REMOVING CEMENT RENDER
Victorian property
Completed in 7 weeks.
OBJECTIVES:
The house had been re-pointed in cement at some point, then rendered with cement, and sub-sequently re-rendered, again with cement, when the first render failed. The solid brick walls were damp on the inside. The client wished to remove the render and re-point the house with lime mortar to restore it to its original look, and was hoping to solve the damp problem.
MEASURES INSTALLED:
Upon removing the render, we discovered significant spalling to many bricks, as well as damage from angle grinders when the first render coat was prepared for re-rendering. In addition the replacement windows were sized to the render rather than the opening so the gap had to be addressed.
The spalled and damaged bricks were replaced with carefully matched reclaimed bricks; three types were required as three different qualities of bricks were initially used when the house was built. We repointed using a Ty-Mawr Cheshire Mix lime putty mortar which will allow the walls to breathe properly again – the walls actually dried out considerably during the refurb process.
