Old stone farm house with render trapping moisture

[olambeth]

I'm buying an old farm house and have had a chat with the surveyor looking at the property today. He was pretty concerned by the moisture being trapped in the stonework by an old render applied in 1969 (he found datings whilst conducting the survey) and a new render applied by the vendors in 2015. They've applied it over the old render as you can see in the photos. Essentially making the same mistake twice!!

The damp is only showing up in the lintels as they are rotten and need replacing.

I would like to understand what type of render they both are and how to safely remove them without damaging the stone work.

I had a trusted eco builder around the same time as the surveyor as I wanted to see where we can insulate the property. He thought that external fibre board could be installed once the render is off and dried and then apply a lime render on top of the insulation.
My concern is that damp that isn't dried in time could be trapped?

Lastly would the render need to come off in the spring and dry through the summer before adding the new render and possibly the insulation? How long would I need to wait for it to dry out? Bearing in mind there is no damage to internal plaster.

All thoughts welcome!

 

[bobasd]

your surveyor and the eco builder should have answered your questions - call the surveyor & builder and ask your questions for far better answers than we can give.
the idea is that they tell you whats wrong, and what to do about it.
they've been on site we haven't, so any advice from here will be limited.

 

[olambeth]

Thanks I was merely looking for some consensus on the matter from others who've experienced a similar problem.

My biggest concern is with externally insulating with wood fibre board a stone wall that could still be damp. From Peter Ward's perspective with stone work this is a big no no.

 

[mansea]

I cant really offer advice on rectifying the problem, but just wanted to say any problems can be sorted, for a price. If you love the property regardless, I wouldn't worry about survey findings and take them with a pinch of salt! That said definitely use it to your advantage if you can to knock some money off the purchase price to help towards the cost of the renovations. Most sellers will understand, of course all depends on how long it's been on the market, how many offers they've had as to whether it will work. Best of luck with the pending purchase and renovations...