Removing External Render from house circa 1890

ConCoBar

Hi all,

How difficult is it to remove external render and expose brickwork? I can imagine it would be a slow and arduous task and the likelihood of damaging the brick is quite high. I understand if it can be done all the brick work will have to be re-pointed too. I've seen videos online of various removable jobs but none for full houses. Some are sandblasted after, others are are dry ice blasted and while all look good I'd be afraid of damaging the brick.

A little about the house. I'm living in my grandmother's old house which is one of the Station Masters houses on the GNR line. There are many of them along the east coast of Ireland which I've included below. My Grandfather purchased the house around 1960 and I'm nearly sure it was he who rendered it and it wasn't purchased like it (conflicting family recollection). In the 1980's my grandmother removed the sliding sash windows and installed aluminum frames (I hate them) and that's the first project.

I love the house, our family history in it, the location etc. It does need work but something I'm willing to work on over a number of years especially after coming across other station houses in different towns. The rendering is simply an injustice to what can be a beautiful building. I love the beautiful white brick soldier course, corners and arches and knowing I'm living in a building that is hiding this kills me.

Thanks everyone for any help.

This is what the house should look like:

antiskeptic

ConCoBar wrote: »

Hi all,

How difficult is it to remove external render and expose brickwork? I can imagine it would be a slow and arduous task and the likelihood of damaging the brick is quite high.

My guess is that the brick would be seriously damaged. If it was original render then it could well fall away easily, but concrete render, well applied could pull the face of the brick away on removal.

The easiest thing to do is what all the chemical cleaning products suggest you do with their products: try it out on an inconspicuous area before going at it wholesale.

A spade chisel on a speed controllable electric rotary hammer would give you some indication of adhesion levels. They can be picked up cheaply (sub €100) or probably hired.

Re-pointing companies can dress damaged brick as part of the process. It's as if they smear a brick coloured paste over the brick face. You see it all around the place on those pencil-line re-pointed periods

Worth a go - lovely buildings those.



Bear in mind that the render provides a degree of protection from water penetration. If you insulate the internal walls with warmboard on a brick building then you are surer of having mould problems. The brick/mortar construction is more porous/water retaining than render.

BryanF

If it ain't broke..

Ask yourself why it was plastered.

ConCoBar

BryanF wrote: »

If it ain't broke..

Ask yourself why it was plastered.

Already did but this is a restoration and I want to restore. And while asking myself, some people plastered because of dampness, others because it was a show of money. And I've no one to ask why it was done in the first place.