Microcement exteriors

Terraces, courtyards and external walls - specified for ultraviolet exposure, thermal movement and the Gulf summer rather than assumed to survive them.

Outside, the material has to deal with things an interior never asks of it. Surface temperatures swing hard between day and night, ultraviolet light works on the sealer continuously, and thermal movement in the substrate is larger and faster than it is indoors.

None of that rules microcement out - it is delivered on terraces and courtyards across the Gulf - but it does change the specification. Movement joints have to be genuinely resolved and carried through, the sealer has to be ultraviolet-stable, and colour choice has a real thermal consequence on a barefoot terrace.

We would rather have the argument about joint layout at design stage than explain a crack afterwards. Where a substrate cannot be made stable enough, we will say that microcement is the wrong choice there.

In practice

Specify it

Microcement is a durable, low-VOC cement-based finish. It is not a natural or vapour-open material — for that, see clay plaster or lime plaster. Emission and content testing is published by the manufacturer.

We supply the material and we apply it, so the specification and the workmanship sit with one party. Send a finishes schedule, an elevation or a mood board and we will come back with the system, the build-up, the sample programme and a completed clause.