Last year I had some cement render removed on the section of the back of a Victorian terrace and it was re-rendered in lime. The section was intended to include a disused chimney at the top at the back of the outrigger. But, when the renderer got to this point they found that the brickwork wasn't in very good condition as they tried to remove the render and had to stop. The pointing was very damp. This meant that the chimney was left partially in the existing render (which is blown and letting water in) and partially in a temporary patch of lime where a bit of the render was removed.
It wasn't possible to fix this last year (budget, working out the best option etc) but the time has come around to try and sort it. When the renderer stopped work, they essentially left a horizontal render bead (not sure of the correct terms) at the base of the chimney stack. This was the stop point of the 'proper', new lime rendering.
The person who will be doing the work gave me the option to repoint the chimney or to re-render it. Repointing is quite a bit cheaper. I asked what would happen if we went down the repointing route in terms of the transition between brickwork and the rendering that was completed last year i.e. would it become a weak point where water would get it behind the render. I don't think they had considered this, but suggested that they could put in lead to form a sort of apron over the top of this transition to stop water getting in behind.
Just wondering what people thought of this as a solution? Presumably the brickwork could be left without render and originally this was probably the case for the whole wall. But, if there is now render below the chimney, is the best option to render the lot or is this suggestion of leadwork a good one? Having spent quite a lot of money on getting the render done in the first place in - hopefully - an appropriate material, I don't want to mess things up by just letting water get in behind, which is what I've been trying to stop.
It wasn't possible to fix this last year (budget, working out the best option etc) but the time has come around to try and sort it. When the renderer stopped work, they essentially left a horizontal render bead (not sure of the correct terms) at the base of the chimney stack. This was the stop point of the 'proper', new lime rendering.
The person who will be doing the work gave me the option to repoint the chimney or to re-render it. Repointing is quite a bit cheaper. I asked what would happen if we went down the repointing route in terms of the transition between brickwork and the rendering that was completed last year i.e. would it become a weak point where water would get it behind the render. I don't think they had considered this, but suggested that they could put in lead to form a sort of apron over the top of this transition to stop water getting in behind.
Just wondering what people thought of this as a solution? Presumably the brickwork could be left without render and originally this was probably the case for the whole wall. But, if there is now render below the chimney, is the best option to render the lot or is this suggestion of leadwork a good one? Having spent quite a lot of money on getting the render done in the first place in - hopefully - an appropriate material, I don't want to mess things up by just letting water get in behind, which is what I've been trying to stop.