Corroding cement around windows outside

[skuba]

The lower half of our house is standard brick, and the upper half has rendering which is painted white. Around our windows some of the paint has flaked off and it looks a mess as you can see the cement. If you touch the cement it just crumbles away like sand! I'm a bit worried about what we need to do to get it sorted

Can anyone offer any advice?

Thanks

 

[jeds]

What sort of house is it? Can you post a pic.

 

[skuba]

Hi John

It's a 2 bed semi. I'm at work at the moment but as soon as I go home I'll take a picture and upload it

The problem I have is that I want to put the house on the market ASAP, and there's no way I could paint the rendering that's crumbling away so I'm in a bit of a pickle

Thanks

 

[jeds]

What I am trying to establish really is if we are talking about a concrete or a traditional built house. I suspect it's traditional and the problem is with a poor render coat that could easily be repaired. But there's an outside chance it may be a concrete structure which might mean the problem is more difficult to deal with. When was it built - that would help.

 

[skuba]

hi john

here are 4 pictures showing the problem at the front and back of the house. i think it was built sometime around WW2...

 

[stuart45]

It looks like the defective render was replaced by the window fitters when they put in the new windows. They probably used a weak mix with building sand and did it in one coat. This used to be quite a common problem when new windows were fitted. The bit around the windows needs hacking off and rendering by a plasterer.

 

[skuba]

thanks for the info stuart

do you have any idea roughly how much time it would take a decent plasterer to do the job? and approximately how much it would cost? also, would a regular internal plasterer be able to do the job? or do you need a special external plasterer/builder?

thanks again

 

[stuart45]

Any time served plasterer would be able to do that job. Although not a big job he would have to come back to put the second coat on, so a couple of short days.