Sylvania's a bit different to most of the Shire, sitting right on the Georges River with the canals of Sylvania Waters running through it. There are some lovely homes down here, plenty of them on the water with a jetty out the back, and on a place like that, the outside has to look the part from the street and from the river. We render a fair bit around Sylvania and Sylvania Waters, and the water changes a couple of things about how you go about it. We're a local Shire crew, so it's an easy run for us to come and take a look.

Render that can handle the water

Living near the river or on the canals is great, but the salt and damp in the air give exterior walls a harder time than they'd get a few streets back. So in waterfront places especially, we lean towards a flexible system that can cope with it. Acrylic render is usually the go: it bends a bit with the house instead of cracking, and a good one still lets the wall breathe so moisture isn't trapped behind it. Cement render still has its place on solid brick where you want it tough and a bit cheaper. Either way, a coloured textured render goes over the top to seal it up and set the colour. The big one near the water is the prep: getting any salt and grime off, sealing the spots that cop it worst, and not starting till the wall's properly sound. Skip that down here and you're redoing it in a couple of years.

It's got to look right up close

On a lot of Sylvania homes the render's on show from every angle: off the street, off the water, from the neighbour's deck. So it can't just look alright from twenty metres back. We take the extra time to get the walls flat and true, the corners and edges crisp, and the texture even the whole way round, because on a nice home a wavy wall or a dodgy corner is the first thing the eye lands on. It's the difference between a render that lifts the place and one that quietly drags it down.

Sorting the colour

Colour's worth taking your time on, and the water actually helps point the way. The bright, open light off the river washes a wall out a bit, so soft whites, light greys and warm sandy tones tend to sit really well down here, where a heavy, dark colour can look harsh. We'll leave a few samples up on the wall and look at them across the day, in the glare and the shade, before you lock anything in.

Keeping it looking good by the water

Once it's on, a good render doesn't ask for much, even by the river. A hose-down a couple of times a year washes the salt film off before it dulls the colour, and that's about it. A quality acrylic system handles the rest on its own for years. If a spot ever needs a touch-up down the track, it's an easy patch and recoat, as long as the original job was done right, which is the main reason we don't cut corners in the first place.