Within 5m of the dining room window of our listed building, we inherited an ugly 2 feet high breeze-block earth-retaining wall in the sloping garden. I had it faced with lime render last summer and my wife painted it with two coats of Sandtex microseal ultra-smooth masonry paint. Moisture seeping through since has blistered/flaked this inappropriate paint in many places, but Akzo Nobel say that there is no way of removing the Snowcem that will not scrape off, while Farrow & Ball report that limewash cannot be used over existing coatings. Is there a practical means of rectifying this situation?
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Coating a rendered retaining wall
- Thread starter Sandison
- Start date
I'm not certain about this as I don't do much in the way of painting but there are breathable/earth paints I'm told will go over sandtex but I've never tried,however you'll still be left with the problem of the paint underneath continuing to flake which will take any new paint with it.
My suggestion would be if it's not too large for you to fake it with an outer skin of brickwork.
The breeze block retaining wall I'm assuming is cement built so doing it in lime would be defeating the object,you could use hydraulic lime mortar or replicate a lime mortar with cement,white(UGH!)cement if need be,I know,the dreaded word,but I'm trying to think of a simple and practical solution for you.
If you won't be losing too much space you could face it with a random rubble stone wall and personally I'd use hydraulic NHL 5 with well graded coarse sharp sand at 3:1.
You could drill ties into the breeze block to tie the outer skin and seal off the paint behind,but whatever you do make sure you leave weep holes at the bottom,any retaining wall should have weep holes to drain off water,and if they don't already exist drill some through the breeze block.
For ties and weep holes it's easier to drill through the joints.
Sorry,can't think of anything else at the moment.
Andy
My suggestion would be if it's not too large for you to fake it with an outer skin of brickwork.
The breeze block retaining wall I'm assuming is cement built so doing it in lime would be defeating the object,you could use hydraulic lime mortar or replicate a lime mortar with cement,white(UGH!)cement if need be,I know,the dreaded word,but I'm trying to think of a simple and practical solution for you.
If you won't be losing too much space you could face it with a random rubble stone wall and personally I'd use hydraulic NHL 5 with well graded coarse sharp sand at 3:1.
You could drill ties into the breeze block to tie the outer skin and seal off the paint behind,but whatever you do make sure you leave weep holes at the bottom,any retaining wall should have weep holes to drain off water,and if they don't already exist drill some through the breeze block.
For ties and weep holes it's easier to drill through the joints.
Sorry,can't think of anything else at the moment.
Andy
Schoolmarm
Member
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- 1,894
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- edgworth, lancs
Pull it down and get a dry stone waller to replace with an un-mortared retaining wall. Unless stone is completely out of character.
What area are you in?
What area are you in?
Not sure I'd recommend that for a retaining wall but it would depend on the lateral/horizontal thrust and exactly what's behind it/retaining.Schoolmarm said:Pull it down and get a dry stone waller to replace with an un-mortared retaining wall. Unless stone is completely out of character.
What area are you in?
The existing wall is probably there for a reason and if not failing I'd say leave as is and face.
However,if it's not holding much and only 4" block I'd be tempted to rip it out.
If it's only ugly and not broken then save money and face it.
A pic would give everyone more to work on for suggestions.
DaveBrigg
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- 908
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- North Lincs
The brickwork at the back of our house was painted in Snowcem, which I think is like Sandtex. I brushed off as much as I could, and then limewashed over the rest. Not a perfect solution I know, but at least it won't make the problem any worse. The limewash has been there a year now and still looks fresh. I would try limewashing it; if you make your own it will cost less than a tenner, and you have nothing to lose.
I can answer that one I think,both are made by the same company or were,I've used neither for about 30 years,but Sandtex is a plastic paint while Snowcem actually has much more in common with limewash,it used to be cement/lime based and came in powdered form so you mixed it yourself,limewash should stick to it without any problems as it's fairly porous and breathable to an extent.The brickwork at the back of our house was painted in Snowcem, which I think is like Sandtex
Limewash won't stick to Sandtex as it needs suction and there will still be the problem of the flaking paint.