ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION This chapter summarises ‘good practice’ in external rendering and explains a number of defects which commonly occur.
In the early nineteenth century it became fashionable to render houses to give them an appearance of stone. The renders, usually made from lime, sand or other bulk fillers, were often incised with fine lines to imitate the courses of stonework. In the Victorian period modern cement was invented. It was called Ordinary Portland cement because, when it hardened, it looked not dissimilar to natural Portland Stone (or so its makers claimed). During the latter part of the Victorian period hundreds of thousands of speculatively built houses were erected. Many of these were rendered, partly to hide the poor quality brickwork used in their construction, and partly to improve their weather protection (cavity walls were very rare until the early 1900s). From the 1900s to the present day rendering has maintained its popularity as a walling finish in both new build and rehabilitation work.
