Render on Edwardian terraced house

Lillydub

Hi,

I've tried to find out the answer but haven't come across any other threads, so apologies if this has been discussed before.

A lot of the Victorian/Edwardian terraced houses around Dublin seem to be red-brick to the front and rendered to the rear. Does anyone know if this render is an original feature or would it have been added later on? When I look along the terraces at neighbouring houses, they look to be uniform, leading me to think it is original.

The reason I ask is that I've read that render should be lime-based mortar to allow walls to breath and prevent damp. If anyone is familiar with such terraces (sorry, can't upload or attach a picture) is it easy to spot lime-based render or is the standard on these terraces concrete? And if it is concrete, should it be removed?

If anyone has any thoughts, would be great to hear them!

Lil

sarkozy

If they're rendered, then there's probably a reason. Either older houses of that general style in Dublin (say 18th-early 20th centuries) have redbrick frontages and yellow brick backs and sides, or they're redbrick with stone masonary walls. This is original. If they've been rendered to the rear and sides, but are in fact of yellow brick construction, this is incorrect. I've also seen some houses with the original render removed, but this is nearly always incorrect as the render provides extra protection against the elements and preserves the integrity of the brick walls. This is especially important in solid wall houses (i.e. not walls with two leaves, or cavity walls). The render would need to be some form of breathable render. The other thing to consider is whether a structure is protected, in which case you'd be restricted in any case to doing what is historically appropriate.

To my knowledge, concrete is totally incorrect as it can trap moisture within the solid brickwork leading to internal dampness and degradation of the fabric of the building. Moisture enters solid walls from both sides, inside and outside, and the wall must therefore do two jobs. Therefore the walls on both sides must have an opportunity to let the moisture within evaporate, and the point within the brickwork where that happens changes throughout the day.

So, the rule of thumb should really be to ensure that original building methods are used if any rendering is to be done.

A trained builder or conservation expert/architect would probably be able to tell you if inappropriate material has been used to render a building and what to do about it.

Lillydub

Thanks so much Sarkozy. That's definitely helped to clarify things. I'll be sure to check this out with whatever builder we decide to use. If they try to convince me that rendering with concrete is ok i'll be confident to ask for a second opinion! :-)

sarkozy wrote: »

If they're rendered, then there's probably a reason. Either older houses of that general style in Dublin (say 18th-early 20th centuries) have redbrick frontages and yellow brick backs and sides, or they're redbrick with stone masonary walls. This is original. If they've been rendered to the rear and sides, but are in fact of yellow brick construction, this is incorrect. I've also seen some houses with the original render removed, but this is nearly always incorrect as the render provides extra protection against the elements and preserves the integrity of the brick walls. This is especially important in solid wall houses (i.e. not walls with two leaves, or cavity walls). The render would need to be some form of breathable render. The other thing to consider is whether a structure is protected, in which case you'd be restricted in any case to doing what is historically appropriate.

To my knowledge, concrete is totally incorrect as it can trap moisture within the solid brickwork leading to internal dampness and degradation of the fabric of the building. Moisture enters solid walls from both sides, inside and outside, and the wall must therefore do two jobs. Therefore the walls on both sides must have an opportunity to let the moisture within evaporate, and the point within the brickwork where that happens changes throughout the day.

So, the rule of thumb should really be to ensure that original building methods are used if any rendering is to be done.

A trained builder or conservation expert/architect would probably be able to tell you if inappropriate material has been used to render a building and what to do about it.

Dr Strange

sarkozy is spot on. I would only use original render on the back and/or sides of these kind of houses. Breathable is a must to keep any moisture built-up inside at bay. I have seen houses left in really bad condition because of concrete or other non-breathable renders. Pity, as they were nice houses.