crumbling wall + masonry paint

JuliusCaesar

Hi, Total newbie to DIY here. I was looking over some old threads about painting walls, and wondered about preparing a wall for painting. It's a garden wall, about 3m high but it's ancient and crumbling.

I was going to go over it with a wire brush first, but will I need to put some sort of 'glue' over it before I paint? (I'm not sure what 'rendering' is, which came up in the old threads.) The idea is to paint it, then put up trellis and plant some climbers.
Thanks
JC

mad m

Wire brush any flakes of old paint and get Stablising solution and apply this, then get Dulux Weathershield or any good Exterior paint.

JuliusCaesar

Thanks! Off to Homebase/Woodies now!

JuliusCaesar

Back again.....took the advice on the tine of Stabiliser and used the yard brush (stiff bristles, not a wire brush) on the wall. Well I couldn't believe the amount of dust/sand coming off it. As I said, it's an old wall, made with blocks of what looks like cenemt and pebbles. The stuff was just raining down, including pebbles, so I stopped in case I'd make a hole to the other side or have the entire thing just fall down.

Can I just slap the stabiliser on top and hope for the best? Thanks lads.

mad m

Well if its that bad, then the mortar must be gone in the bricks also....What you can also do first if you want is get a tube of polybond, mix 5 parts of water to one part of polybond. Then just throw the stuff on with a sweeping brush, mix it up in a basin or something you wont be using in future.....

I know you said crumbling but didn't think it was that bad....

JuliusCaesar

Thanks madm - I'll do that. I think the wall dates back to the 1930s and was probably made of poor materials at that time. Many thanks. JC

Sleipnir

what's the wall made of? Brick? Block? stone?

JuliusCaesar

Ancient (1920s?) blocks, that seem to have been made using cement and large pebbles. Would attach photo but don't know how to....The wall was repaired in one spot using modern blocks but at the wrong end of the garden.