Rendered Walls in Contemporary Garden Design

It’s true we have spent the last 20 odd years making contemporary gardens many of which have had some sort of rendered wall within them.

They are popular because they exude a certain style and sleek crisp minimalism. It has to be said that there are maintenance issues especially since most clients tend to desire walls to be white or off-white.

It is essential to keep moisture and wet soil off the back of the wall to stop the masonry from becoming waterlogged with ensuing problems for the render on the front face of the wall

So it’s important to waterproof the back of the wall and to fill the back of the wall with some clean free draining material to allow water to soak into the land drain and to be managed away.

There seem to be two types of render which are most popular today:

1. Sand and cement render where a 10 mm layer of mortar is applied in two layers to the front face of the wall The wall is then painted the desired colour.

2. The other type of render is the colour through render (K rend is a typical example). These products are mostly textured and do not require painting

Problems with rendered walls

Firstly they can work out quite expensive A wall is built using many individual concrete blocks or bricks and then rendered (a skilled and time consuming process) and of course there is a footing to go in beforehand, that keeps your wall stable and supported.

Secondly it’s important to keep the front face of the wall from becoming damp. The damp front face of the wall can be subject to freeze thaw cycle and cold weather is control cause cracks and damage to the front face.

Thirdly particularly visible on white walls, they need a certain level of cleaning to prevent stains from flows of water and remove algae and moss growth, to retain the perfect look.

We have experimented with rendered walls of all shapes and sizes over the years even curved walls to provide an interesting and dramatic affect as you can see below....