Cement render - can it be taken back to brick?

housebuyer7

Hello, the rear of my Victorian mid terrace house has been rendered at least twice and it’s blown and causing damp issues. 

I would like to have it removed and taken back to brick (and try to restore the brick) and wondering if this is possible. I’m in a conservation area so will need to apply to planning but just wondering how likely they will let me do this given all the other houses on my street are also rendered at the rear. I’ve removed a section of the render and it looks like this underneath - is it salvageable to get it back to brick or will I likely need to render in lime?

@FreeBear

Apodemus

It's going to be a lot of work to get back to brick and the house will no doubt thank you for it, but if there is a hard cement layer attached directly to the bricks then the faces of the bricks might not look as good as you would like once the render has been removed.  You may have to add the cost of re-rendering in lime to your planning. 

It would be wise to talk to the local Conservation Officer for advice, if you can, before you commit to any work.

housebuyer7

Thanks, my quote to remove the render and then re-render in lime was just over £13,000. The issue I have is doing this I believe building control would then make me insulate the walls. A quote for doing this also came out at £14,000 but my budget is closer to £13,000 for everything involved! ☹️

stuart45

You might find that the cost of repairing the brickwork and repointing with lime costs even more. With a solid 9 inch wall it still might allow some moisture through to the inside if the wall gets a lot of heavy, driving rain.
That's the reason why cavity walls became popular.

FaceHead

It was rendered for a reason.

I'd bet that once it's off you'll discover the reason, and you will at last agree with the person who first chose to have it rendered, that it needs to be re-rendered. But it sounds like you'll do it in lime. 

Perhaps the brickwork just looks no good, needs loads of repairs, is not adequately watertight or has other issues we can't even guess at yet.

What are the damp issues? I have lived in several of cement rendered Victorian mid-terraces, and never had a damp issue. I am a bit of a skeptic of how evil people seem to make cement render out to be.   

shiraz99

It'll be really difficult to get back to perfect brickwork once the old render has been hacked off, you can see from the small bit that's been revealed it would take a fair bit of effort to completely get back to clean brick without damage. You're best off re-rendering. Is it the whole of the house you're doing or just the rear, if the latter then I doubt you'll need planning consent but worth checking anyway.

Does it have to be lime, have you had any quotes for Silicone based renders?

FreeBear

housebuyer7 said:

Thanks, my quote to remove the render and then re-render in lime was just over £13,000. The issue I have is doing this I believe building control would then make me insulate the walls. A quote for doing this also came out at £14,000 but my budget is closer to £13,000 for everything involved! ☹️

Stripping the render off is quite likely going to damage the surface of a lot of the bricks. In the process, you may well uncover historical damage... Yes, Building Control will probably want to see the walls insulated along with other thermal improvements. Using cork or wood fibre boards topped with a lime render should help to maintain the breathability of the walls. Isn't going to be cheap, but you could save a good chunk of money if you were prepared & able to do some of the grunt work (chipping off the render ?).

Section62

shiraz99 said:

Is it the whole of the house you're doing or just the rear, if the latter then I doubt you'll need planning consent but worth checking anyway.

As it is in a conservation area it doesn't really matter whether the work is at the front or the back in terms of needing to apply for consent, it may make a difference to whether or not consent is granted (if needed).

housebuyer7

OK thanks, the quote was broken down and it was only about £2000 to remove the render, the large bulk of the cost was re-rendering. The cost was broken down further by day rate which was £200.

ratrace

Horrible stuff cement render, the house cant breath hence the damp issues

Ideally all of it needs removing, then the house needs to dry out (could take months) once its ready cover again a breathable render such as lime,

just taking off all the old render and hoping the bricks will clean up which they wont and will just look unsightly, you my not even be allowed to leave it like that

no doubt this is going to be very expensvie and is part and parcel of living in older houses, they look beautiful but require deep pockets to maintain, my brother lives in one so i have seen first hand the challenges you face.