Texture Coating & Rendering Costs SA 2026 - Get Free Quotes

Texture Coating and Rendering Costs in South Australia

Texture coating over sound existing render across South Australia generally costs $35 to $70 per square metre. Rendering a wall and then texture coating it runs $80 to $150. Render on its own is $45 to $90 for acrylic and $50 to $100 for cement based, and bagging over brick sits at $30 to $60. A single storey home works out at $8,000 to $18,000 for texture alone or $18,000 to $40,000 for the full system. That gap between the two figures is what this page exists to explain.

Texture coating and rendering are sold together, quoted together and talked about interchangeably, and they are different products doing different jobs. Render builds a new surface and corrects an uneven wall. Texture coating decorates and protects a surface that is already sound. If your walls need the first and you buy the second, the finish will follow every flaw underneath it. Getting that wrong is the most common and most expensive error in this trade.

There is a second decision that matters more in South Australia than almost anywhere else, and it concerns what the coating does to moisture. A texture coating is a thick, largely impermeable film. On a modern brick veneer wall that is exactly what you want. On solid masonry carrying salt damp, which describes a great deal of older South Australian housing, it seals moisture into a wall that was already struggling to release it. The upside for this state is real too. Adelaide's reactive clay soils produce hairline crazing across rendered walls almost as a matter of course, and a high build or elastomeric texture system bridges that kind of fine movement in a way ordinary paint does not.

This page covers the difference between the two systems, texture grades, render types, crack bridging, when texture is wrong, face brick, substrate preparation, application, weather and maintenance. Straight painting is covered in the SA exterior painting guide and general background in the SA painters guide. Ask for that to be named on the written quote. A site inspection settles it properly.

Render Versus Texture Coating

The clearest way to hold the distinction is by thickness and purpose. Most contractors will confirm it on request. That detail is where two quotes diverge. Worth agreeing before work is booked.

Render is a build coat. It is applied by trowel, several millimetres thick and often considerably more, and its job is to create a new flat surface over brick, block or an uneven substrate. It is a wet trade closer to plastering than to painting, it is applied by renderers or plasterers, and it corrects the wall. Texture coating is a heavy bodied coating, usually well under three millimetres, loaded with aggregate to produce a surface texture. It is applied by spray, roller or trowel over a substrate that is already flat and sound, and it decorates, protects and bridges fine cracking. It does not correct anything.

The practical test is simple. Stand at one end of the wall and sight along it. If the surface is wavy, if there are steps between old patches, or if brick coursing shows through, you need a build coat. If the surface is flat but tired, crazed or dated, texture coating alone will do the job. Many projects use both, with render applied first and texture coated over it once cured, which is where the $80 to $150 per square metre figure comes from.

The reason this matters commercially is that a texture only quote and a render plus texture quote can look like competing prices for the same work when they are not. Ask every contractor whether their price includes a build coat and how much of the wall it covers. House rendering covers the build coat side in detail and render repair contractors the patching of existing work. Get the method stated rather than implied.

Texture Finishes and Grades

Texture is sold by grade and by application pattern, and the choice affects both appearance and cost. Fine or sand texture gives a subtle grain, uses the least material and suits contemporary designs where the wall reads as almost flat. Medium texture is the common domestic default and hides minor surface variation well. Coarse or heavy texture is more pronounced, consumes considerably more material and does more to disguise an imperfect substrate. Beyond grade there is pattern. Roll on texture leaves an even stippled finish, trowel applied finishes can be floated flat or knocked back to leave a mottled effect, and chunky or river bed finishes use larger aggregate for a heavily textured result.

There is also a flat high build membrane option that is worth knowing about, since it delivers the crack bridging benefit without any visible texture at all. Where you want a modern flat rendered look but the wall has fine crazing, that is frequently the right specification. Two practical considerations should shape the choice in South Australia. Heavier textures collect more dust and dirt, which matters in the Riverland, the Mallee, the mid north and the upper gulf towns where hot northerly winds carry grit. And on a west facing wall, a heavy texture casts small shadows that make surface variation more obvious in low afternoon sun rather than less. Ask for a sample board in your chosen grade and colour and look at it against the actual wall in afternoon light before committing, because texture reads very differently on a swatch than at full scale.

Cement, Acrylic and Bagging

Where a build coat is needed, three broad approaches cover most South Australian work. Cement render is the traditional system, a mix of sand, cement and lime applied in coats and floated to a finish. It is hard, durable and relatively inexpensive in materials, and its drawbacks are that it is rigid, so it cracks where a wall moves, and it needs proper curing time before anything goes over it. Cement rendering covers it in detail.

