Farmhouse - render

[MattR]

Ours is a fairly old farmhouse, stone ground floor and I believe cob upstairs. In the 1920s (I think) the exterior was completely rendered, and now has very little character - arguably fairly ugly - and of course needs painting every so often. Its due a lick of paint soon and I've been wondering about hacking the render off and going back to the bare stone/cob. Would I be opening a can of worms? ie damp issues/possible dodgy stonework that would need sorting? Or would it be better from a damp point of view by letting the wall breathe? (Not that damp is a major problem at present, no more than usual for oldish buildings). Is it best to leave well alone?

 

[MattR]

To get an idea of the type of stone etc, this is a bit of the downstairs wall inside, exposed as a bit of a feature in one room

 

[SilliamWhale]

It probably was never bare stone in the first place - either a lime harl or pointed with multiple coats of limewash.

 

[Shughie McFee]

if it ain't damp now, leave well alone.plenty of buildings were ruined by the 1970's craze for hacking render off and pointing the stone. stone itself is quite often porous.

 

[som farmer]

when the l/lord sold the old farmhouse, it was bought by Londoners, they were telling me, how they were going to strip the render off, to get back to the stone. I passed comment, that just after the war, the house was 'done up', they looked then at pointing the stone, after stripping off the render. The stone was not found suitable to render, so the render was patched up. His architect told him, rubbish, it would look fantastic, so render stripped off, to say the render hid a multitude of botched building work, would be polite. The same architect, produced a specific render, the builders, said it would not work, as mix was wrong. Rubbish, the builders put it on, after obtaining a letter, absolving them of any blame, they then got paid to remove, and re-render the house , again.

 

[Kidds]

In a similar position myself. Would love to get the paint off my house and have it bare brick.
The more I look into it the more I think that the paint is not only hiding a lot of horrors it is possibly all that's holding it up!
Mine was "done up" post war with a bomb damage grant. Might explain the amount of rubble used as building material.

 

[d williams]

Ours is a fairly old farmhouse, stone ground floor and I believe cob upstairs. In the 1920s (I think) the exterior was completely rendered, and now has very little character - arguably fairly ugly - and of course needs painting every so often. Its due a lick of paint soon and I've been wondering about hacking the render off and going back to the bare stone/cob. Would I be opening a can of worms? ie damp issues/possible dodgy stonework that would need sorting? Or would it be better from a damp point of view by letting the wall breathe? (Not that damp is a major problem at present, no more than usual for oldish buildings). Is it best to leave well alone?

We bought a farmhouse which had been rendered damp problems hacked off went back to stone shot blasted and repointing was done lovely job but make sure you use a lime morta mix to allows it to breath what had happened hairlines cracks in the render wasn’t allowing the house to breathe
Can recommend if done right

 

[Ukjay]

We bought a farmhouse which had been rendered damp problems hacked off went back to stone shot blasted and repointing was done lovely job but make sure you use a lime morta mix to allows it to breath what had happened hairlines cracks in the render wasn’t allowing the house to breathe
Can recommend if done right

This is the real point to note - must use lime render to avoid the damp caused by the new modern renders, as they do not allow the stone to breath.
We are looking at a similar issue with an old farm house we are currently going through the convyancing on, which is an old stone house, botched repairs and tried to hide with render and paint. Will be ripping it all off to show the damage and repairing and leaving the natural stone showing again.

 

[d williams]

This is the real point to note - must use lime render to avoid the damp caused by the new modern renders, as they do not allow the stone to breath.
We are looking at a similar issue with an old farm house we are currently going through the convyancing on, which is an old stone house, botched repairs and tried to hide with render and paint. Will be ripping it all off to show the damage and repairing and leaving the natural stone showing again.

Not sure about using lime to render but when we repointing was told to use lime one the pointing mix

 

[Ukjay]

Not sure about using lime to render but when we repointing was told to use lime one the pointing mix

Shouldn't use std renders on old houses, as they need to breath both ways, and modern renders do not allow breathing, thus create damp internally.

 

[MattR]

Thanks for all the replies, given me some food for thought. Its a pity that the only old (pre-render) photo of the house we've got doesn't really show the quality of the stonework.
(Edit to my first post - I'm told that the render was 1950s not 20s)

 

[MF35]

To get an idea of the type of stone etc, this is a bit of the downstairs wall inside, exposed as a bit of a feature in one ro



The picture seems to indicate the pointing has a high cement content which is not generally suitable for old work. It will likely be difficult to remove but any repointing should be undertaken with a fairly gritty lime mortar which will provide the elasticity necessary and is permeable to allow moisture out (building to breathe). Any covering of these stones with any sort of render will require a good background key and again be lime mortar based.

 

[br jones]

Why is the wall damp ?

 

[renewablejohn]

Agree with others just make sure you use lime mortars and lime plaster on old buildings as they need to breathe. With modern living it also helps to have MVHR to protect the fabric of the building as kettles, cooking, baths all increase moisture content far higher than the original building was designed to absorb. If you do repoint make sure the original mortar in the joint has not be replaced with modern cements.