Texture Coating or Cement Rendering?

[tmaggs]

Can someone please tell me the difference between Cement Render and Moroka Texture Coating?

In response to poor brick workmanship issues on our house under construction, the builder is offering Moroka Texture Coating as a solution. Is that solution better than cement rendering in terms of long term maintenance costs and efforts?

Any disadvantages/advantages between them that I should know of? Any discussion would be appreciated.

Thank you

Trevor

 

[RedPanda]

Check your contract. What recourse have you got for poor workmanship?

Cement rendering is surely better than texture coating in my opinion.

 

[tmaggs]

The builder is offering the Moroka Texture Coating in response to our complaint about the poor workmanship brick issues and also we engaged an independent house inspector who provided a report which confirmed these issues.

Before we make our decision whether to accept it or not, some people said Texture coating is better because it never (or rarely) causes cracks whereas cement render does cause cracks from time to time which increases maintenance costs. We have enquired at Taubmans about the Moroka product, but we are still not sure if we should ask the builder to consider the cement render instead as a better solution.

Anyone has something to comment? Anything we should be worried about?

 

[DCP]

Hi Trevor,

The difference between cement render and Moroka is Cement render is not a finish coating.

Cement render is applied over bricks or blocks to provide a smooth uniform substrate ready to be finished with a paint coating or texture finish such as Moroka.
The old fasioned cement render was a mix of sand and cement applied to a thickness of around 10mm by a trowel. It will completly hide the outlines of the bricks below. There are new premixed cement based and acrylic renders available these days and they all generally go by the name cement render. Not many tradesmen use the old sand and cement system any more as the new technoligy is much better and the render is more flexible. The finish is flat with a sand like texture. Cement render is applied by renderers and would cost around $30 per square metre to apply. After you have rendered the house it will still need to be painted.

Moroka is a texture coating and a finish coating and is basically a very thick paint coating with sand added. Texture coatings vary greatly in the profile and thickness of the textured finish. Moroka is a reasonably fine texture coating and will give a finished look similar to painted cement render. As an example,you could use moroka over fibro to make it look like it has been cement rendered. If you are applying Moroka over brick work the joints would need to be flush finished but you will still see the shape of the bricks through the coating. Moroka would be applied by a painter and would cost around $12 per square metre to apply.

I hope this make sense.

Regards, Dean

 

[Leghorn]

If it is that bad that he is offering a cover up, I would want acrylic render. Then you can paint and finish it as you like.

 

[tmaggs]

Thank you everyone for your feedback and opinion.

Leghorn, can you elaborate a bit more why acrylic render is better in my case? Yes the brick work is terrible. Will it improve the overall appearance throughout the dwelling?