Acrylic render is polymer modified, which makes it more flexible, faster to apply and quicker to cure, and it bonds to a wider range of substrates including surfaces cement render struggles with. It costs more per square metre and is the common choice on modern work. Acrylic rendering covers the system. Bagging is the third and it is often misunderstood.

A thin cement slurry is worked over brickwork with a bag or sponge, filling the mortar joints and softening the surface while leaving the brick coursing faintly visible. It is not a flat render and it does not pretend to be, and at $30 to $60 per square metre it is the cheapest way to change the character of a brick house. Brick rendering and bagging specialists handle it. Curing is the item that catches builders and owners under time pressure. Cement render is highly alkaline when fresh and needs weeks rather than days to cure and carbonate, meaning the reaction with air that neutralises it, before a coating goes over. Painting or texture coating too early causes saponification, which shows as a soft, sticky or patchy film that never hardens properly.

Acrylic systems shorten that wait considerably, which is one of the practical arguments for them where a program is tight. The answer tells you how it was scoped. Ask what happens if conditions differ. Check it against the written scope.

What SA Walls Are Actually Made Of

South Australia has an unusually varied wall stock for a single state, and the substrate decides which products will work far more than any preference does. Getting this wrong is the most expensive mistake available in this trade, because a coating applied to an incompatible wall fails at the bond and takes the surface with it when it goes. Any contractor quoting without establishing what is behind the existing finish is guessing. Solid stone is the one that catches people out, and Adelaide has a great deal of it. Bluestone, sandstone and limestone walls in the inner suburbs and the older country towns are porous and need to breathe, which means moisture moves through them as part of how the wall works. Applying a modern impermeable acrylic render to that wall traps moisture inside it, and the result is salt damp, spalling stone and a render that blows off in sheets a few years later.

Solid brick behaves similarly though less dramatically, and double brick construction through the older suburbs still needs a breathable approach where rising damp is present. Cement render on solid brick is a long-established combination and works, provided the wall is dry and the mortar is sound. Brick veneer and modern blockwork are the straightforward cases and cover most post-1970 housing. The wall is a cavity construction with a waterproof membrane behind, so the render or texture coat is decorative and protective rather than part of the moisture management, and the full range of acrylic products is available.

Fibre cement and blueboard substrates are common on newer extensions and lightweight construction, and they need a system designed for sheet movement. Joints between sheets move seasonally, and a rigid render across them cracks along every joint line within a year or two unless the system includes proper jointing and a flexible topcoat. Ask the contractor to tell you what your wall is and what that means for the product before comparing prices. On solid stone in particular, a cheaper quote that specifies a standard acrylic system is not a saving, it is a different and considerably worse outcome.

Crack Bridging on Reactive Soils

This is the strongest technical argument for texture coating in South Australia and it is worth understanding precisely, because it is also frequently oversold. Adelaide sits on highly reactive clay soils that swell when wet and shrink when dry. That seasonal movement transfers into footings and walls, and on rendered surfaces it shows up as fine crazing, a map like network of hairline cracks across the face of the render. Ordinary paint sits at a film thickness measured in tens of microns and simply follows those cracks. A high build or elastomeric texture system applies a much thicker, more flexible film that spans hairline cracking and stretches with seasonal movement instead of splitting.

That is a genuine benefit and it is why so many Adelaide homes carry texture rather than paint. What it does not do is bridge structural cracking. A crack wider than a millimetre or two, a crack with a step or level difference across it, cracking that passes through bricks rather than around them, diagonal cracking from window corners, or cracking accompanied by doors that have started to bind all indicate footing movement rather than surface movement. No coating spans those, and applying one conceals the evidence while the cause continues. The honest sequence is to have significant cracking assessed first, address the cause where there is one, repair the render properly, and then use a bridging system to handle the ongoing fine movement that every Adelaide house experiences.

When Texture Coating Is the Wrong Answer

Four situations come up repeatedly in South Australia where a texture coating is the wrong specification, and the first is the most important. Salt damp. Groundwater rising through porous masonry carries dissolved salts that crystallise at the evaporation point and break down mortar and stone. A texture coating is thick and largely impermeable, so applying one to an affected wall moves the evaporation point deeper into the masonry, where the salt crystallisation now happens out of sight. The coating blisters off within a season or two and the wall underneath has continued to decay in the meantime. Salt damp treatment comes first, the wall then needs many months to dry, and a vapour permeable finish is the right choice afterwards.

