Questions, answered
Before you book a renderer
- 62 questionsIn 8 topics
- Mon–Sat, 7 am – 7 pmAsk the owner directly
- Licensed rendererNSW licence 298643C
- Free quotesConfirmed in writing after a visit
8 questions
Quotes and prices
Are quotes free?
Yes. Ask by phone, WhatsApp or the form and we reply with a rough estimate; photos of each wall help. We then visit to measure, tap the walls for hollow render, check for damp and cracks and agree the finish, and the final quote comes in writing with what it includes.
How much does rendering a house cost in Sydney?
It depends on the wall area and height, what the walls are made of, the repairs needed first, scaffolding and the coating. As a guide, cement render costs about $34–$69 per m², including GST and acrylic render about $46–$80 per m², including GST, including GST, with the same guide prices across Sydney. Your written quote comes after a visit to measure the walls.
Do your prices include GST?
Yes. Every guide price on this site includes GST, and so does your written quote.
Why does a two-storey house cost more to render?
Mostly the scaffolding, and the time it takes to work safely at height. Doing every wall that needs scaffolding in one job saves putting it up twice. The number of windows, sills and corners adds to the price on any house.
Is painting included in the price?
Ask, because quotes differ. New cement render needs about 28 days to cure before it is coated, so the coating is often a separate visit or a separate trade. Our quotes say which coats are included.
What should a rendering quote spell out?
The licence number, the render and coating system, the preparation and repairs included (and what happens if more hollow render turns up), the number of coats and the finish, whether painting or a topcoat is in the price, and how paths, windows and gardens are protected and the waste taken away.
Where can I save money, and what should I not cut?
You can save by doing all the walls that need scaffolding at once, clearing garden beds and furniture from the walls before we start, and choosing a finish that suits the wall rather than a dearer system it does not need. Do not cut the preparation, the curing time or the coating: they decide how long the render lasts.
Can I send photos on WhatsApp?
Yes. Photos of each wall, close-ups of any cracks and a note of what the walls are made of are enough for a first figure. The number takes calls and WhatsApp; it does not take text messages.
9 questions
The owner and the business
Who does the work?
Ali Dandan owns Finishing Touch Rendering. He quotes every job himself and is involved from the quote to the finish. He has more than 20 years of rendering experience and has run the business from Ryde since 2012.
Are you licensed?
Yes. Finishing Touch Rendering Pty Ltd (ABN 81 155 453 704) quotes and invoices the work, and Ali Dandan holds NSW Contractor Licence 298643C (Wet Plasterer). In NSW, residential wet plastering and rendering work over $5,000, including GST, needs a contractor licence, and anyone can check a licence on the public register.
Are you insured?
Yes. We hold $20 million public liability insurance.
Is the work under warranty?
Yes. Residential building work in NSW carries the statutory warranties in the Home Building Act 1989: six years for major defects and two years for other defects, from the end of the work.
Which render brands do you use?
We use the major render systems, including Rockcote, Dulux AcraTex, Boral and Unitex, and choose the system for the wall it is going on.
Do you work for builders?
Yes, as well as homeowners. We render for Sydney builders, including Hudson Homes, Loca Group, Hofly Construction and 13 others.
Where can I read your reviews?
On Google. The latest also show on our home page and our About page, straight from our Google profile.
Which areas do you cover?
We work across seven parts of Sydney: the Eastern Suburbs, Sydney City, the Inner West, the North Shore, the Northern Beaches, the Hills District and the Ryde area. Each suburb page covers the council and heritage rules that change a rendering job there.
When can I reach you?
Monday to Saturday, 7 am – 7 pm. Sunday is closed.
12 questions
Choosing a finish
Cement render or acrylic render?
Start with what the walls are made of. Solid brick, concrete block and concrete take cement render. Hebel panel, polystyrene foam and fibre cement sheet need an acrylic system, because render makers say cement render is the wrong system for them.
Is concrete rendering the same as cement rendering?
Yes. Concrete rendering, cement rendering and sand and cement render all mean the same cement-based render. Concrete is one of the surfaces it goes over; new concrete needs at least five days to cure first, according to Mortatec’s render data sheet.
Can acrylic render go on a brick house?
Yes. Brick, block and concrete all take an acrylic system. It usually costs more than plain cement render, so it earns its place where the wall has mixed materials, a history of cracking, or where you want the colour built into the finish.
Can acrylic go over cement render?
