedule your cleaning when the weather is decent as bad weather conditions can mess up the cleaning process.
- Ensure that all doors and windows are closed, and all pets and children are a safe distance away from your work area and remain so for the duration of your cleaning.
- Remember that all of the water you are using to clean your exteriors has to go somewhere so ensure that the drainage route is clear and all drains are unblocked.
- Unless the temperature is very warm then ensure that you have adequate wet weather protection and eye protection.
- If working at height be extremely careful, whether this is on a scaffold tower, cherry picker or up a stepladder, be careful working at heights at any time.
- If using a pressure washer then try a small area at ground level first, and ensure that the power of the pressure washer does not damage your render’s surface.
What are the different types of render?
There are many different types of render making it hard to figure out how to clean each type of rendering in the most efficient way, below you can find a list of different renders:
- Cement Render: Cement cladding is the standard or traditional render used on external space walls. These older patterns of the pebbledash type are used on older homes.
- Silicon/Polymer Render: This render is typically sold in plastic containers and has either white cement or lime as the base. These renders have polymer-containing compounds and other plastic sources added to make the render less brittle.
- Acrylic Render: They are often used as thin layers to deliver texture and colour to surfaces that have been finished. Acrylic materials could also be used as a protective layer.
- Lime/Mineral Render: Lime plastering was the traditional method for house rendering in the U and fairly recently there has been a re-emergence of interest as people renovate and extend traditional older houses.
Why is it important to clean render?
There are numerous reasons why you need to clean your render not just to impress people who may be visiting your commercial or residential property, you need to clean your render for the overall health of your building as it can hide things such as cracks which can develop into larger problems in the future. Even though some renders claim to be maintenance-free, these maintenance-free renders can benefit from regular maintenance as it can make it last longer and prevent other issues.
Need help with cleaning your render?
If you are looking for a professional domestic render cleaning or commercial render cleaning service our team of professional exterior cleaners can help, you can email our team at [email protected] or you can call us today on 01745 289055.