Unpainted heritage masonry. Bluestone, sandstone and limestone that has never been coated should generally stay that way. These walls were built to move moisture through and evaporate it at the surface, texture coating stops that, and on a listed property or in a historic area applying one is generally development requiring consent that is frequently refused. Heritage painting covers the approval position.

Drummy render. Render that has lost its bond to the wall behind sounds hollow when tapped and will eventually fall away regardless of what is coated over it. Those sections have to be cut out and replaced first. Active structural movement. Where cracking is widening, stepped or accompanied by binding doors, coating over it is money spent on concealment.

A contractor who taps your walls, looks at the base of them and asks about the age of the house before quoting is doing the assessment properly. One who quotes from the footpath is not. Confirm which product system applies. Raise it at the first conversation.

Modernising Face Brick

A large share of texture and render work in South Australia is driven by owners wanting to update a face brick house, and there are three different outcomes at three different prices. Bagging at $30 to $60 per square metre fills the mortar joints and softens the surface while leaving the brick coursing faintly readable. It is the cheapest option, it retains some of the original character, and it suits owners who want the house softened rather than transformed. Render and texture at $80 to $150 per square metre delivers a completely flat contemporary surface with no trace of the brick underneath. It is the full transformation and it prices accordingly.

Painting the brick directly is the third option and the cheapest of all, though it is close to irreversible and it leaves the brick profile fully visible. The practical points to weigh are permanence and maintenance. All three commit you to a maintenance cycle the bare brick did not have, since a coated or rendered wall needs periodic attention while face brick largely looks after itself. Before committing, check whether your property sits in a Historic Area or Character Area overlay, since some of Adelaide's older suburbs have controls on external appearance and rendering a face brick facade can be development requiring consent. General planning information is published at sa.gov.au and your council will confirm the position in a phone call. Post-war double brick homes through Woodville, Findon, Klemzig, Campbelltown and the middle suburbs are the most common candidates for this work, and the results can be striking where the substrate is sound.

Preparing the Substrate

Texture coating hides minor imperfection and it does not fix adhesion problems, so preparation matters as much here as in any painting job. The sequence on an existing rendered wall runs assessment, cleaning, repair, stabilising and priming. Assessment means tapping for drummy sections and checking whether the existing coating is chalking or lifting. Cleaning removes dirt, chalk, mould and, on the coast, salt. Repair addresses cracks and any render that has to come out.

Stabilising is the step most often skipped. Where an existing surface chalks, a penetrating binding primer is needed to lock that powdery residue back to the wall, because a heavy texture coat applied over chalk bonds to the chalk and takes it off with it. On a heavy system that is a large amount of material to have fail. Pressure washing is useful and frequently overdone. High pressure erodes soft render and drives water into solid masonry that then has to dry before coating, so lower pressure with a suitable cleaner doing the work is the better approach on most South Australian houses. Pressure cleaning as a standalone stage is often the right first step.

Crack treatment should be specified rather than assumed. Fine crazing is bridged by the system itself, while individual cracks that move seasonally need raking out and filling with a flexible filler before the texture goes on, because a rigid filler in a moving crack will reopen and show through. Where preparation is sizeable, having it quoted as its own stage makes the comparison between contractors far clearer. Preparation specialists handle that work separately.

Spray, Roller and Trowel

Texture coating is applied by three methods and the choice affects both the finish and the site conditions required. Spray application is the most common for the heavier grades, because the material is thick and aggregate loaded and a spray unit moves it far faster than any hand method. It also produces the most consistent stipple across a large wall. The trade off is drift, since the material carries further than people expect and masking has to extend well beyond the obvious. Spray application covers overspray management in detail.

Roller application suits finer grades and smaller areas, gives good control around detail and windows, and produces less mess. It is slower and it consumes more labour on a large wall. Trowel application is used for the heavier decorative finishes where the pattern is worked into the surface by hand, and it is the slowest and most skill dependent of the three. Back rolling deserves a mention because it applies here as it does with any sprayed coating over a porous substrate. Spraying lays material onto the surface, and following immediately with a roller works it into the profile, which improves adhesion on render and masonry.

Whichever method is used, wet edges matter more with texture than with paint. A visible join where one section dried before the next was applied cannot be blended out afterwards, so walls are worked to a natural break such as a corner or a downpipe rather than stopped mid elevation. It costs nothing to ask up front. Most contractors confirm it on request.