Yes, and it often does. A common build-up on brick is a sand and cement render base, left to cure, then an acrylic texture and membrane coating over it. Rockcote asks for up to 28 days’ cure on new site-mixed render before its acrylic base coat goes on.
Does acrylic render stop cracking?
It reduces cracking from small movements. It does not stop the cracks that come from a building moving on its footings; those come through any finish.
Which lasts longer, cement or acrylic?
There is no honest single answer. Both last a long time on a wall that suits them, is kept dry and is cleaned once a year. What shortens the life of either is water: leaking gutters, garden beds against the wall and cracks left open.
Should render be coloured or painted?
Usually the render is left its natural colour and coated once it has cured. Colour can be mixed into the final coat instead, which saves a coating at the start, but a patch is much harder to blend in later and a new colour means coating over it anyway.
Can I choose any colour?
Most colours, but not every one suits an outside wall, and some systems limit dark colours, so we check the system’s colour rules before you settle on one. Ask for a sample patch on your own wall: a colour chip in the hand looks different from a whole side of the house.
What textures can I have?
Most systems offer a fine sand finish, a sponge-float finish and coarser trowelled textures. Texture coatings add more choice again, rolled, trowelled or sprayed over the render.
Can I just paint my rendered house instead?
You can, but on cement render Dulux recommends against ordinary low-build paint, because render develops fine shrinkage cracks as it ages and a thin paint film will not ride over them. A texture or membrane system lasts better on render.
What is white set?
A hard, smooth set-plaster finish over render, mostly inside the house, ready for paint. Strictly the rendering is the sand and cement base and the white set is the thin finish over it, so a full job often includes both, and we do both.
Can you render over painted brick or old render?
Often. Painted brick is tested first, and paint that lifts comes off. Old render has to be sound: we tap the walls to find drummy (hollow) patches, cut those out and repair them, then render or coat over the rest.
10 questions
What we do, and what we don’t
Do you render fences, pools and bathrooms?
Brick and block fences, garden walls and retaining walls take render well, and so does board made to be rendered; a timber or metal fence cannot be rendered directly. We render pools and bathrooms too, but the rendering only: waterproofing is a separate trade.
Do you do bagging?
Yes. Bagging is a thin coat rubbed over brick that leaves the pattern of the bricks showing, and we do it as well as full render.
Can you take off old render?
Yes. Where old render is drummy, coming away or the wrong render for the wall, we remove it and re-render. The cost guide shows why removal and new render is the expensive end of the job.
Do you do rendered mouldings and window bands?
Yes. We render mouldings, window surrounds and window bands as part of the facade.
Do you take commercial jobs?
Yes. As well as homes and builders’ new homes, we take on commercial rendering jobs.
Do you install Hebel, blueboard or other sheets?
No. We render walls that a builder or installer has put up; we do not supply or install Hebel panels, blueboard or other fibre cement sheets. We do install and render polystyrene cladding.
Do you do ceilings?
No. We render and white set walls, not ceilings.
Do you do waterproofing?
No. Waterproofing is its own licensed trade in NSW for jobs over $5,000. In bathrooms and around pools we do the rendering, and set plaster such as white set should not sit where the wall will be wet.
Do you do coating-only jobs?
Yes. We take on texture coating jobs over existing render, brick or fibre cement, as well as coating our own render once it has cured.
Do you install polystyrene cladding?
Yes. We fix the panels, mesh and base-coat them and render them as one system, and we can render or repair someone else’s install once we have checked the panels, joints and fixings against the system’s manual.
5 questions
Rules and approvals
Do I need council approval to render my house?
Usually not, unless the house is heritage-listed or in a heritage conservation area. NSW’s Codes SEPP makes cement rendering exempt development outside those areas, as long as it meets the standards in clause 2.54, including keeping the wall’s fire resistance.
What if my house is in a heritage area?
Then rendering face brick needs council consent or a written exemption, and some councils’ controls say original unpainted brick should not be rendered at all. Each suburb page sets out its council’s heritage rules, and we check your address before quoting.
Does bush fire prone land change the job?
Yes. Re-rendering there is only exempt if the work is sealed against embers and uses materials of equal or better quality than what is there now. A cladding or render system also has to suit the block’s bush fire attack level (BAL).
Does polystyrene cladding need approval?
Yes. NSW treats polystyrene cladding systems as external combustible cladding, so they cannot be done as exempt development and need a complying development certificate or a development application.
Could unapproved rendering cause problems when I sell?
It can. Work that needed consent, such as rendering face brick in a heritage conservation area, and was done without it is unauthorised, and a buyer’s solicitor can ask the council for a building information certificate before settlement. Getting consent first is simpler.
