Getting Ready To Render - The Back Of The House

When it comes to getting the biggest bang for our buck when renovating - rendering the ugly old 1960s bricks at the front of the house wins hands down.

 

The render instantly lifted the house and makes it look modern and it hides our brick garage extension we built on and looking at the house now you would think it had been built like that, not an add on.

Before any renovations

 

After - Render, new roof and garage extension

Cost wise to render the front of our house was less than $2,500 - this was for the render's labour (which we got at mates rates because he's a friend). It also includes the sand, lime and cement which we provided and hiring a scaffold which we organised to keep costs down further.

 

Mr P also helped out the renderer where he could, more hands make light work as they say! I also did my part and supplied lunch and cold drinks because if you keep your tradies happy while they're working they are going to do a fantastic job!

 

Our master of rendering hard at work!

 

Now that we have almost finished renovating the inside of the house (the laundry/powder room is almost done!) and any modifications that would have affected the brickwork have been done, like when we cut out the dining room window and turned it into a doorway - we are now ready to render.

We also need to render before we build a deck out here, which will run the length of the back from the laundry door across to the french doors. Another reason we are keen to get this done is because sitting on the deck with a glass of wine in hand has been a dream for about 5 years now since the very day we moved in!

 

Back of the house - With dining room window

 

Window turned into a door way with french doors

 

To render the walls we need to remove anything attached to them, this includes the sides and roof of the rickety old wooden bridge that goes from the laundry to the Granny Flat. We can't rip the whole bridge down because it's the only way to get into the Granny Flat which is set up high off the ground.

 

The new down pipes will also need to be removed and then replaced when finished.

We will also cut off the brick window ledges so that the render is sleek and smooth around all the windows that will then sit flush against the brick work, this also makes it much easier for the renderer.

We might try to paint all the new eaves while we have the scaffold hired as well, as that job has been put off for a few years now .... Can you imagine painting the underside of the eaves along the entire house? It's going to take forever!

 

The bridge from the laundry into the Granny Flat

The brick ledges around the windows will be cut off

 

We have booked in our renderer for late November to render the back of the house and I can't wait to see how it will look when it's all finished.

 

I will keep you posted with lots of juicy before and afters throughout the project. The best way to see our renovations as they happen is to follow Jarrah Jungle on Facebook and Instagram.

What do you think of render Vs exposed brick?

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[All images my own]