Help! What is the best option? Render - to remove or not?

[Fla]

Hi, I am new to these forums as a poster but have been using them for a long time now as the brilliant resource it is.

My setup. I purchases a GII listed house over a year ago. I am slowly trying to sort out the issues with the house one by one. It is a 16th Century open hall stone building which was converted to two cottages and it had a victorian 2 up 2 down single skin 9" brick cottage added on some 150 years ago with no dpc. This part of the building has shallow stone footings.

The exterior of the house has been rendered in the last 80 years - this render has blown in a lot of spaces and there are cracks thoughout. The render was literally taken to the floor and huge lumps are at the base sitting in the dirt. I have taken away all the soil form around the house and dug in french drains to attempt to kep water away from the walls.

I exposed the bottom four courses of brick work along the front gable. In doing so I have discovered that there has been a chemical damp proofing attempt made. What i realy want to know is what are the drawbacks from me completely removing the render as the stone and brick work more in keeping. So far i have found a couple of shalled bricks. Originally i though the render was cement based but I gather this render is mainly lime as it fizzes when dunked in distilled malt vinegar. However I am pretty sure the paint is not breathable.

Please help me with your suggestions. I have included a few pics so you can visulaise what I am talking about.

The front gable

The exposed brick work

The exposed stone work

 

[Gervase]

You'll need to talk to your local conservation officer before you make a decision, as you'll probably need listed building consent if you want to remove the render.
Generally render was put on for a reason - sometimes aesthetic to cover poor-qualilty brickwork, but also to prevent penetrating damp on the windward sides of a building. What's the prevailing wind in your area, and does the rendered wall face it?
If you do get consent to remove it, you may find you want it back in a couple of years! If the CO says no to removal, you should at least get the OK to remove the paint and reopair the cracked and blown portions, and if that's a no-go then you could strip lot and replace with new lime render, which at least would give you a chance to see the quality of the brickwork underneath.

 

[Fla]

This gable is sheltered from the prevailing wind and I have a photgraph of the building before render.

 

[Fla]

If i rake out the cracks and replace the blown plaster and put a bell casting on 2/3 courses up and plaster down to this will it help the wall at all ?

 

[Gervase]

Provided you don't use a cement-based plaster I can't see it doing any harm. If you'd got a french ditch along the base, there's no reason why you shouldn't render down to the level of the gravel for a neater finish - the bell strips always look a bit modern to my eyes.
What's the paint like - does it show any signs of being able to be peeled off in strips or is it stuck fast?

 

[Fla]

stuck fast