Damp patches on inside of gable (?) wall

FreeBear

Ben1989 said: When we get rendering done the internal plaster will remain on the wall. Can it dry that way?

Yes, as long as you haven't had any damp "treatments" applied internally..

Ben1989

No just regular plaster and a skim.

Maybe run a de-humidifier over a 8 weeks before maybe sanding and filling mould areas(?)

Alnat1

It will dry out a lot faster over summer than it would in winter so don't spend too long thinking about it.

Ben1989

Availability currently is a few months so will inevitably be in autumn/winter

Alnat1

Get the render knocked off now so the outside wall can dry out over summer. At the moment the painted-over render is holding in the damp and it's only escape is through the inside walls.

Ben1989

How do I go about removing the render? Wouldn’t that make it worse? Also, any DIY way of getting the really high areas?

Had a couple of people around this morning and they both quoted £6,500 for the gable wall all in. That’s pricier than I expected. I was going to ask for the whole house to match but with that quote we can only do one wall. I have no idea how you get it to match with old pebble dash though

shiraz99

Ben1989 said:

How do I go about removing the render? Wouldn’t that make it worse? Also, any DIY way of getting the really high areas?

Had a couple of people around this morning and they both quoted £6,500 for the gable wall all in. That’s pricier than I expected. I was going to ask for the whole house to match but with that quote we can only do one wall. I have no idea how you get it to match with old pebble dash though

Removing the render wont make it worse, in fact it allow the wall to dry out better as well as you'll finally be able to see exactly where the ingress is coming from. To DIY it you'd probably have to hire a tower scaffold, but only do so if you're comfortable at working at heights.

I wouldn't worry about whether you can get the new render to match, that's for the people you hire to sort out, as long as you make sure they agree that this is the priority.

FreeBear

Ben1989 said: How do I go about removing the render? Wouldn’t that make it worse? Also, any DIY way of getting the really high areas?

Removing the old render back to bare brick - Hammer & chisel. Slow and hard work. SDS with a chisel. Tiring on the arms, and noisy, but fairly quick. Air hammer & chisel. A bit easier on the arms, still noisy, but again, fairly quick.

The only safe way to do the upper area is to use scaffolding (either a tower, or full kit). Do not do this type of work off a ladder. When you fall, you will suffer serious injury or even death.

An alternative to going back to brick is to just remove the top pebbledash layer. If you are lucky, it will be fairly soft, and might come off with just a scraper. Then you can take the remains off with an angle grinder & diamond cup wheel - But please, wear full PPE (goggles, dust mask, etc). Very, very messy..

Ben1989

It’s also just having the time haha. Where can you get scaffolding towers from?

Also, what different types of render are there? Both quotes are for k-rend which also negates the need to paint 

shiraz99

Ben1989 said:

It’s also just having the time haha. Where can you get scaffolding towers from?

Also, what different types of render are there? Both quotes are for k-rend which also negates the need to paint 

Your local toolhire companies will usually supply them.

If you've been quoted for a K-rend product or similar then clearly it's not going to match the existing pebble dash render on the rest of the house, you'd need someone who will to do a normal sand/cement pebble dashed render, which should actually be cheaper, but as you mention the downside is it will require painting.