Why should I have a wall coating on my house and not traditional masonry paint?

The “great” (!) British weather can be very demanding on the exteriors of buildings with long damp months of mist, fog and rain, frosty cold winters and damp spring times, and the summer is not that much better too! So what does this do to our houses and why should we not just choose to have the exterior walls of our house painted every year instead of investing a little bit more money in a long life weatherproof exterior wall coating?

Within both the trade and the DIY markets, there are various ways of decorating the outside of your home, such as pebbledash, coloured render, tyrolean and of course traditional masonry paint, however these offer only DECORATION to the outside walls and that is it, nothing else, so how do we PROTECT the exterior walls from the effects of the British weather.

Why does a house need protection?

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A site user writes…………

Hello,

I have a quick question regarding your wall coating.  What is the process for re-applying the protective wall coating after 25 years?  Does it need to be stripped and re-applied, or can a new coating be simply laid over the old?

Hi, thank you ever so much for your email, it’s always nice to hear from users of the website who talk with such enthusiasm about their houses.

It is very difficult for me to comment on a coating on a certain house as each job presents its own challenges and each house is different (one reason why exterior wall coating companies such as ours rarely have an “average” price list as no two houses are ever the same), however one thing is for sure, i am pleased to hear that you had a coating that has lasted for 25 years.

If I may, i would like to post this question on our blog to encourage other users to read and respond, although it would be posted anonymously, if that is ok with you?

In some cases, when the installation of the coating was conducted in a textbook fashion in perfect weather conditions with excellent quality coating materials and using a Graco president airless spray machine connected to a twin or single tool diesel compressor, then yes there is no reason why it cannot last for 25 years, in fact I myself have surveyed houses that have had a textured coating over 35 years ago (!), however admittedly it was waaaaaay past its sell by date, but (most of) the all coating was actually still on the house.

In that case, usually the best method is total removal and start again from scratch. This can sometimes mean the removal of the render, Tyrolean or pebbledash wall coating underneath the exterior wall coating also.

Basically in that case, the best way is to start from scratch and do the whole job again.

In some cases though, the coating and the wall surface underneath can be in such good order that, once satisfied the wall and coating are sound, the resins and solvents from the initial primer coat (sometimes called “slush coat”) that is introduced to the wall prior to spraying the top coating, will soften and bind the existing wall coating to the new coating being added, and the exterior wall coating surface will continue to perform for hopefully the next 25 years.

Removal is often the best way, but not necessary 100% of the time and again, the coating has to be analysed and the house has to be surveyed before a definitive answer can be given on your question, so please accept my apologies for this answer being somewhat generalised but I hope that you can understand why!

I hope this information helps you and I will email you any suggestions that other website users put forward, for your consideration.

Kind regards

Guy Alexander Bell. Bsc.(hons)
Surveyor
www.neverpaintagain.co.uk

BLOG USER QUESTION (copied from recent chat window) :

Hello npa, i see you have a spanish side to your operations, do you have anyone in the javea (costa blanca north) area?

Spanish villa

NPA: Hi, thanks for your question, yes we do have a sub office around the javea area (which also deals with painting jobs and contracts south of valencia city), how can we help you today?

USER: We have a villa on the edge of javea, and we had it painted a few yearsa go but as its a bit exposed to the sea and wind and all that it has cracked, quite badly in fact, can you help us?

NPA: Of course. When you say cracked, what is cracked exactly, the paint or the rendering?

USER: I think you need to come and look at it really…, the crack in the outside wall is quite bad. it starts at rear and goes around lhs side…. Theres a few other stuff too like some damp in the underbuild, or the cellar as some call it, we have a leak in the rear terrace by the upper balcony, and as we had 2 new doors put in last year, they didnot repair the rendering very well around where they put the doors in. Is this something that you lot can do also?

NPA: Yes, again, no problem, if you give us a call on my mobile on 659 354759 (spain only) (or call us free if you are in the Uk on 0800 970 4928) and i’ll take some more details and get someone to take a look, no obligation of course, but we need to take a look to give you a price.

USER: A price for repairing the walls and putting your special wall painting stuff on yes? Cool, how do i do that, phone you yep??????

NPA: Yes thats right, our NPA exterior wall system.  Bes thing 2 do amigo is to take a look at out site which is specifically related to exterior villa and house painting in Spain. You can see it at www.neverpaintagain.es

Thanks for chatting today, speak to you shortly

GB

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NPA STARTS TO ROLL OUT CHANGES ON ITS NEW LOOK SITE!

Thursday 19th June 2008: NPA Never Paint Again, the UK’s Market leader in exterior wall coatings has started to roll out some new features and welcome changes on it’s ever popular paint and wall coatings website “Never paint again”.

The first thing you notice, if the new banner and and animated logo hasn’t caught your eye yet, is the new colour scheme.

After 7 years of looking more or the less the same, we thought the site needed a freshen up, and the other colour was starting to look like some sort of shade of baby sick!

I think you’ll agree, it makes a striking difference!

Stay tuned for more developments over the coming months, and if you have any suggestions or comments, do get in touch with us………….

G.A. Bell Bsc.Hons).Pg.Dp

group Chairman

The never paint again group

www.neverpaintagain.co.uk

Many homeowners are now choosing to renovate rather than move

The cost of carrying out UK home improvements has risen by a fifth over the past two years, Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyor data suggests.

Rising transport and material costs, as well as a shortage of tradesmen, have pushed up the bill for repairs and improvements by 20%, Rics says.

Roofing costs have risen by 26% since 2006, plumbing and electric costs by 22% and decorating by 17%.

Rics said people were upgrading and not moving in the present housing climate.

‘More creative’

A basement conversion will now cost an average of 25% more for the work – at about £10,000 – than in 2006.

And the average cost of a loft conversion is up 21% at £17,000.

Joe Martin, executive director of Rics’ building costs service, Bcis, said: “The current downturn in the housing market is forcing some homeowners to become more creative in meeting their accommodation needs.

“Many are choosing to stay put and renovate or extend in order to upgrade their property, rather than taking on more debt in a falling market.

“This can be a wise strategy as home improvements add value to a property, and people will be well placed to take advantage of this uplift in value when the market shrugs off the current slump.”

the above is copyright bbc and is reproduced for discussion purposes.

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