How to Achieve a Smooth Render Effect

One of the most popular types of render that homeowners choose is smooth render. This can be achieved in a number of ways, so we’re going to talk you through how you can achieve this.

Smooth Render and Grain Sizes

Our most popular renders are our thin coat renders. The come ready to use in 25kg buckets, pre-mixed and pre-coloured in your chosen shade. The key difference with our thin coat renders is that they come in a range of grain sizes; so essentially the larger the grain size the more textured the render.

If you opt for a thin coat render, you can choose between a 1mm, 1.5mm, 2mm or 3mm grain size to achieve the texture that you want. 1.5mm is our most popular, as it achieves a smooth surface but with a very slight texture when you look up-close. 1.5mm is also easier to apply than a 1mm render.

Lightweight Basecoat & Silicone Paint

If you’re looking to achieve a completely smooth render effect, then you may want to opt for our Lightweight Basecoat with a coloured Silicone Paint on top.

The advantage of choosing the Lightweight Basecoat to create a smooth render effect is that it can be applied up to 20mm thick, so basically you can get the wall as smooth and flat as possible and then you can apply a breathable, decorative paint on top to seal the system against water ingress.

Choosing to paint the surface certainly means that it will be less durable, but it does guarantee the desired smooth render finish.

A cost-effective alternative to the Lightweight Basecoat is to use our One Coat Render (OCR) to get a perfectly flat surface before you paint it.

Covering over pebbledash? OCDC

Worth mentioning is that if you have pebbledash as your existing render, you can create a smooth render by covering it over using our One Coat Dash Cover. This creates a perfectly flat surface to which you can either apply a thin coat render or you can paint it with a Silicone Paint. This is the easiest way to cover over pebbledash in terms of avoiding the costly process of removing it, and the product itself will allow the underlying pebbledash to breathe.

Interested in EWI Pro coloured renders? Our technical team are available to offer detailed design and specification advice, as well as on-site support and training to ensure every coloured render installation across the UK is a success.