touch up roughcast

[sandman112]

im needing to repair some roughcast that has fallen off the side of the house, its only about maybe 1m squared area and its on a bottom corner, doesnt sound like it should be to hard so i fancy giving it a go myself, anyone got any pointers on how to go about it, also how to get the colour match is there anything perticuler i should be doing

cheers

[Andy]

"sandman112" wrote in message news:0Frwg.105652$ [e-mail]...

Don't know how easy it is to touch up a small area of roughcast and blend it in. I did a wall with roughcast made up something like 1:1:6 lime:cement:aggregate ( sand to 3/8", I sieved larger stuff to get that size ). Make up a fairly runny mix, a fair bit runnier than would be any good for bricklaying ( it should slump level ) then throw at the wall with a fireshovel or somesuch.

Continue to splat it on until it is fairly even in texture. You will have trouble blending it in with what you've already got. If your roughcast is fairly fine in texture use a gritty sharp sand instead of aggregate, or a Tyrolean machine applicator.

I found it sticks no problem, but remember to put down a sheet to catch what falls off. You will need to experiment to get the texture right - try on a sheet of plasterboard first. Getting a consistent texture is difficult too, try and fling the roughcast on fairly square and experiment with amounts on your shovel - small amounts probably build up a more consistent pattern but take longr. Vary the direction you fling the roughcast, i.e. up-down, left-right, diagonal x 2 etc.

My result in the end was good but really quite rough and textured, and a few spots needed well aimed splats added to build them up, and a few places needed pinnacles knocked off. To finish, I painted on a thick limewash which smoothed out some of the finer rough texture. As for colour, add cement colourant or brickdust etc to match colour. Remember it'll dry lighter.

Andy