Garden retaining wall renovation

[kamilf]

I need advice about my options for repairing and redecorating a retaining wall in my garden.

Background
New to DIY and currently in the process of laying a new sandstone patio in the raised area of the garden. Once it's done, I wanted to tackle the retaining wall, which is c. 50 cm high and goes across the width of my garden. The new patio slabs slightly overhang the retaining wall (by 2-3cm)

The wall is made out of, as far as I can tell, bricks which have been rendered with sand and cemented and painted over. The paint is in poor condition and the wall developed a few cracks as well as gaps (due to wall movement I assume), which I believe are consistent with signs of subsidence.

Options
I am interested in what can be done to rectify the current poor condition of the wall, and that is within the abilities of an average DIY-er.

The options I have been considering are:
- re-render on top of existing render and paint. What are my options for rendering over an existing painted render? How do I fill the existing gaps and cracks?
- re-render on top of existing render and install wall tiles.
- any other options that hide the poor condition of the wall without significant repair. Grateful for any advice!

 

[Ns212]

Not a tradesperson here but I would consider tiling over the existing render in a similar (smaller) stone tile. Remove any loose render and re-render if required

 

[Dereekoo]

Hack out groove where cracks are and repair with sand cement and then paint all over with masonry paint, cheap and cheerful but unless you demolish and start again its always going to be a recurring issue.