Height to start rendering

[Lincolnshire Ian]

Our battles with planning continue. To meet their requirement of a replacement dwelling in the open countryside that should be of "High Architectural Standard" we have ultimately conceded to have a render and clad house rather than brick skin. We are running out of fight and are reluctantly happy with this compromise. 

Having swapped from brick we now have a decision to make regarding what height we should start the render and whether we should have a plinth. 

Talking to the Planning Department is hopeless they aren't prepared to give us any guidance regarding what may or may not be approved (they just want to look at drawings as and when they are submitted) and our architectural technician isn't local which probably doesn't help either. 

Are there any pros and cons to render height (we are a bit worried about it getting damaged during the build process) and if anyone has a photos that would be brilliant. 

Thanks 

[nod]

Render must never be lower than the dpc ie 3-4 course of engineering brick dpc Then render bead on the top of the dpc Or higher 

[Mr Punter]

+1

 

I like to have at least 3 courses of blue engineering with the top being the highest external DPC, matching the internal FFL, then render above.

 

For your cladding you could look at natural slate.

 

You can start / finish render wherever you like above DPC.

Edited January 4 by Mr Punter

[Andehh]

White render, black aluminium windows doors and the slate cladding was the style we went with!

 

The finished off with some nice western red cedar cladding (I think it's called? Expensive stuff!)

Edited January 4 by Andehh

[Tetrarch]

We had our silicone rendering start just above the DPC. We still don't know whether to paint the lower plain-rendered parts black or the same colour as the textuered silicone-rendered part

 

 

 

We're still not finished yet

 

Regards

 

Tet

[Tony L]

Just my opinion, & if you've seen some of the questions I ask, you'll know I'm no expert:  I'd say min 3, ideally min 4, courses of blue or black bricks between GL & the start of your render.  So if you're on a bit of a slope that means you may have 3 courses in some places & perhaps twice as many elsewhere, unless you're going to have a step somewhere.

 

I've seen plenty of instances of white render down to the ground, or starting only one or two courses off GL, & it looks rubbish as it inevitably gets dirty when rain splashes up.  I suppose the render can be cleaned, if it's not going all the way down to the ground, but I know that's not a job I'd find time to keep on top of.  Also, I very much like the look of a white house set up on a substantial black band, rather than a thin band.

 

On a related subject, I'm intending to forgo a bell cast drip detail at the bottom the render, because dirt settles on these, & I don't think that looks good either.  I'll just have the render proud of the black bricks & I'll see if I can find a render support/bead/whatever they're called with a drip channel or protrusion.

 

Cue dirty bell end joke from a certain prominent member.