Adelaide Weather and Curing

Both render and texture coating are more weather sensitive than ordinary paint, and South Australia's climate creates specific windows. Summer heat is the main constraint. A thick coating applied to a surface much above 35 degrees dries from the outside in, which affects how the material cures and can leave a weaker film, and it also makes maintaining a wet edge across a large wall difficult. On a north or west facing Adelaide wall in January the surface runs well above air temperature, so work follows the shade and starts early.

Fresh render is vulnerable to drying too fast in the same conditions, which causes crazing in the render itself before anything is coated over it. Winter brings the opposite issue. Low temperatures and high humidity slow curing considerably, and a coating that has not cured before overnight dew or rain arrives can be damaged permanently. The Adelaide Hills and the Limestone Coast lose more days to this than the plains.

Wind is the third factor and it matters more for texture than for paint. Hot northerly conditions carry dust and grit that settle into a wet textured surface and stay there, and the irregular surface holds that debris rather than shedding it. Spring and autumn are the reliable windows here, and they are also the busiest, so booking ahead is worthwhile. A contractor who declines a 40 degree afternoon or a windy day is protecting the finish rather than being difficult.

Living With a Textured Finish

A texture coating is a long life system rather than a permanent one, and knowing what to expect helps you budget for it. Service life on a well applied system over a sound substrate is commonly ten to fifteen years before recoating, which is longer than a standard paint film. Coastal properties and heavily exposed inland walls sit at the shorter end. The maintenance itself is straightforward. A wash down every few years removes accumulated dust and any mould on shaded elevations, and doing it with low pressure and a soft brush rather than a high pressure lance protects the surface.

Textured surfaces do hold dirt more readily than flat ones, which is the trade off for the appearance and the crack bridging. In dusty inland districts and near unsealed roads this is noticeable, and a mid tone colour hides it considerably better than a very pale one. Recoating is generally straightforward when the time comes, since a sound texture coat can be washed, stabilised if it has chalked, and recoated with a compatible product without removing the existing texture. Keeping the product details with your property records makes that far simpler. Damage repairs are the one awkward area, because matching an existing texture grade and pattern in a patch is difficult and a repair often reads visibly. Where damage occurs, coating the full elevation to a corner usually produces a better result than a localised patch.

Recoating Against Rendering From Scratch

The largest single decision on most of these jobs is whether the existing render stays or goes, and it moves the price by more than everything else combined. A texture coat over sound existing render runs $35 to $70 a square metre, while rendering and texture coating from scratch runs $80 to $150, so establishing which situation you are in before getting quotes is worth the effort. The test is whether the existing render is still bonded to the wall behind it. Tap across the surface with a knuckle and listen for the change from a solid dull sound to a hollow one, since hollow means the render has lost adhesion and is effectively floating. Drummy sections cannot be coated over, because whatever goes on top comes off with them when they eventually release.

Partial removal is the usual middle ground and it needs to be quoted as such. Where twenty per cent of a wall is drummy and the rest is sound, the loose material is removed, the area is rendered back flush and the whole wall is then texture coated, which sits between the two headline rates. A quote that ignores this is a quote that will be revised. Cracking is a different matter and needs separate assessment. Fine surface crazing in the render is cosmetic and can be bridged with a flexible coating, while structural cracks that run through the render and into the substrate behind will reappear through any coating and need the cause addressed first.

Age is a reasonable first indicator but not a decision. Cement render from the 1960s can still be perfectly sound, and acrylic render from 2010 can be failing where it was applied over a poorly prepared surface. The tap test on the actual wall is what settles it, which is why nobody can price this job from a photograph. Have it recorded before any deposit.

Timing Render Work in the South Australian Climate

Render and texture coating are more weather dependent than almost any other trade, because the products cure chemically rather than simply drying and both heat and cold interfere with that process. South Australia gives a generous working window across spring and autumn, and both ends of the year present problems that are worth planning around rather than discovering. Summer heat is the more common problem here and it works against you in two ways. A render applied to a hot substrate loses its water to the wall and to evaporation before the cement has hydrated properly, which produces a weak surface that dusts and crazes, and a texture coat applied in the middle of a forty degree day skins over before it can be worked. Crews who start at dawn, work the shaded elevations through the middle of the day and keep the substrate damp are doing it correctly.

