Hi, my story is identical to most on here, I asked for white....and got cream, that turns to beige when wet, which is pretty much all the time from Nov to March as to dry out to white ( ..ermm cream ) again takes a few days. Has anyone used successfully a good white paint on their KRend ? - thanks .....ps - how have Krend got away with changing their colour descriptions to "not a brilliant white" retrospectively.

Hi, we’ve not had ours done yet, but the recommendation we’ve been given by 2 separate K-Rend recommended contractors is to apply K-Rend TC-15 which is the thin silicone based top coat render, so more than a paint - effectively a new render finish.
This is expensive - full scaffolding again, full render job. £5k ish.

I am exploring other options to apply a paint - the Johnstone’s Stormshield Silicone Masonry (as posted above) looks good, and I have also been recommended StoColour Lotusan

Maybe try some sample areas on a wall that can’t easily be seen?

thank you...

This was our applied render today v sample. Would go near k rend! This is a French product called Parex. I’ve rendered a few houses in the past. In 4 weeks it will look like the sample panel

We have had our extension done in polar white k rend. We were told it would dry out in a month. It was done 3 months ago. About to get the rest of the front of the house done to match but it doesn’t look white to us. It’s a creamy yellow colour and my husband really dislikes it. Feel worried about getting the rest of the house done in this colour now.

This was exactly our situation 3 years ago! We were also really unimpressed with it at first but it definitely did lighten over time. If you can find the 2nd picture I posted a while after having it done you can judge for yourself. We got used to it anyway and quite like that it's a warmer tone than a very bright white. What you've had done so far looks very smart and looks great with the dark windows. Are you painting the white ones to match if you're planning on rendering the rest of the house?

@laura - I’m sure you will have been through all the literature but just to make sure - this is from K Rend’s website:

“Please note *Polar White is an off white. *White is the brightest White within the Scraped Texture range, however it is not brilliant white. *Cream has a yellow tone to it.”

I completely understand and see what you mean from your photos - and indeed from our own experience. We really wanted a brilliant white and following a sample of their standard whites, we opted for their special order “Porcelain white”.
It’s definitely a lot whiter but still not brilliant white and we were similarly disappointed with how little it ‘dried out’

As @gemm_thomas us said, ultimately the balance of the warmer white is a good thing and you may grow to like it but it’s definitely a personal choice that you need to be happy with.

Do you have a sample card to reference against?

One thing we learnt from our process is that K-Rend can supply a “early/late scratch” sample card. The point is that if the renderer scratches the surface back too early, it can result in a darker colour than if it was left to dry for the correct amount of time.

The early/late scratch sample comes in the post and you can hold it up against your own house to check whether the colour is a lot darker than it should be.

I found this really helpful - their technical team organised it for us

@gemm - yes went back and looked at yours. It definitely looks lighter, it looks great. I guess I just didn’t expect it to take that long to lighten! But your colour is more what I was hoping for. And yes all the windows will be black after the rest is rendered. Thanks for your reply

@tj - thanks for your response. That’s interesting about the early/late scratch card, I will look in to that. It was damp when they were rendering as they commented on it as the extension went up in the rain so it has taken some time to dry it out. Stupidly we don’t have a sample card - I looked on the website and the builder assured me it was white just not bright white that hurt your eyes!
I might chat with the renderers as wonder if we changed to a different white for the front whether they could then paint the extension to match? I imagine not!
Thanks for the advice, appreciate it

No worries - happy to help as I know how much of a minefield it can be, and there’s not a lot of very good help out there.

This is our render - right, against the original sample card - left.
Not sure if it comes out well in the image but the sample is definitely lighter so we ended up putting it down to an early scratch - before the render had cured hard enough.
Ours was also out on in very damp conditions.

Regarding the next step - one option would be to go with K-Rend TC-15 which is a completely different product altogether - it’s a polymer based render rather than cement based, from the more modern ‘thin coat render systems’.
If you went with this on the main house, you could go over the extension with this product too - creating a seamless finish. Not a cheap option though.

A cheaper option would be to use a silicone based paint - someone posted a Johnstone’s product earlier in this thread. The problem would be getting a perfect colour match to the new render.

We are eventually going to get ours re-coated with the Tv-15 thin coat render system so that we achieve that brilliant white that we wanted, hopefully it will be worth it in the end.

Here’s the early/late card.
Right - early (too mushy / slightly darker)
Left - late (correct)
Behind - actual house

The colour is correct. Polar white is off white like a polar bear. It has that yellow/beige tinge to it. I'm a plasterer and use these all the time. Even Krend lightest white isnt a brilliant white, James, Windsor Plastering

The best advice I can offer anyone suffering the "no where near white" K-Rend issue is to paint it. It'll take a week maybe, or get a professional in. Problem solved. If you get a super deep pile roller, you wont lose the texture. Which actually looks way better than painted sand & cement. Don't get blagged its specialist paint either, even K-Rends own technical dept. will confirm if you ask them that any good quality masonry paint will do. I suffered my awful brown ish white K-rend for 5 years. When it rained, I couldn't look at my house. A big dirty patchy beige mess. Now painted as per the pic.- thanks.

