Skim or paint over Monorex?

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crofter

New Member
Hi,

I had an opportunity to use Monorex G00 for the first time with the understanding that if it didn't go well I'd paint it or get it skimmed. It's been a good learning curve but as expected is too patchy so needs to be covered up.

The house is being refurbed for selling on (or renting) so I've had a few contractors on site and asked for their views. One of them commented on the patchiness but others have said it's a lot better than the neighbours so don't bother! As you can see in the pics the neighbouring render is awful.

I do like to have pride in my work so I'll definitely do something to improve it. My options in order of cost are:
  • Paint with cheap so-called breathable masonry paint.
  • Paint with mineral paint (probably Kiem) that I know will be breathable.
  • Use the Rendit acrylic coating. That has to go on really quick but they are local so I'd probably pay them to do that. Would it still be breathable?
  • Pay someone to do a thin skim but this would result in a smooth surface? It'd also need a scaffold?
So, would you paint or skim? Also any experience of the Rendit acrylic coating?

Finally the worst area above the door is going to have a canopy so that area will be hidden.

IMG_3068.JPG

IMG_3073.JPG



.....

Here's the long version:

The house needed a good breathable reinforced render due to internal damp, every external wall had mildew on the inside. Also every house on the terrace has cracks in the same places. I put in helix bars in the walls where the cracks occur, cleared the cavity as much as practically possible, put in new air bricks and replaced the DPC.

Some movement might still occur and the mesh is belt and braces to ensure it has fewer/smaller cracks than the neighbours! Also the scraped finish should hide any cracks better than a smooth finish, one of the houses in the terrace has a smooth finish and looks ghastly. The houses with rough render that looks like it was slapped on in the dark by a drunk have the same crack patterns that is barely visible.

I'm used to pure lime renders that require patience and need to be consoldiated and rubbed but rarely drag. So I found the Parex really tricky to get used to. I think my mistakes were:

1 - Letting cold joints show up as wavy lines when scraped - I now realise I should scrape back the edge when I get to these to remove the skin that causes the wavy lines.

2 - Missing out patches when scraping, or scraping too lightly, look above the downstairs window. I was obsessive about scraping everything. I used an I beam to get a level surface first and there were a couple of low spots that I didn't want to scrape too much. So these patches maybe only had a couple of mm scraped compared to the other areas where I took up to 1 cm off.

3 - Smudge mark below the upstairs window cill. I used a notched edge to level as I was laying but found the monorex started dragging if I wasn't quick enough. I was struggling to build up thickness under the cills because the notched edge would pull the render away from the cill.

As a newbie I had the pressure of knowing that I needed to keep moving so I pushed on too quickly. I ended up with a hollow that I patched the next morning. I knew not smear it but itchy fingers and all that meant I gave it a quick swipe - doh! There's another bit where I found an air pocket when scraping, I daubed a patch about 1cm proud of the surface, then scraped the next day and it's invisible now. Fortunately with low temps in Nov it was all still green, I guess it'd be a different story in the summer!
 
Hi,

I had an opportunity to use Monorex G00 for the first time with the understanding that if it didn't go well I'd paint it or get it skimmed. It's been a good learning curve but as expected is too patchy so needs to be covered up.

The house is being refurbed for selling on (or renting) so I've had a few contractors on site and asked for their views. One of them commented on the patchiness but others have said it's a lot better than the neighbours so don't bother! As you can see in the pics the neighbouring render is awful.

I do like to have pride in my work so I'll definitely do something to improve it. My options in order of cost are:
  • Paint with cheap so-called breathable masonry paint.
  • Paint with mineral paint (probably Kiem) that I know will be breathable.
  • Use the Rendit acrylic coating. That has to go on really quick but they are local so I'd probably pay them to do that. Would it still be breathable?
  • Pay someone to do a thin skim but this would result in a smooth surface? It'd also need a scaffold?
So, would you paint or skim? Also any experience of the Rendit acrylic coating?

Finally the worst area above the door is going to have a canopy so that area will be hidden.

View attachment 20675

View attachment 20676



.....

Here's the long version:

The house needed a good breathable reinforced render due to internal damp, every external wall had mildew on the inside. Also every house on the terrace has cracks in the same places. I put in helix bars in the walls where the cracks occur, cleared the cavity as much as practically possible, put in new air bricks and replaced the DPC.

Some movement might still occur and the mesh is belt and braces to ensure it has fewer/smaller cracks than the neighbours! Also the scraped finish should hide any cracks better than a smooth finish, one of the houses in the terrace has a smooth finish and looks ghastly. The houses with rough render that looks like it was slapped on in the dark by a drunk have the same crack patterns that is barely visible.

I'm used to pure lime renders that require patience and need to be consoldiated and rubbed but rarely drag. So I found the Parex really tricky to get used to. I think my mistakes were:

1 - Letting cold joints show up as wavy lines when scraped - I now realise I should scrape back the edge when I get to these to remove the skin that causes the wavy lines.

2 - Missing out patches when scraping, or scraping too lightly, look above the downstairs window. I was obsessive about scraping everything. I used an I beam to get a level surface first and there were a couple of low spots that I didn't want to scrape too much. So these patches maybe only had a couple of mm scraped compared to the other areas where I took up to 1 cm off.

3 - Smudge mark below the upstairs window cill. I used a notched edge to level as I was laying but found the monorex started dragging if I wasn't quick enough. I was struggling to build up thickness under the cills because the notched edge would pull the render away from the cill.

As a newbie I had the pressure of knowing that I needed to keep moving so I pushed on too quickly. I ended up with a hollow that I patched the next morning. I knew not smear it but itchy fingers and all that meant I gave it a quick swipe - doh! There's another bit where I found an air pocket when scraping, I daubed a patch about 1cm proud of the surface, then scraped the next day and it's invisible now. Fortunately with low temps in Nov it was all still green, I guess it'd be a different story in the summer!

If you are not happy then I would maybe recoat it... or knock it off and go again... depends on what actual value it is going to add to the property or if you ave the heart to just leave it :D
 
Get Rendit to paint it. I usd some today but it skins so not that straight forward.

They will sort it.
 
Thanks for your replies. I was worried about the coating skinning - that was the toughest bit with the monorex too! Rendit would be roughly £500, which is £200 ish more than buying the materials and a cherry picker for a day.

Even if I go for simple masonry paint I'd still have the cost of a cherry picker or tower.

As I write this I'm thinking that Rendit would mean so much less hassle and improve the first impression kerb appeal. As my wife reminded me, I've still saved a fortune doing most of it myself, ie breaking all the old render off, pointing loose bricks and the random holes that appeared, installing helix bars and getting the new render on.
 
The art is to paint it without it looking painted.

Paint will fill the grain in. You need to paint it without realising it is painted.
 
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