Cold and damp create the opposite issue through an Adelaide Hills winter. Most acrylic products specify a minimum application temperature, commonly around ten degrees, below which the film does not coalesce properly and never reaches its intended durability. Overnight temperatures matter as much as daytime ones, since a coating applied at three in the afternoon is still curing at midnight. Rain within the curing window is the outright job-ruiner and the reason contractors watch the forecast rather than the calendar. A fresh texture coat caught by a shower before it has cured can wash, streak or lose its profile entirely, and the remedy is removal and reapplication rather than a touch-up.

Build a buffer into the schedule and be wary of anyone who will not. A render and texture job needs several consecutive suitable days for substrate preparation, render, curing time and then the coating, and a contractor promising a fixed finish date in a variable week is either lucky or planning to push on regardless. The written scope should say so plainly. Ask how the figure changes if it does.

Looking After Render and Texture

Render and texture systems are low maintenance rather than no maintenance, and the small amount of attention they need is what determines whether you recoat at twelve years or at seven. None of it is difficult and most owners do none of it, which is why so many walls reach the chalking stage earlier than the product should have allowed. Washing is all the routine maintenance these systems need. A gentle wash with a soft broom and water once a year removes the dust, salt and organic growth that hold moisture against the surface, and it makes a measurable difference on coastal and shaded elevations in particular. Avoid high pressure, which drives water into any weakness and can strip the texture profile itself.

Watch the areas that stay damp. South facing walls, anywhere shaded by vegetation and the base of walls near garden beds all hold moisture longer and develop organic growth first, and cutting back plants to allow airflow behind them prevents most of it. Sprinklers hitting a wall repeatedly are a common and easily fixed cause of premature failure. Patch damage promptly rather than waiting for the next full recoat. Knocks, cracks and penetrations let water behind the system, and water behind a coating is what turns a cosmetic problem into a substrate problem. Matching a patch into an existing texture is never invisible, which is an argument for doing it while the area is small.

Keep a record of the product system and colour formulation somewhere you will find it. Patch matching years later is far easier with the original specification than without it, and a folder with the data sheets and the quote is worth more at the next recoat than most owners expect. Getting it on the written quote takes a moment. A site visit answers it quickly.

What Drives the Price

Whether a build coat is required is the largest single factor and it roughly doubles the figure. Substrate condition determines that, along with how much drummy render replacement, crack repair or damp remediation is needed before anything else can start. Texture grade drives material consumption, and a coarse finish can use several times the material of a fine one across the same wall. Access matters more than on a paint job because the material is heavy and has to be carried or pumped to where it is applied, so two storey work and difficult site access add proportionally more. Detail and openings slow the work in the usual way, since every window, door, pipe and fitting is an edge that has to be masked and cut in. Weather constrains the program and therefore the cost on a job that can only proceed in a narrow daily window, which in an Adelaide summer means mornings on the shaded elevations.

Texture and Render Costs Across Adelaide

Adelaide pricing tracks substrate and house age, with the post-war brick belt and the newer rendered estates representing quite different jobs. A short phone call clears this up. Put the question in writing if unsure. Established operators answer this readily.

The two face brick rows are the same house with two different outcomes rather than two prices for one job, and owners choosing on price alone sometimes end up disappointed with bagging when they wanted the flat modern look. Bagging keeps the brick texture visible beneath a thin skim, while full render creates a flat modern surface. The price gap reflects the material thickness and the labour rather than the finish quality. Decide which look you want before comparing the two figures.

Regional South Australia

Country pricing carries travel and, more markedly, a different mix of substrates. Stone and solid brick are far more common outside the metropolitan area, which changes the product specification. Establish what your walls are before assuming metropolitan rates apply. Local operators generally know the regional building stock well.

The Mid North, Clare and Barossa districts hold a high proportion of nineteenth century stone housing, which is precisely the stock where texture coating is most often the wrong answer. A contractor working those towns regularly will raise salt damp and permeability without being asked, and one travelling out from Adelaide for a single job may not. Mount Gambier and the Limestone Coast face slower curing in higher humidity, which affects both render and texture and pushes the reliable season toward the warmer months. The Riverland, Mallee and upper gulf towns deal with heat and airborne dust, both of which constrain the working day and argue for mid tone colours that hide grit. Availability is the practical limit further out, where fewer contractors carry the equipment and travel to use it, so grouping work and booking a season ahead achieves more than negotiating on rate.

Licensing, Warranties and Who Carries the Risk

Render and texture work sits inside building work in South Australia, which means the licensing and insurance position is more consequential than on a straight repaint. Establishing it before engaging anyone is straightforward and protects you if something goes wrong later, and the checks take a few minutes rather than a few days. The checks below take a few minutes and matter considerably if something goes wrong later. None of them require anything more than asking.