Please let me know what mansory paint you have used to achieve bright white colour. We have the same problem with k rendering...it,s more beige then

Dulex Weathershield Brilliant White

Thank you for your

Hi
We’ve recently had our new build rendered in Weber Chalk. It is really beige! Weber have suggested painted their Webersil P on it in Winter White. This maintains the guarantee and doesn’t need repainting like normal.
Has anyone used this before?
Many thanks

My bungalow is just being rendered in polar white it's horrible I was so upset when I got home yesterday I had to go out again just read this post and feel a little better I am not on my own 🙂 I am going to get it painted the brightest white I can find

Hi Susan, don't suffer years of looking at it, like I did. The positive is that when painted, the surface looks better in my opinion than flat render ( sand & cement ). Problem fixed :o)

Just rang them they say can use their paint or a good breathable external masonry but to wait 6 weeks for it to cure - so just going to have to suffer for 6 weeks now just need to make a decision on do I carry on with the garden walls or just use sand and cement!!

What would be the whitest monocouche render on the market?

Hi @seanrawlinson would you know if you can apply the weathershield directly onto the render, or whether you need to use some sort of "adhesive" to improve key? The render was done last year

...my advice isn't qualified as such, so of course, I can only speak of my experience. But no, as long as its clean (... jet washed from a safe distance ) & once 100% completely dry, and any loose render dust brushed off, you just paint it. - thanks.

you legend! Probably saved me a few £100s. Thanks Sean

Just had my new extension done in K-Rend Polar White and its nothing like the sample we picked.

I don’t dislike it, but its not the shade i was expecting.

I will be happy if its settles to somewhere near what it should be.

Finding this thread has made me feel better about it, so fingers crossed 🤞🏻it will lighten !

yeah, just knowing you can pain it to any colour without consequences is great. Dont do it before a few months as it cures slowly (ideally leave at least for 6 month minimum)

Its lightened a lot already now, happy with the colour, 😀

its only been a week, its definitely changed colour as you can see in picture below

Probably just needed time to dry out

Hi Sarah/Glenys, its takes about a week to dry out. The colour it cures too around that time, is the final colour. It wont lighten further after that. It will look lighter on a super sunny day as it reflects light. It will though absorb water when it rains, and look like your first piccy again, for a while, until it evaporates/dries.

thanks

Sean

Never cured white enough for me so we painted the whitest of whites and I love it so glad I came across this post found it incredibly re-assuring thank you all

We had to have ours re done as it had patches all over it:

They re did it using silicone render in brilliant white and looked so much better!

This is such a helpful post, thanks to all who have contributed. I feel fortunate that we are still at the decision making point so can take all this advice onboard. Was leaning towards Weber chalk but not so sure now. Reading comments on here and other platforms about K rend and Weber makes me wonder if we should just go for sand and cement render instead and gave it painted WHITE 🤔

Hi all what is the best render colour to go for? I have picked these

That depends on your taste. I think the main point to remember from this post is that polar white isn't white white, but rather and off white (or casse on your sample)

I want white, what is casse?

If you want a truly brilliant white then go for a thin coat polymer or acrylic render system like weberplast TF or K Rend TC15.

i think the ones you are looking at are monocouche renders which inherently contain sand and cement and therefore it’s very difficult to get a true white

Blanc casse translates literally to off white

I've just had my house rendered in webber stone grey and its come out much darker than the sample we were given. I'm really not happy with it and actually waned to cry when i saw it yesterday. I know its got to dry more but it's not going to be that much of a difference. Can we render over it with a lighter colour?

Give it a couple of weeks to dry out

This looks fab!! Can you please advise how you got this white?
I asked for polar white and it looks yellow/beige - I wanted it white - did you paint
over it?

Hi Kathryn, I’m not sure which picture you are referencing as it just shows your post at the bottom on my phone. But if you mean my picture, I painted my K-Rend.
Thanks,
Sean

Yes your photo …did you paint with masonary paint? Thanks Sean

Dulux Trade Weathershield Smooth Masonry Paint Pure Brilliant White

I used that in mine. 2 years later it looks immaculate

Thank you

No need to prep the wall unless the substrate is loose. I'd personally wait 6 months before painting to allow the wall to fully cure, below the after an d before(couldn't find better pictures)

Looks great!! Thanks for you help 😁

I’m glad I found this post. Feeling like I could cry. Just had front and back of the house rendered in Atlas ‘off white’ (renderer said white was too stark) so went with off white…The colour looks like it has a tinge of pink/lilac/grey to it 😭 😭😭 Feeling very depressed as it was a big job.
I was advised by the renderers to repaint using silicone paint.

I wonder what is better silicone or masonry? I am waiting until we get good weather to paint over mine as it’s yellow not white 😭
Or are silicone and masonry the same - mine is scratch k-rend