It's an old extension - older than the re-built (1915) house. There are just two walls involved, for there's another extension. The plastic windows are to be replaced shortly with wooden ones, so we need to complete the work on the walls before the windows arrive.
The right hand section, over the conservatory, was hacked and painted with bitumen, but painted, not rendered.
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The rest of the walls were covered in cracked render, so we have stripped off much of the render - the soft stuff that came off easily
This was covering the upper floor which was brickwork, which had been hacked to provide a key, and then painted with bitumen. And also on the lower half, where a doorway had been bricked up, probably just before the render was applied, probably in the 1960s. In the middle of this doorway is a bright black patch, were we deduce a patch of render fell away, and the hole was primed with fresh bitumen before being rendered again.
But there are three patches on the ground floor wall which were covered in VERY strong cracked cement render, which, when I attack it with my SDS drill, strips the skin off the old bricks ! And the bricks form quoins, infilled with stonework, the stones are separated by - erm - sand. I guess there might have been lime in there once. The render sticks very well to the stones, and one stone came away with the render.
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The entire wall is sodden, for water has got in through the cracks and then couldn't get out again. When I drilled a hole, the dust came out as mud.
Along one wall, the base of the rendering comprised a layer of render, then roof tiles on edge, then another coat of render, I guess as a dpc. However, the ants and woodlice and worms have crept in underneath, and so there is soil between the render and the stones. That's all gone now.
Along the base of the wall runs a concrete path.
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We would *like* to simply strip off all the render and as much bitumen as possible (to allow the wall to breathe), re-point and paint - but don't want to do more damage to the old bricks. Another option is to clad with shiplap, but we don't think that would look appropriate. Or (least favourite option) we could re-render - but presumably with lime ?
What would you do ? [/img]
The right hand section, over the conservatory, was hacked and painted with bitumen, but painted, not rendered.
The rest of the walls were covered in cracked render, so we have stripped off much of the render - the soft stuff that came off easily
This was covering the upper floor which was brickwork, which had been hacked to provide a key, and then painted with bitumen. And also on the lower half, where a doorway had been bricked up, probably just before the render was applied, probably in the 1960s. In the middle of this doorway is a bright black patch, were we deduce a patch of render fell away, and the hole was primed with fresh bitumen before being rendered again.But there are three patches on the ground floor wall which were covered in VERY strong cracked cement render, which, when I attack it with my SDS drill, strips the skin off the old bricks ! And the bricks form quoins, infilled with stonework, the stones are separated by - erm - sand. I guess there might have been lime in there once. The render sticks very well to the stones, and one stone came away with the render.
The entire wall is sodden, for water has got in through the cracks and then couldn't get out again. When I drilled a hole, the dust came out as mud.
Along one wall, the base of the rendering comprised a layer of render, then roof tiles on edge, then another coat of render, I guess as a dpc. However, the ants and woodlice and worms have crept in underneath, and so there is soil between the render and the stones. That's all gone now.
Along the base of the wall runs a concrete path.
____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
We would *like* to simply strip off all the render and as much bitumen as possible (to allow the wall to breathe), re-point and paint - but don't want to do more damage to the old bricks. Another option is to clad with shiplap, but we don't think that would look appropriate. Or (least favourite option) we could re-render - but presumably with lime ?
What would you do ? [/img]
