Rendering on front wall of house - repair or remove?

[Jason]

The ground floor of my house has been extended at the front, and we had rain leaking in earlier this month. It turns out that rather than being the roof (thankfully) the rendering on the wall on the first floor had a few (long) cracks in it, and the mortar between the bricks behind it was damaged.

I repaired the mortar, but whilst I was there I noticed that around the cracks in the rendering, some reasonable sized areas (18" to 2' across) of the rendering have started to come away from the wall, presumably due to the rain/frost. (This is as well as the smaller bits I pulled off to get to the brickwork).

What I was wondering was, is it worth chiselling off the damaged rendering and patching it (trying to match the slightly bumpy pattern as best I can), or should I just get rid of the rendering all together? Either way I'm going to repaint it.

I don't want to go to the trouble of fixing it, to be told when we sell the place that "rendering is the new stone cladding", but then I don't know how much risk there is of me damaging the mortar if I get rid of the rendering, and having to repoint it all.

Any advice would be gratefully received.

Cheers

Jason

[Rob graham]

Provided you get off all the render that is not adhering properly I see no reason to re-render the whole wall other than to ensure that it looks uniform. If you patch it, although the patches may be perfectly serviceable, I expect they will show. On my house this does not matter, but it might on yours.

Rob Graham

[Cicero]

=================== It's very unlikely that you could remove all the render and leave clean undamaged brickwork unless the rendering was very badly done in the first place. Careful patching is your best option and if appearance is important a good professional can make an almost invisible repair.

If it's any comfort, render is not in the same class as stone cladding. Render is a reliable and quite desirable finish. Stone cladding has its fans but as you imply, it doesn't suit everybody.

Cic.

[Lobster]

Absolutely, even if you don't damage the brickwork, it's likely to be stained with mortar and look an absolute sight.

Another consideration is whether the house was rendered when it was originally built, as opposed to having been rendered later on, probably as a misguided attempt to prevent penetrating damp. If the former, you could find that removing the render could expose all sorts of nasties which the brickies who built the house never intended should see the light of day.

David

[stuart]

I would recomend remove all the 'live' render, patch it yourself as best you can, then splash out on a good water proof coating (not paint) which is quite thick and will hide a lot of ills. Cheers Stuart

[meow2222]

no mention of age or type of brick: if its old with soft bricks, use lime render not cement to avoid future brick damage.

NT