Rendering Existing Brickwork

Dan-Dan

dominoman wrote: »

Dan-Dan. Why?

Blown faces , get dirty easily, so need to wash them fairly carefully with the power washer etc

Looked nice for the first 6 months , thats about it

Furts

dominoman wrote: »

Furts - Why not render a garden wall? I am asking as am about to redo a raised patio and one builder suggested rendering the front (it's around 18" high going down to the grass). I had originally asked for a brick front.

Choose, ideally, frost resistant and low salt content bricks.

Render will blow when the wet gets behind it, and it freezes. But the render will deteriorate even if you are in frost free area because of driving rain, and in particular on garden walls, movement.

I suggest you do not use the builder who suggested render. The expression "cowboy" comes to my mind!

Furts

Dan-Dan wrote: »

I am interested in this subject

We are buying a standard home in south west wales and every single house in a small estate of about 40 homes is rendered

Do people render due to being in a fairly exposed area so brickwork would deteriorate/look bad fairly quickly ?

The render is likely to be on blocks made of who knows what. It might be slag, it could be silicate bricks.... it will be a cheap build. However with very wet areas of the country the render seals the walls against moisture ingress. Fine if you maintain it, and it does not get cracks in it!

Putting matters another way countless bricks are porous but to varying extents. The render gets over this porosity issue.

Furts

Dan-Dan wrote: »

Blown faces , get dirty easily, so need to wash them fairly carefully with the power washer etc

Looked nice for the first 6 months , thats about it

You have learnt the hard way. Even London Brick advise against using their bricks on garden walls. Which gives the consumer an idea of how poor their quality is!

TheCyclingProgrammer

Furts wrote: »

You have learnt the hard way. Even London Brick advise against using their bricks on garden walls. Which gives the consumer an idea of how poor their quality is!

You only have to look at the state of the old wall at the front of my house to see the state they can end up (identified as London bricks by several builders) - glad we're about to have it re-built!

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5453536

DRP

I would never render nor paint a garden wall (or veen a house if avoidable). It just means constant maintenance.

Our old house was c1886 with then nightmare combination of render plus wooden lintels over the windows .... every house in the street had cracked render in the problem areas. Newly rendered houses tended to last a winter or two.

Current house is stone and it is very 'rustic' (needs a bit of pointing, some old ivy scars etc), but still looks a million times better than my old place and will never need repainting

Kiran

Furts wrote: »

The render is likely to be on blocks made of who knows what. It might be slag, it could be silicate bricks.... it will be a cheap build. However with very wet areas of the country the render seals the walls against moisture ingress. Fine if you maintain it, and it does not get cracks in it!

Putting matters another way countless bricks are porous but to varying extents. The render gets over this porosity issue.

Spot on, built in Wales in the 70's it will almost certainly be Port Talbot slag blocks. Horrible black dust when you drill them

Dan-Dan

The blocks that make up the external wall that leads into the attached garage (i.e the only non rendered section) look the same as standard breeze blocks that i have used here in the home counties

Dan-Dan

Furts wrote: »

You have learnt the hard way. Even London Brick advise against using their bricks on garden walls. Which gives the consumer an idea of how poor their quality is!

Indeed, we live and learn

Furts

Dan-Dan wrote: »

The blocks that make up the external wall that leads into the attached garage (i.e the only non rendered section) look the same as standard breeze blocks that i have used here in the home counties

An ideal scenario would be a dense concrete block, even better if fair face. But the size of all of them is standard everywhere throughout the country at 440mm by 215mm high, so size and superficial appearance will not tell you much.