outside wall

[MetManMark]

All
Please see a couple of photos of the gable end of our new house. Unfortunately the gable end has been rendered with cement rather than lime. I don't know what type of paint has been used either.. Any ideas as to what has caused the blistering of the paint? There are also damp problems inside the house that corresponds to around the place that the cement fillet thing ends and where the bear gravel starts.
I'll post in more detail in a minute about this once I have got the hang of uploading photos (once they have been reduced in size from 5Mb to almost nothing...)
Thoughts include installing a french drain and replacing the render with lime up to about 6 feet and adding bell cast.
Cheers
Mark

 

[Feltwell]

If the surface of the render was powdery or chalky then modern masonry paint (which it probably is) will in time flake off like that. I've had that happen in a previous, modern (ish!) cavity walled rendered house.

I scraped the bad sections back, painted with stabilising solution before repainting with masonry paint. That did the trick.

http://www.rawlinspaints.com/Walls-...de-Stabilising-Solution-S/B/product_info.html

But -that was on a house that did not need to be breathable. If you've damp problems then what I've said above is not a good idea. I can't really tell much from those pictures, but the usual damp advice applies:-

Are external ground levels below internal floor levels and at least 6" below the DPC? (assuming the house has one - did you say previously it was Edwardian? If so it almost certainly will)

Is the render cracked anywhere?

If water runs down the render does it then travel back under the lip at the bottom soaking into the wall, or drip clear of the wall?

Is any guttering above doing it's job properly?

Has the DPC been breached?

I'd look at all those before considering hacking render off to re-render in lime. Whilst undoubtedly a good thing to do, I'd eliminate the other possible causes first.

 

[MetManMark]

Thanks for the tips. Please see photos attached that show the front of the house (it has 17 & 77 written on the 2 black square things but the listing says mid 19th C). The other photo show the mess to the side of the property (overgrown etc) that I have now cleared away. The side is about 2 or 3 feet above the internal floor height. I'll post photos of the inside via a separate post. You will note that a chimney has been taken down on the left hand side of the building.
Comments v much appreciated on both what to do inside & outside.
Mark

 

[MetManMark]

Sorry Feltway - thanks for the advice - all sensible stuff. So given that I should be using the product you pointed me to, what paint should I be using once the underlying problems have been rectified?
Cheers
Mark

 

[Feltwell]

If you're not going to re-render in lime, then use stabilising solution and then paint with modern masonry paint - if the render is cement based then it won't make any difference that it isn't breathable, it looks like the whole place has painted with it already anyway.

If you are going to re-render in lime then limewash is the way to go, or if you don't fancy that there are masonry paints that claim to be breathable - others on here know more about this than I do.

But don't rush into things - if you've only just bought the place then I'd strongly advise taking your time and eliminating all other possible causes before you start wielding a lump hammer and cold chisel on that render.

Non-breathable finishes *can* cause problems with damp - not *will* cause problems with damp.