Need advice on this wall please

[M H]

Hi there,

We're planning to get our dining room area re-skimmed soon, had some quotes for ceiling board, boarding fireplace and skim etc but we have 1 major problem area that we have no idea what to do with.

This wall is under the stairs, an internal wall, there's no sources of water close to here, the house is mid-terraced and it our neighbour's stair case behind this wall. At some point someone has tanked the wall up to a certain height and this is what the wall looks like above, after this pic was taken a lot of this plaster came off very easily. The wall feels dry to the touch... I asked one of the plasterers what he could do with the wall and he said he could PVA and skim it but there's no guarantee it won't come back. Doesn't sound like a road I want to go down. Behind this plaster there's original Lime based Black Mortar.

This sort of salty line runs through to the adjacent wall in the kitchen where there's a disused chimney, across from this wall in the dining room there's another disused chimney, the chimney in the kitchen has been capped under roof line, the one in the dining room is outside and vented.

I've had a look at 3 different options to try and solve this, all which involve hacking back to brick. I was hoping for some advice on which you would think is best:

1. The Dryzone Renovation plastering system: https://www.safeguardeurope.com/products/dryzone-system/dryzone-renovation-plasters

2. Dryzone express replastering system: https://www.safeguardeurope.com/products/dryzone-system/dryzone-express-replastering

3. 2 or 3 coat lime plaster, NHL I guess?

I'm not sold on option 2 at all, just feels like covering it up. Option 3 seems to be for a lime specialist and there ain't much of those around. I'm leaning towards option 1.

Has anyone else used this system? Anyone got experience of these products? Anything else I haven't mentioned which is important?

Cheers

 

[Notch7]

I know surveyors recommend safeguard Europe products, they are the real deal, so I would recommend option 1 or 2

Give them a call.

 

[dontbelieveawordofit]

pva and skim no.
option 2 no. that’s just what a clever plasterer would do with waterproof adhesive.
option 1 is just what any competent builder would do.... in a pretty bag with cool graphics.
lime doesn’t cure dampness btw , it just lets it pass through.

 

[ted456]

MH,
Chimney breast flues present or past are a source of salt contamination - the salts attract moisture to the finished surface of the wall.
When c/b's are removed then the backwall bare brickwork has to be dry scrubbed with a wire brush to remove all soot contamination.
Existing c/b's need sweeping and wire brushing in the fireplace opening & wherever soot/contamination is seen.
In both cases any previous plaster or render has to be removed from the wall surfaces and replaced with lime render - ie a 3:1 or 4:1 sand & lime mix.
Lime render is as simple and easy as any other solid plaster or render to spread on.