Outside cottage rendering?

[BARCUD]

Hi, I have some experience renovating inside a house but outside is new to me.

I have been looking at a stone cottage that has spent most of it's life since being built around 1890 with just a white wash. But some time in the past it has been rendered. Since the cottage is run down a bit the elements have had a bash at the render which obviously needs replacing.

Q1. exactly what mix is used for outside rendering on stone built walls?

Q2. my next question regards the area where the render actually meets the bottom of the cottage wall.

The first pic shows the rendering at the front of the cottage. The second shows the render at the back of the cottage reaches below ground in a small trench. Are these methods correct?

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[dann09]

The render at the front appears to have been an amateur application.
Its failing where discolouration and cracks show eg. at the corner in pic 1.
Does it bulge anywhere?

The masonry plinth at ground level is doing nothing but trapping water.

Where are your floors in relation to the external ground levels?

Typically, render should finish at a bell cast bead 150mm above ground level, and/or above the DPC.

You should look for a DPC, internal or external, (perhaps there is no DPC).

The "small trench" in pic 2. is meant as a kind of French drain, only the designer forgot to add the gravel.

Perhaps, cut the render back to at min 150mm above the ground level, and maybe dig, and gravel fill, a French drain around the cottage.
Attempt to have the drain run off to discharge somewhere safe.

Its possible that all the rendering should come off and be replaced with whatever mix has worked for your neighbours.

 

[BARCUD]

Hi and thanks for the reply.
The render bulges where it is falling away from the walls. And there are natural bulges following the shape of the stone work.

The floors are higher than the outside ground levels, I think. I would have to check.

A bell cast bead sounds good to me.

As for damp proof course? I doubt it very much. Can a cottage with uneven layers of stone walling be damp proofed in the conventional way?

Funny you should mention gravel, I was thinking that too, and funnily enough (this cottage stands empty) there are bags of round brown gravel in bags at the back of the house! Could these be for the trench? I'm not sure how a trench works! Wouldn't it just hold water against the wall?

2 more examples from around the cottage.

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[dann09]

Its imposible to conventionally inject a chemical DPC (FWIW), and intensive labour to install a mechanical DPC eg. a lead sheet barrier, in a random stone or random rubble wall.

Your walls seem to have had three or four different render applications, at various times.
Perhaps, on some surfaces, thats a Tyrolean application beneath the (wrong kind of) paint.

Pic 3. wall seems in reasonable condition.

The other question answers are in my first post.

google for definitions, and research the subject on here. skimmers and roy c. are expert renderers.

 

[BARCUD]

Cheers. I've been googling a lot of the terms and I've come across quite a lot of good info.
I've also been searching through this forum and found some useful info.
I'm seriously considering buying this cottage so I need to do my homework. Getting a good builder to look it over will be a good idea.

thanks again.

 

[BARCUD]

Hi, I've edited this post because I've just discovered how much lime render would cost per square meter!
Cheers.

 

[BARCUD]

Hi, I thought I had posted another post but it seems it hasn't appeared so I must have pressed the wrong button!

I had decided that lime rendering the cottage would be too costly. And looking around the village and surrounding cottages it looks as if almost all are just white washed rubble stone.

I thought I could strip the render from the walls, blast the stone which was originally white washed, dig out and re point the stone work, and finally just white wash. I will dig a french drain around the walls to direct any water away and hopefully keep the walls damp free.

Are there any problems I could face when doing the above? I don't know the state of the stone work under the render so that could hold some surprises?

many thanks.