For a modern house in Devon, yes, and here is exactly what you get for the money.
Silicone render costs more than traditional render up front. It is also the last time you will think about your walls for twenty-five years.
No repainting. No scaffolding going back up every five years. No green streaks down the north-facing wall. On a modern house in Devon it is, in our view, comfortably the best thing you can put on the outside of a building, and this page explains why.
Yes, near enough, and this confuses a lot of people.
Silicone render is the material. K-Rend is a brand of it, the biggest in the UK and Ireland. So when someone says "I'm getting K-Rend done", they mean they are getting a silicone render, made by K-Rend.
There are other good manufacturers, Parex, Weber, EWI Pro, and they all make silicone systems that work on the same principle. K-Rend is simply the name most people have heard, in the same way people say Hoover when they mean vacuum cleaner.
So you are not choosing between K-Rend and silicone render. You are choosing silicone render, and then choosing whose.
Six things, and the first one is the whole argument.
Silicone render is through-coloured, the colour runs all the way through the material, not painted on the surface. There is nothing to peel, nothing to fade patchily, and nothing to redo. Painted cement render needs repainting roughly every five years, and each time means hiring scaffolding all over again.
Silicone is hydrophobic, water beads up and runs straight off rather than soaking in. In a county that gets the weather off the Atlantic first, that matters more here than almost anywhere in England.
Because rain runs off the surface rather than sitting in it, dirt and spores get washed away rather than taking hold. It is why silicone-rendered houses still look right after ten years while the painted ones down the road have gone green on the shaded side.
Water-repellent from the outside, but still permeable, so moisture in the wall can evaporate out. That combination, sheds the weather without sealing the wall, is exactly what you want on a cavity-walled house.
Silicone renders are formulated to move with the building rather than fight it, which is why they are used on new builds, timber frame and insulated systems where a rigid cement render would struggle.
A properly applied silicone render on a properly prepared wall should give you a quarter of a century before it needs anything doing to it.
Compare two houses over twenty years.
The painted cement render house gets rendered, then painted. Five years later it needs repainting, scaffolding up, paint, labour, scaffolding down. Then again at ten years. Then fifteen. Then twenty. That is four repaints, four scaffold hires, and four fortnights of disruption. And in between, the paint is chalking and the north wall is going green.
The silicone render house gets rendered once. Twenty years later, someone gives it a wash down with a low-pressure hose.
That is the entire case for silicone in one paragraph. It is not that it is cheap. It is that it is finished.
Most of what you will read about silicone render is written for the whole country. Devon is not the whole country.
We get mild, wet winters and a lot of driving rain coming in off the Atlantic. That is close to perfect conditions for algae, moss and green staining on any exterior wall that stays damp, which is why so many north-facing and shaded elevations round here go green within a few years of being painted.
Silicone render's water repellency is a genuinely bigger advantage in this county than it would be in a dry inland one. The rain hits it and leaves. There is nothing for the green to get a foothold in.
It is also why we would steer most Devon homeowners away from painted cement render on an exposed elevation. You are signing up to repaint a wall that is going to be wet for four months a year.
Modern cavity-walled house, block or brick? Yes. New build, extension, 1930s semi, 1970s detached, silicone render is exactly what these walls are suited to, and it is what we would recommend without hesitation.
Old cob, stone or solid brick? Different answer. Those walls need to breathe far more freely than any modern render allows, and they want lime render instead, which we also do, and which is genuinely lovely work on a Devon property. If you are not sure which you have got, this page tells you how to check in about a minute, or just send us a photo.
Getting this right matters. Send us a picture of the house and we will tell you straight away which camp you are in.
Silicone render is the dearest of the common systems. It is also the only one where you pay once and then genuinely stop paying.
If you are staying in the house, or you want it to look right for the next twenty years without climbing a ladder, it is worth it. If you are selling next spring and you just want the front to look tidy, it probably is not, and we would rather tell you that.
Have a look at how the different systems compare side by side, or see our K-Rend work across Exeter and Devon.
The ones we get asked most.
Effectively yes. Silicone render is the material; K-Rend is a brand of silicone render, the biggest in the UK and Ireland. Other manufacturers such as Parex, Weber and EWI Pro make silicone systems that work on the same principle. You are not choosing between K-Rend and silicone render; you are choosing silicone render and then choosing the manufacturer.
For a modern cavity-walled house, generally yes. It costs more up front than painted cement render, but it is through-coloured so it never needs repainting. Painted render needs redoing roughly every five years, and each repaint means hiring scaffolding again. Over a twenty-year period the silicone system typically works out cheaper, and it stays looking right in between.
A properly applied silicone render on a well-prepared wall should last 25 to 30 years before it needs any recoating. Lifespan depends on the quality of the application, the condition of the substrate underneath, and the exposure of the property.
No. Silicone render is through-coloured, meaning the colour runs all the way through the material rather than sitting on the surface as a layer of paint. There is nothing to peel or fade patchily, and no repainting cycle.
It suits Devon particularly well. Silicone render is water-repellent, so driving rain beads off the surface rather than soaking in, while the render still breathes and lets moisture in the wall evaporate out. Because the surface does not stay wet, algae and green staining struggle to take hold, a common problem on shaded and north-facing walls in a mild, wet county.
Both are through-coloured thin-coat systems, but silicone is significantly more breathable than acrylic and more water-repellent. Acrylic holds colour very well and is often chosen for appearance, but silicone generally performs better in an exposed, wet climate.
No. Solid cob, stone and old brick walls need to breathe far more freely than any modern render allows. Sealing them with silicone or cement render traps moisture inside the wall, which causes damp inside and can rot timbers. These properties need breathable lime render instead.
Silicone isn't your answer, but cork render might be. It's breathable enough for solid walls, it insulates, and it sprays straight over pebbledash without the cost of hacking it off.
Send a photo on WhatsApp. We'll tell you straight, even if the answer is that there's nothing wrong.