How to restore heritage home interior wall render?

[Ben2065]

Hi everyone,

I am slowly restoring my heritage cottage (built around 1900). Current project is to install stud wall immediately to the right (hot water side) of the window architrave (dummy base plate of stud wall sitting in place). However the wall render has failed in much of the room from being used a bathroom with no waterproofing as you can clearly see in the pics. It has been exposed in the current state for years so has all totally dried out. Sadly the brick wall is not very presentable in its current shape for the consideration or removing the render. Also the plate rack, cornice and skirting all allow for the thickness of the render (aprox 1cm thick with a sandy thick base which crumbles easily and a top hard white skim plaster coat). Previously this had sheeting installed over it when the room was used as a bathroom (villaboard I suspect).

How to restore the wall?

Install villaboard on battens to space it off the bricks? 

Use acrylic or concrete render?

Simply board up with gyprock glued to the bricks?

Paint the bricks with limewash or paint and apply timber quad to all timber trim edges to seal the gaps?

The area where the hot water heater is will be a small enclosed toilet room

To the left will be a laundry area (only a few sinks to be installed) no shower etc. 

Looking for something clean and functional but doesn't need to be heritage perfect lime render.

Many thanks for your assistance.

[JacobZ]

Hi @Ben2065,

Considering the room is not going to be operating as a bathroom, which would require you to consider the waterproofing, and the main idea is to improve the aesthetic of the wall rather than provide anything functional, then a base coat of render such as this Dunlop Multipurpose Acrylic Render, topped with a coat of Hardwall Plaster mixed with lime putty, would be the way I would go. 

This would give you a nice smooth surface that can be painted over without major implications for the skirting, architraves or cornice and would more or less replicate what was already there, using more modern, flexible materials.

Have a look at How To Hard Plaster a Brick Wall and How To Render for some guidance on the process.

Let me know what you think and if you have further questions, please don't hesitate to ask.

Jacob

[Ben2065]

Thank you @JacobZ for your advice. After looking into it further I am concerned the concrete path outside the wall is trapping moisture against the bricks and could result in moisture accumulating in the bricks and result in failure of the render over time. I think I may need to resort to lime mortar render to allow the bricks to breathe even though lime mortar render probably takes a very long time to dry. I assume bunnings don't sell lime mortar for rendering?

[EricL]

Hello @Ben2065 

I'm sorry the store does not carry a pre-mixed bag of lime mortar ready to go, but I suggest having a look at this discussion regarding mixing your own batch - What foundation and mortar is best for a rock wall by @Simon_B.

If you need further assistance, please let us know.

Eric