Bitumen covered wall

[margatedan]

The flank of our 1860 house has been coated many moons ago with bitumen. It's caused a number of blown bricks and the interior on the other side of the wall is damp. Possibly because of the bitumen or for other reasons for which the bitumen was intended to solve I've been recommended to remove the bitumen and lime plaster. It's a large expanse (7m by between 1.5 and 2.5) and the alley way is public so I don't want to spend days there with paraffin and other nasty things.

Any recommendations on how to proceed? Would it be enough to just knock out the bitumen covered pointing and then plaster? Would it stick to the bitumen covered bricks?

Many thanks.

 

[Roger H]

Hi. Is it a covered alley or open to the sky? If covered, how much 'weather' is getting at the wall? Are the ground levals high relative to the internal floor levels?

 

[margatedan]

Thanks Roger.

Is it a covered alley or open to the sky? Covered by 1st floor of property.
If covered, how much 'weather' is getting at the wall? Not that much. It's west facing and runs downhill.
Are the ground levals high relative to the internal floor levels? Yes. Starting at around 5% of internal level up to about 90% at the top end.