Painting exterior walls, brick and render

The façade is the first thing anyone sees of a house, and its most exposed surface: rain, frost, sun, pollution. Our water-based Masonry Paint (5% sheen) is formulated for render, brick, stone and concrete: it weathers well and holds its colour, even on a south-facing elevation. On powdery masonry, apply our Stabilising Primer first; over lime render, mortar or limewash it is essential, because Masonry Paint is not breathable.

Stones and creams, Alderman, Charterhouse, Cavendish Cream, remain the safe bets for a façade; a warm grey, Archway House or Amber Grey, updates a suburban house, and a powder pink, Pink House Pink or Palmerston Pink, makes a seaside house smile. Choose the colour of the shutters and the door at the same time as the wall: it is the whole that counts. Every colour below is available in Masonry Paint.

Recommended finishes

Masonry

Masonry Paint

Also suitable: Multi-Surface Dead Matt, Multi-Surface Eggshell, Multi-Surface Satin, Multi-Surface Gloss

Primer

Stabilising Primer

On lime render or mortar, Stabilising Primer is essential: Masonry Paint is not breathable.

Our advice

A façade, done well

A sound, dry, stabilised wall, a three-day weather window and two criss-crossed coats: a façade is painted once every ten years.

Clean, fill, stabilise: the wall is ready for its colour.

Prepare

A sound, dry, stabilised wall

Clean the wall with a pressure washer on a moderate setting or a stiff brush, treat moss and algae with a fungicidal wash, and let it dry for at least 48 hours. Scrape off flaking paint, fill cracks with exterior filler, and brush off anything that chalks under your hand.

New render must dry for a month before painting. On a porous, chalky or never-painted surface, apply our Stabilising Primer: it binds the surface and evens out absorption, without which the first coat will sink in patchily. On sound old paint it is not needed.

Alderman on the roller, in the shade, one elevation at a time.

Paint

Three days of fine weather

Wait for a window without rain or frost, between 10 and 25 °C, and follow the shade: never paint a wall in full sun, where the paint dries too fast and flashes. Cut in the corners, window surrounds and the line under the shutters with a wide brush, then roll with a long-pile (18 mm) roller on render, medium pile on brick, one whole elevation at a time, never stopping mid-wall.

Two coats of Masonry Paint, the first thinned by 10% on a very absorbent surface, 4 hours apart; allow roughly 15 m² per litre per coat on smooth render, less on a textured one. Alderman on the wall, Brompton Road on the shutters, Blackout on the gate: the Provençal trio never wears thin.