Survey results - render needs replacing

FreeBear

housebuyer7 said:

Thanks FreeBear!! In my position would you renegotiate on the price? Our other issue is that the roof was replaced in the 80s and we need to find out if the tiles contain asbestos. The surveyor thought it was unlikely but we need to check. Could mean replacing the whole roof if so but hopefully not!

Asbestos is not a huge threat to health unless disturbed. Even if the roof tiles did contain asbestos, as long as they are not falling to bits, there is no rush to have them replaced. Others may disagree with that view though...

As for negotiating on the price - What did the surveyor value the property at ?

If it is in line with your offer, then you may well have limited leverage in reducing the price. Doesn't hurt to ask though.

stuart45

housebuyer7 said:

Also as this is at the back of the house, i think we can live with ugly brick haha, unless you think it's out of the question if the bricks are heavily spalled.

You might be lucky, but in general there is a fair bit of damage to the brickwork underneath. It does depend on the type of brick used and how strong the render was. The backs of the houses back then often had a lower quality brick. They were often rendered in later years if the bricks were spalling or there were damp problems.
I have repaired a few walls when the render was hacked off, and they didn't look too bad for the back of house, but you will have to access it once the render is off. 

housebuyer7

Thank you! It would be ideal if we could remove the render using a specialist company to try and minimise the damage as much as possible and then replace the worst of the bricks and try and restore the rest. Sounds like it could be very expensive to re-render and as it’s a terraced house the back of the house I guess would class as 50% of the property as we don’t have sides to the house. 

The surveyor I used does not provide valuations.

Martisha

housebuyer7 said:

Thank you! It would be ideal if we could remove the render using a specialist company to try and minimise the damage as much as possible and then replace the worst of the bricks and try and restore the rest. Sounds like it could be very expensive to re-render and as it’s a terraced house the back of the house I guess would class as 50% of the property as we don’t have sides to the house. 

The surveyor I used does not provide valuations.

Would you not want to insulate the house first? 

housebuyer7

@Martisha do you know what that would involve/cost? Major works? I’ve never had to do this before so not familiar with requirements!

housebuyer7

@FreeBear please can you advise whether I would need to insulate the external wall if able to remove the render and only repoint using lime mortar retaining the bricks (not re-rendering)?

macman

Is it a cavity wall?
The 'de-render' operations I've seen done locally look uniformly dreadful. The brickwork is usually heavily damaged in the removal process and then has to be cut back and repointed. The 'restored' brickwork then stands out like a new-build and will take years to weather in. and the pointing is often done flush, which is entirely wrong on an old house.
Just re-render and paint it in a more fitting colour.

stuart45

If the brickwork is repointed in lime, a flush joint finished with the churn brush is standard. Even with cement mortar using a bucket handle finish on old brickwork can produce a poor result. Weather struck and cut can look OK if done properly. Tuck pointing is normally too expensive.

FreeBear

housebuyer7 said: @FreeBear please can you advise whether I would need to insulate the external wall if able to remove the render and only repoint using lime mortar retaining the bricks (not re-rendering)?

The regulations only state the requirement if rendering or cladding a wall. They say nothing about removing and leaving bare brick. On that basis, I would say you'd be OK to hack off the render and repoint - You will probably find the bricks suffer considerable damage and the job won't look pretty.

RAS

I'll give you a local example. One house on the terrace was rendered at the front over 30 years ago. The then occupier decided to play about with the window openings at the back and then rendered the rear, not particularly well.

This spring the new occupier had the render removed front and back. The front actually came off really well and needed a little work plus repointing. The bricks at the back are poorer quality and with the mishmash of current and old openings that was re-rendered after making the underlying surface flat. You really wouldn't know that the front had anything but repointing done now.