board/sheet of unknown material on ext wall - how to remove

[russellpeters]

Hello Forum Members,

One of the exterior brick walls of my house has some kind of a sheet-like material sitting on top of it.

I have included some photos below.

I am trying to figure out what this material is, why it was put there in the first place, whether I should remove it and if yes how do I remove it?

All advice would be much appreciated. Thank you.

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[ban-all-sheds]

One of the exterior brick walls of my house has some kind of a sheet-like material sitting on top of it.

Are you sure that it's not been rendered, and what you think is the edge of a sheet of something is a bead? From above it looks exactly like a layer of render.

I am trying to figure out what this material is, why it was put there in the first place,

Weather resistance?

Decorative?

Openings filled in?

whether I should remove it

Why do you think you might need to?

 

[Nigel_Cro]

+1

That's render!

 

[russellpeters]

Thanks guys!

To answer your questions:

(a) Is it render or not? - I thought it might be render (especially looking at the top edge) but the well-defined sheet-like left edge shown in the photos confused me.

(b) Why I want to remove it - We have some damp on the interior wall of the house in a corner in an area that from the outside would be covered by this material that I asked about. I suspected that if it was a sheet-like material it might be trapping rainwater but not letting it evaporate (and of course this will cause issues like mould etc. in addition to the damp). I want to remove it mainly to deal with this damp but also to reveal the (hopefully good condition) red brick.

Just out of curiosity how do you remove render from a brick wall? Can it be done by a somewhat-proficient but quick-to-learn DIYer like me? Or is it best done by a professional?

Thanks.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

It is a defined edge because you are seeing a render stop bead:

 

[cajar]

Bolster and chisel, or an SDS drill with a chisel attachment and rotostop.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

I want to remove it mainly to deal with this damp but also to reveal the (hopefully good condition) red brick.

Don't expect it to be in good condition after you have removed the render, even if it was in good condition beforehand.

 

[russellpeters]

I understand.

Most likely I will not be removing the render. I will try to seal the top edge using something suitable (any suggestions?) and maybe the side edge too because there is a clear gap of 3-4 mm where rain could get blown in by the wind.

I will try to do this after a few days of hot weather so hopefully most of the moisture would have evaporated. There is the risk that I will seal in any existing moisture but it seems like that is the lesser risk of the two.

I wait for a year and see if the damp worsens.

We also have render on our front façade (2 storeys) so maybe in the future we will hire professionals to remove the render, clean, mend and repoint the brickwork for both the front façade and the rear wall.

Thanks for all your great suggestions, much appreciated.

 

[s60tsy]

grind out above the render and flash the top with lead

 

[Gazman16]

Is the damp low down? Its hard to tell your DPC level from the pics but it looks like the render could be bridging the DPC.