A
Anonymous
Guest
I have a few problems with the rendering on the side wall of my house, I've read several of the discussions on the subject here, but it's not exactly clear to me….
I have an end terrace house built around 1880. When it was built it was mid terrace, but the house on the end has been knocked down, leaving mine now as the end terrace (this was done about 40 years ago). As such, the front and back of the house have an outer leaf of stone, there is also an inner leaf of brick - the exposed external side wall is just a 9in thick brick wall, which was obviously originally intended to be just an internal wall. The outer stone leaf at the front and back is not knitted into the brick exposed side wall (it is just knitted into the inner brickwork at the front and back) hence a concrete render has been applied to the side wall.
The house is badly damp due to elevated ground levels where the original end terrace used to be. I have now lowered the ground levels to rectify this problem and also removed some of the footings of the knocked down house to properly lower the ground level. This has left me with several problems.
Firstly, the concrete render on the side wall is cracked in places and blown in others, it is also now about two foot of the bottom of the wall as the ground has been lowered. Obviously the render needs to be made good, but I am concerned that the solid concrete render is making the damp worse as it can't breath – what are the appropriate materials/methods for fixing up the render? Would I be better of removing the render from the whole wall and applying a more breathable/lime based render, in keeping with the mortar used on the house in the first place?
Secondly, for the area where the ground has been lowered, I now have exposed brick work that will in due course be covered by the new render. However, first of all I want to knit this wall in with the stone work and re-point it, as the wall was never intended to be external. Should I be using a lime based mortar for this as was originally used on the house, or, given that it is a brick constructed side wall and only stone at the front and back, should I use a cement based mortar? The wall is quite damp already, so I don't want to treat it and lock moisture in.
Any help/thoughts would be greatly appreciated!
I have an end terrace house built around 1880. When it was built it was mid terrace, but the house on the end has been knocked down, leaving mine now as the end terrace (this was done about 40 years ago). As such, the front and back of the house have an outer leaf of stone, there is also an inner leaf of brick - the exposed external side wall is just a 9in thick brick wall, which was obviously originally intended to be just an internal wall. The outer stone leaf at the front and back is not knitted into the brick exposed side wall (it is just knitted into the inner brickwork at the front and back) hence a concrete render has been applied to the side wall.
The house is badly damp due to elevated ground levels where the original end terrace used to be. I have now lowered the ground levels to rectify this problem and also removed some of the footings of the knocked down house to properly lower the ground level. This has left me with several problems.
Firstly, the concrete render on the side wall is cracked in places and blown in others, it is also now about two foot of the bottom of the wall as the ground has been lowered. Obviously the render needs to be made good, but I am concerned that the solid concrete render is making the damp worse as it can't breath – what are the appropriate materials/methods for fixing up the render? Would I be better of removing the render from the whole wall and applying a more breathable/lime based render, in keeping with the mortar used on the house in the first place?
Secondly, for the area where the ground has been lowered, I now have exposed brick work that will in due course be covered by the new render. However, first of all I want to knit this wall in with the stone work and re-point it, as the wall was never intended to be external. Should I be using a lime based mortar for this as was originally used on the house, or, given that it is a brick constructed side wall and only stone at the front and back, should I use a cement based mortar? The wall is quite damp already, so I don't want to treat it and lock moisture in.
Any help/thoughts would be greatly appreciated!