Repair to cladding and window surround

[rowleyburkin]

Grateful for any opinions...

Photo shows side of an 1879 house where the cladding is rotting in places. My idea for this particular section was to make good the brickwork with lime mortar then replace the cladding timber using red grandis or similar.
Sealing around the edges to make it weather-tight is the bit I'm not sure about. Would prefer to use traditional materials (e.g. lime, oakum, linseed putty & paint etc). A previous repairer has used
expanding foam which has crumbled and was a pain to remove. I'm not sure if the render panels are cement or lime - I'm hoping lime given the age of the place but it seems very hard.

Thanks

 

[malcolm]

That looks like a pain. The wood has been painted in waterproof gloss and the infill painted in waterproof exterior paint. Water will get in and will have no chance of getting out again so the wood will rot.

My new facade was from 1920 and had the same, also concrete render infill. I removed all of the modern gloss paint from the woodwork using a heat gun and repainted in linseed paint. I know we'll get a debate about why modern paints are better than linseed because we always do but the oiled wood and breathability were important to me.

If the render is hard it is probably concrete and somebody has been at it. I didn't remove my concrete render. Traditional materials like oakum and lime are good for sealing to render. Linseed putty is good for sealing to stone and filling in cracks and holes in the wood where the water can get in. Expanding foam is waterproof and would trap water against the wood which will make it rot.

 

[88v8]

Mmmm, nice looking house.

That little bit of render we can see looks like concrete.
Put a bit in vinegar, if it fizzes it's lime, if not then bad luck....

Cedar is good for planted half-timbering. I painted ours with Bedec Barn Black, and importantly I painted each piece three coats before affixing it, the edges, the end grain, and then after fixing I painted the front with three coats.
Cedar = £££ but it will last.

It's important to weather the top face of planted half-timber so any water that gets in the gaps twixt wood and render will tend to run off.

No debate from me about linseed, it's great in the right weather/temperature and I will be using it elsewhere, but Barn Black is easier to apply and they say it's microporous.