cement render -Good or bad

[penfold74]

Hi
I have an out building which I have made into a store room and utility - not attached to the house. The bottom meter was rendered and it was flaking off . On removal some brick were missing - flaking until disintegrated. A builder replaced those brick that were too far gone and rendered the bottom. Its only since i'm having a damp problem in the house (sorted it was condensation) that I've started to look into building materials - and I'm sure cement/sand render is not going to do the building any good - shouldn't it be lime (the house is 1896 ish red handmade brick)? The builder did also render the bottom meter of the kitchen extension (3m long)too.

Q - have I had a bog job done?
Q- if so can it be remedied? ie don't paint/seal
Q - I was told to apply masonry stabiliser before using masonry paint - is this right?

Cheers

 

[Reeves2k2]

Is it rendered all the way to ground level :-/

 

[penfold74]

yes floor to just less than a meter - ie just under the line of black brick that runs around my house and I've always assumed is the damp proof layer

Can I seal it with mortar stabiliser?

 

[Reeves2k2]

yes floor to just less than a meter - ie just under the line of black brick that runs around my house and I've always assumed is the damp proof layer

Can I seal it with mortar stabiliser?

Render shouldn't go below the damp proof

If it does it can act as a bridge and rise above the dpc and cause damp problems

Sounds like it was done incorrectly to start with and then the builder who rectified it didn't actually rectify it he just bodged it back up!

Ideally the render needs to come off below the dpc and depending if it's all damp maybe all the render

 

[Alastairreid]

Or you can run a bellcast bead along the line of the dpc then render above and below.

 

[Reeves2k2]

Or you can run a bellcast bead along the line of the dpc then render above and below.

You could but then it would need hacking all off

I wouldn't be confident leaving any of the existing on with the damp described in the op

But perfectly fine solution

if it was me it would all come off then either of the solutions would work

 

[penfold74]

[Hi

The damp i mentioned was in the front of the house - it was condensation.My house is on a slope - level at the front and at the back the kitchen floor is 1 meter above ground level - this is the only bit rendered. I understand that the render isnt ideal, but it was there originally (i've lived here 20 yrs) and I know understand it should have been lime to allow breathing, but I cant financially re-do. So, could I run an angle grinder 1" from the floor, hack the render off so it isnt touching the floor, but then what do I fill this 1" gap with - on the out building

The render on the kitchen does go upto the black brick line and the builder has used flashing cut into the mortar below the black brick to make a nice clean line. My kitchen drain is infront of the render so i wanted to seal it so the splash didnt affect the render.

Should i just paint the render and not seal - it took me a year to save for the render so i really cant think of taking it all off.
Cheers[/i]