Deeply raked brickwork — brick with pronounced mortar rakes, uneven joints, or a substrate profile that varies significantly across the wall — can’t be rendered the same way as clean, flat brickwork. A single standard coat won’t fill the depth of the joints or correct the unevenness, which leaves a render finish that telegraphs every irregularity in the brick beneath it. Unitex addresses this with a two-product build-up designed specifically to level the substrate before the final render surface goes on.
A Two-Stage Approach to Uneven Brick
The system starts with Unitex HiLite Render as a high-build levelling coat, applied to fill deep rakes and bring the substrate profile back to a workable, consistent surface. Once that coat has cured, Unitex Redi-Render is applied over the top as the base coat proper, giving the wall the same accredited, texture-ready surface as a standard brick render job — but built on a substrate that’s now level enough to support it. This two-product sequence is what separates a genuine deep-rake specification from simply applying more of a standard render and hoping it fills the gaps.
Why This Matters for the Finished Result
Trying to level deep mortar joints with a standard single-coat render product typically means uneven material thickness across the wall — thin over high points, thick in the rakes — which creates inconsistent drying rates, differential shrinkage, and a higher risk of cracking at the transition points. Using a dedicated high-build levelling coat first avoids that problem structurally, rather than trying to compensate for it with additional coats of the finish render.
Common Applications
This build-up is common on renovation projects involving older brick homes, heritage-adjacent facades being brought up to a contemporary finish, and any project where the original brickwork wasn’t laid with a render finish in mind. It’s also relevant where a builder inherits brickwork from an earlier trade and needs a render specification that accounts for substrate condition rather than assuming a flat starting point.
Full Technical Specifications
Complete application detail for both products in the build-up — coverage rates, coating thickness, and drying times for the HiLite levelling coat and the Redi-Render base coat — is available on the Hi-Lite Render System Specifications page.
Confirm Your Substrate Before Specifying
Because the right approach depends on how uneven the existing brickwork actually is, builders and renderers working on a deeply raked or irregular substrate should confirm the assessment with the Unitex technical sales team before ordering — a wall that’s borderline between “clean” and “deeply raked” may only need one product, not both. Call 1800 RENDER, request a quote online, or view the full Base Coat Renders range to compare against other substrate systems.