6 questions
Getting ready and on the day
How do I get the house ready?
Clear pot plants, furniture, bins and hoses from the walls, cut garden beds back, unlock side gates, keep dogs in and move cars if the scaffolding or mixer needs the driveway. Cement render is mixed on site, so a tap and a power point near the work help.
Should I tell the neighbours?
Yes. Rendering is a messy, noisy few days of mixing, scaffolding and splashes near the boundary. Let them know the dates, and ask before anything has to go on their side of the fence; on a narrow lot a side wall may only be reachable from next door.
What happens on the day?
Windows, doors, paths, driveways and garden beds are covered first. Loose mortar and flaking paint come off, cracks are filled and mesh goes in where brick meets another material. The render goes on in two coats, stops above the damp-proof course with the weep holes left open, and the site is cleaned up when the work is finished.
How long does a rendering job take?
As a general guide, the Sydney cost guide What's The Damage puts rendering a single-storey brick house at about 3 to 5 days, a two-storey house at 5 to 10 days with scaffolding up throughout, and 5 to 8 days on a single storey when the old render is stripped first (checked November 2026).
Your house will vary with the wall area, the height, the repairs and the weather, and your quote gives the dates. Then allow for curing: new cement render needs about 28 days before it is coated.
Can you render in the rain or the heat?
Only within the render makers’ limits. Davco says its cement render must not go on above 30°C or in hot, windy weather, and Dulux’s texture coating not when the wall is above 40°C or below 10°C. In a Sydney summer we start early and follow the shade; when the weather is outside the limits, the work moves to another day.
Who does the painting or coating?
Decide before the job starts. We can apply a texture or membrane coating once the render has cured, or you can book your own painter for after the wait. Either way, the quote says which coats are included.
7 questions
Cracks, damp and repairs
Why does render crack, and can you fix it?
Render cracks where the wall underneath moves, where different materials meet, where it went on too thick or where it dried before it cured. We cut out and patch cracked, drummy or stained render and match it to the wall.
When is a crack serious?
The CSIRO guide sorts wall cracks by width: hairline cracks under about 0.1 mm and fine cracks under about 1 mm are cosmetic, and cracks up to about 5 mm are easily filled. From about 5 mm, or cracks that keep growing, find out why the wall is moving before anyone repairs the render.
Can you just fill the cracks?
For fine cracks in sound render, filling and recoating is often enough. Wider cracks, cracks over hollow render and cracks that keep growing need more: cutting out, mesh, or an engineer’s look at the cause.
Do I need an engineer before you start?
Only if the signs point to movement: wide or growing cracks, diagonal cracks from openings, sticking doors or a leaning wall. If we see those, we tell you before quoting the repair.
Will a texture coating hide cracks?
It bridges fine hairline cracks. It will not hide or fix cracks caused by the wall moving; those come back through any coating and need repairing first.
Will render stop damp coming through my walls?
No. Render over a damp wall traps the moisture and it comes out somewhere else, often higher up or behind the render. Fix the source first: a bridged damp-proof course, a leaking gutter, or soil or paving built up against the wall.
Will a repair show?
Texture can usually be matched closely. Colour is harder on an aged wall, so the best result comes from recoating to a corner or a natural break rather than dabbing paint on the patch.
5 questions
Curing, care and selling
How long before rendered walls can be painted?
Plan on about four weeks. Render is dry to the touch within hours but is still curing, and Dulux’s AcraTex data sheets ask for 28 days before new cement render is coated. Count those weeks in if you are rendering before a sale or an event.
Can it be painted sooner if it looks dry?
Looking dry is not the test: the surface can be dry while the render under it is still curing. If a job has to move faster, choose a system made for it, such as an acrylic system with short times between coats, before the work starts.
How do I look after rendered walls?
Wash the walls down once a year, keep garden beds, mulch and sprinklers off the render and the weep holes clear, seal hairline cracks before water gets in, and recoat when the coating maker says to.
Does rendering add value to a house?
We have not found an Australian study that measures it, so treat any percentage with caution, including from renderers. What buyers do notice is the first look from the street and the building report, where cracked or hollow render and damp get written up.
Is it worth rendering or repairing before I sell?
Often, where the outside looks worn or mismatched or has visible defects, and there is time for the 28-day cure before the listing photos. Fix the cause rather than painting over the problem: a fresh coat over an active crack usually shows again.
Still have a question?
Ask it with your free quote. The owner answers himself.