Uneven old render - how best to proceed?

[spleenharvester]

Alright chaps,

 

I'm a (semi)-competent DIYer in most areas. I have done some internal plastering, but never touched exterior stuff before, so would really appreciate your help.

 

We moved into a 4 bed semi-detached house 4 months ago that is an absolute money pit, we've already taken out £20k in loans fixing stuff the survey missed, so we can't spend any more money any time soon. Unfortunately for us the pebbledash render started falling off the front of the building in massive chunks a few weeks ago. On further investigation I found all of it was blown on the front wall, and literally just held in place with beading. In the photo below I was able pull all of it off with my bare hands in about half an hour. The side and back actually seem to be only slightly blown, weirdly, so we will probably leave those for now.

 

 

The render underneath (sand and concrete by the looks of it?) is ugly as sin and has been damaged in parts by pebbledashing, but does seem to be intact - I'm not finding any blown areas or major cracking, I think the missing patches were probably damaged during the pebbledashing.

 

So since I can't afford to have it redone I want to have a crack at cleaning up the existing render myself. I'm not aiming for a perfect finish, just want it to look like less of a crack den until we can afford to have a professional re-render in 4 years time.

 

Just wondering what the best/easiest way to proceed is, especially as the existing render hasn't been keyed properly. Can I top up with more sand and cement? Or is something like a tyrolean gun approach more likely to work (I'm assuming I would need to put some kind of tacky layer on for it to stick though?)

 

Cheers in advance for your input

[Iceverge]

Sorry to hear about this.  It sounds like a total pain. 

 

If it is to be redone I would just chip off the rest of it and leave it be for the time being. 

 

Maybe just patch up any cracks with some sand and cement mortar. 

 

It looks like a perfect candidate for EWI come the time when the budget allows. 

 

Your only extra cost over a rerender would be the insulation itself. 

 

 

[spleenharvester]

19 minutes ago, Iceverge said:

Sorry to hear about this.  It sounds like a total pain. 

 

If it is to be redone I would just chip off the rest of it and leave it be for the time being. 

 

Maybe just patch up any cracks with some sand and cement mortar. 

 

It looks like a perfect candidate for EWI come the time when the budget allows. 

 

Your only extra cost over a rerender would be the insulation itself. 

 

 

 

Thanks, I think you are probably right about EWI - by my calculations it would pay itself off within 4 years (we are absolutely hemorrhaging money in energy bills, I really struggle to believe this is an EPC D property). I've found a place that installs it with 36 month finance, might aim to have it done end of the year.

[Iceverge]

That sounds like a good option.