Best way to remove internal concrete render: wife vs husband

[fullern]

Ok well as the title suggests we want to remove the internal concrete render that has been put on all of the internal walls of our 1860s Cornish cottage.


The wall itself comprises of a layer of plaster, then about an inch thick layer of cement render, under which is a rubble wall with earth between the stones in lieu of mortar.

We are going to remove the plaster (the majority of which is blown) and the cement, point the wall with lime mortar then insulate using some form of breathable insulation such as cork, before plastering over with a breathable mix.

I think the best way to remove the render is using my SDS drill with chisel attachment with a relatively high angle of incidence so that I chisel down, not in, to the render - thus hoping to remove it relatively quickly and not disturb or damage the stones underneath too much.

My wife, however thinks this will damage the structure of the wall, and instead has been using a hammer to weaken and break the concrete and plaster, before using a chisel to prise it off. The photos show the results which took approximately 3 hours.

Who is right and what is the general consensus? I am happy for there to be minor damage to the stone underneath as we are going to cover it, but obviously do not want to disrupt the integrity of the wall.

Any help much appreciated!

Thanks

N.

Untitled

• fullern
• 13 Sep 2014
• 1

Untitled

• fullern
• 13 Sep 2014
• 1

 

[ree]

Sand and cement render can sometimes be hell to remove - as the render comes off so sometimes does the backing masonry. But you wont damage the integrity of the wall.

Your tool doesn't seem powerful enough. Maybe go hire a Milwaukee Kango Breaker or similar.

Insulating with cork is new to me, quite how do you propose to do it? I'd suggest that you research the subject on here and in the Building forum.

 

[fullern]

You may well be right that my SDS drill will not be powerful enough, haven't tried it yet so shall just have to wait and see.

I had thought about using a Kango however as they are very expensive had pretty much discounted it.

As to your question about the cork insulation, there are details on this website;

http://www.mikewye.co.uk/naturalproducts.htm

the brand name is SecilVit CORK insulation board system. Not entirely sold on it, but something similar is what I am after. The reason being that I don't want to lose too much room space by builiding a more traditional stud framework with insulation and then plasterboard on top.

By using the above system I will maintain the breathability of the property whilst hopefully not losing so much room space, and also as it is plastered at the end it will be more in keeping with the age of the house. We are also considering wood fibre boards, but to be honest this is all for next year as we have a long list of jobs on the go at the moment (Just about finished lime rendering the gable end wall which was a very steep learning curve as it is!).

Thanks for the advice though, always good to know what others think.

N.

 

[StephenStephen]

Hi, I hope it's going well for you - did you go for cork from Mike Wye in the end - I'm currently dithering between that or hemp http://www.lime.org.uk/products/mortars-and-plasters/ty-mawr-lime-hemp-plaster/
...probably not that important a decision to be honest, but interested to hear your views.

btw I don't know if you've been in touch with Mike Wye yet, I expect you have, but if not - just to say I've always found them helpful, friendly and patient.

Cheers
Stephen

 

[fullern]

Hi Stephen,

I haven't started the work yet, the last quarter of the year was taken up with lime rendering the back and gable end of my house (took a while as I had never done it before so there was a bit of a learning curve).

Now I am away with work but have been spending my time planning the internal insulation. I have been in touch with Mike Wye, cheers for the heads up! I think I am going to go with cork insulation, I had seen the but I want the most straight forward method. I think the cork insulation will be the easiest and quickest method (I need to try and get it all complete before being sent away with work again) once the wall has been properly prepared.

My only quandery now is what thickness of insulation to go with, this will probably come down to a toss up between cost/benefit/loss of internal space.

I will let you know how it goes (planning on starting end of march).

Cheers
N

 

[ched999uk]

Just read your thread. I am no plasterer but have found some great advice here.
I am sure you are aware that technically if you are refurbishing the wall it should comply with todays building regs. I believe that you should be aiming to achieve a U value less than 0.3 for the wall.

Only reason I found this out was I was debating repairing blown plaster on a wall or getting the whole wall taken back to brick and re plastered.
I decided to repair this year and save up and refurbish the whole wall next year.

Sounds like you have a great project on, good luck with it all.