Contracts above the licensing threshold require a licensed building contractor, and the register is public and searchable. Ask for the licence number rather than accepting a business card, and check that the name on the licence matches the entity on the quote, since those are occasionally different in ways that matter at claim time. Check that the name on the licence matches the entity on the quote, since those are occasionally different in ways that matter at claim time. Verifying it takes about a minute and is worth doing before any deposit changes hands.

Domestic building insurance applies above a contract value threshold in South Australia and protects the owner where a contractor cannot complete the work or rectify a defect. Ask whether it applies to your contract, and if it does, ask for the certificate before paying a deposit rather than afterwards. Ask whether it applies to your contract and request the certificate before paying a deposit rather than afterwards. Request the certificate before paying a deposit rather than afterwards.

Manufacturer warranties on render and texture systems are conditional on a specification being followed, including the primer, the number of coats and the film build. That is one reason to have the product system named in the quote rather than described generically, since a warranty claim against an unnamed system is difficult to pursue. Have the product system named in the quote rather than described generically, since a claim against an unnamed system is difficult to pursue. Ask for the data sheet at the same time.

Workmanship warranties are separate again and worth only what the contractor behind them is worth. A ten year workmanship warranty from a business trading for eighteen months is a document rather than a protection, and asking how long the company has operated under its current name is a reasonable question that an established operator will answer readily. Asking how long the company has traded under its current name is a reasonable question that an established operator answers readily. Asking how long the business has traded under its current name is reasonable and quickly answered.

Finally, keep everything. The quote, the product data sheets, the colour formulation, the invoices and any warranty certificates all matter at the next recoat and at sale, and a folder of that material is worth having rather than reconstructing from memory a decade later. That material matters at the next recoat and at sale, and reconstructing it from memory a decade later is not realistic. Keeping it in one place also helps the next owner, and it matters at sale.

What to Look Out For

Establish whether your quote includes a build coat and how much of the wall it covers, because a texture only price and a render plus texture price look like competing quotes and are not. Ask the contractor to tap the walls in front of you. Drummy render sounds obviously hollow, and any that is found needs cutting out and replacing before anything is coated over it. Raise salt damp directly on any older masonry home. A band of damage 300 millimetres to a metre above ground level, white powdery deposits or crumbling mortar all mean a texture coating is the wrong specification until the cause is dealt with.

Be sceptical of crack bridging claims applied to significant cracking. These systems span hairline crazing well and they do not span structural movement, and a contractor who does not draw that distinction is overselling. Ask for a sample board in your grade and colour and look at it on the wall in afternoon light. Texture reads very differently at full scale than on a swatch.

Check the curing position where new render is involved, since cement render needs weeks rather than days before coating and a compressed program is how saponification happens. Finally, verify the licence and insurance. Painting and decorating is defined as building work in South Australia and anyone contracting to carry it out must hold a building work contractor's licence issued by Consumer and Business Services, with no dollar threshold. Cutting out drummy render generates respirable crystalline silica, meaning dust fine enough to reach deep into the lungs, so extraction and respiratory protection apply. Workplace requirements are administered by SafeWork SA and health guidance by SA Health, and consumer guarantees by the ACCC.

What to Look for in a Quote in SA

A texture coating or rendering quote worth comparing separates the build coat from the finish and describes the substrate work in between. Specifically: the area in square metres, whether a render build coat is included and over what proportion of the wall, the render type if applicable and its curing period, the extent of drummy render replacement and crack repair allowed for with a rate beyond it, the cleaning method, whether a stabilising primer is included, the texture product and grade by name, the number of coats, the application method, masking and overspray protection, the program including curing and weather allowances, and the warranty with its exclusions. When you enquire, say what the wall is made of and whether it is currently rendered, painted or face brick, the approximate age of the house, whether the surface is flat or uneven when you sight along it, whether there is cracking and roughly how wide, whether there is any damage or bubbling at the base of walls, and the number of storeys. Photographs of each elevation plus a close up of any cracking are essential rather than optional here.

Get three quotes and check they all propose the same system before comparing totals. Where one recommends bagging and another a full render, those are different outcomes and the decision is yours rather than the price's. Keep the product name, grade, colour and application method with your property records. Matching a texture in a patch repair years later is difficult without that information and considerably easier with it. You will also find plasterers and commercial painters here for the larger and non residential end of this work.