Rendering in Kangaroo Flat.

Two kinds of wall.

Kangaroo Flat splits neatly into two rendering jobs. The older parts around the shopping strip and toward Golden Square are full of solid and cavity brick homes from the 1950s to 1970s, where the work is usually recolouring and resealing with a texture coat, or repairing tired old cement render. The newer estates toward Big Hill and the south are brick-veneer, where a smooth acrylic render turns a plain brick box into a modern rendered facade.

Reactive clay, as everywhere in Bendigo.

Kangaroo Flat sits on the same reactive clay that runs under most of Greater Bendigo, classified M and sometimes H under AS 2870. The ground swells in winter and shrinks through the dry summer, and that movement is the number one cause of cracked render here. We default to flexible acrylic systems with control joints aligned to the building’s articulation joints, so the wall moves with the ground instead of fracturing. Where render has already cracked, we fix the cause first, see render repairs.

Typical Kangaroo Flat jobs.

• Acrylic render and tinted texture coat on a new brick-veneer home ($9K-$14K single storey)
• Texture re-coat over sound but dated render on a 1970s home ($5K-$8K)
• Render repairs and crack stitching after a dry summer opened up the walls
• Rendering a new garage, retaining wall or fence to match the house
• Foam cladding on a rear extension to add insulation, see foam cladding render

For what the different systems cost, see the Bendigo rendering cost guide. Not sure which render suits your wall? The acrylic vs cement comparison walks through it.