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Restoration & Refurbishment

Removing Render from Front of Victorian house to expose red bricks

Anonymous user 03/03/2024 - 3.10 PM

Hi, I am looking to purchase a property, it is a Victorian semi with half render on the front of the house. I would really like to remove the render and strip back to red brick! Is this a) possible? And b) is the brick under the render going to be the same as rest of house? I wasn't sure if period homes had render for cost saving and the bricks under might be slab work? Also want to remove and also sandblast the back of house which is painted bricks. Property is in Woodford Green, East London and we 100% want to do this work so looking for a tradesman once I have an idea on if this can be achieved! Thanks

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1 Answer

R.Hughes Building and Conservation Ltd

Rating: 5 out of 5

Wellingborough

You have a couple of issues here. Don't sandblast the back of the house. It will take the fireskin off the brick and make them very porous and liable to spalling. This will cause you issues in the future. Your best bet would be to try and clean the paint off organically with a bit of hard work. There are companies out there who specialise in brick cleaning with no harm to the bricks. The problem with taking the render off is that there are no guarantees as to the condition of the bricks underneath. They may be great but you may have the same problem as the back once its hacked off as it could take some of the brick with it if its cement based. You need to be prepared to have it re-rendered with a LIME based render if the brickwork is in a bad condition. Remember that your house has very likely been built with a lime mortar and this should be replaced as such and maintained as such.

Answered6 October 2014