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please help am being told so many different things i am going to render bottom half of my my house was told to use washed sharp sand scratch coat 4 to 1 top coat 5 to 1 soak walls first can you tell me as was also told to use 3 in 1 additive plasticiser waterproofer and retarder to slow coats down when drying is this right and do you put it in both coats or just 1 coat and which 1 someone else also told me to put in a little pva to make top coat even tougher (is pva put in neat or watered down )please help many thanks

To render your house or bungalow assuming it is already brick, it realy don't matter if you use 4 and 1 so long as you realise it is 4 sand and 1 cement some go for 5 and 1 but it is irrelevent. Yes you should certainly wet the wall first but only wet what you can render in about half hour max. I would use "plastering sand" as you would get a better finish but again that is only prefrence. You ought to fix a temporary battern to the wall to guide you on thickness about every 3ft or so to put a straight edge along the batterns to guide your thickness. I could go on forever but they are mostly tips not rules. Good Luck John

Sorry, the plasticiser is a good this, this makes the render more useable it is better than washing up liquid although some people use that. PVA is generally for making the render stick to a poor wall that you will have to decide for yourself but it is not the end of the world if you don't. John

thanx very much for your help

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