Plastering And Rendering Basics

By Author: Deepankar Dey
Total Articles: 26
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Rendering serves two main purpose- one to make the building weatherproof and secondly to give a pleasing finish. Plastering requires special skill and lots of experience; it is not something that can be learnt overnight. So if you are ever in need to such work it is always best to take professional help from a contractor who specializes in plastering and rendering in Belgravia or in Bayswater.

When plastering the amount of sand, cement and lime used depends on the surface on which it is to be applied and the purpose of plastering. Pure lime plaster is usually soft and weak and takes a long time to settle so in order to make it hard and strong and reduce the time taken to harden it professionals in plastering and rendering in Bayswater or in Belgravia usually add cement with it.

The addition of cement increases the strength and hardness and reduces the time; the more the cement the more stronger it becomes. A plaster without any lime in it is actually the strongest one but this doesn’t mean that adding more cement is a good ...
... thing.

With more cement the plaster becomes uncomfortable to work with and it becomes difficult to apply it on the wall. On the other hand the amount of sand should never exceed three times the total amount of cement and lime combined. All of these sound very easy but it is the proportion where most go wrong and ultimately end up with a plaster that is either too hard to work with or something too soft. This is where professionals expert in plastering and rendering in Belgravia or in Bayswater come in. One more thing that should be kept in mind while applying plaster is never to apply a strong plaster on a weak porous backing.

If you are thinking of plastering on external walls and surfaces made out of solid and dense materials like concrete, hard concrete blocks or hard clay, materials that are low on porosity then you need to use a special ratio of the components. For such surfaces six parts of sand should be mixed with one part of lime and one part of cement; this will result in the best plaster for such surfaces.

For surfaces that are more exposed to rains or exposed to water the ratio of the mixture will change as the plaster needs to strong to withstand the continuous exposure to water. For such surfaces the amount of lime should be decreased and the amount of cement increased. On external walls with low strength and high porosity the ration of cement, lime and sand should be in the ratio of 1:1:6. If you have hired professional contractors specializing in plastering and rendering in Belgravia or in Bayswater then you have nothing to worry about as these people know their job and do it accordingly.