Pebbledash Render Over DPC Question

[Nate33]

Hi, this is my first post, I am a complete amateur with no DIY experience, but as I have just purchased my first property I guess I need to start learning whats what and what to do!

The survey on my property was pretty good, picking up only two points that need immediate attention. I will only detail one of these here as I have questions about it.

The house is a 1930's semi with an odd DPC/render setup. The front of the property is rendered to about 1 1/2 foot from ground level with a bell finish. The side and back are rendered to the floor, this was picked up in the survey as it needs to be removed to above the DPC. I have read up a bit about this but cannot understand why this was not done at the time the DPC was applied, about 15 years ago. The DPC injection holes are visible through the render itself, so the DPC company must have just applied the DPC through the render. Is this normal?

Anyway, is sorting this out a job I can do myself? I can afford to get it done by a professional in a few months, but would quite like to have a crack at it myself. Am I right in thinking that I remove the render to somewhere above the DPC, and then tidy up the render by putting new render on down to a Bell Cast Bead? I have read various posts here that detail the mix to use and the stages to take, but if anyone can give me any info to help me avoid pitfalls (even if you just suggest getting it done professionally) that would be great.

 

[trowelmonkey1]

well i'm not a render expert but i can tell you you are ABSOLUTELY right in your plan, take off render to above the damp proof and fit a bellcast bead and fix the render.

mixes are 3or4:1:1, sand:cement:lime for the first coat and 5or 6:1:1 for top coat, though depending on thickness and size of area to repair you may well be able to do it in 1 coat, wait for a pro on that one though.

as far as the damp proofing that was put in, i was of the belief that it was injected through the mortar joints in the brickwork (someone correct me if i'm wrong) so there's no way the guys who did it could find that accurately going through render as they did, they should have mentioned the render issue though to the owner at the time the render is bridging the DPC now so rendering pretty much ineffective! any signs of damp inside?

 

[spongey]

if there are no signs of damp on the inside i would would remove the render to above the dpc level then redo the render using bellcast beads.