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I'd be very cautious about hacking off that rendering. It's not in my view terribly beautiful stonework once exposed, and in my experience a few centuries of gradually built up render/plaster/whitewash etc contribute greatly to the security of the wall. Pull it off and you risk the soil inside the wall trickling out through the gaps between the stones.
I also found areas where there was no stonework at all, just very fragile long-dried mud, mixed with straw, bits of twig, and a mummified cat.

Hmm, some slightly scary responses there, with a calmer leveler from fostertom at the end! All the same - thanks for all of the replies and input.

Posted By: Peter_in_HungaryOver here the rendering would be a sand/ cement / lime mix but I can' speak for where you are. I would suspect the same or sand / cement with a plasticiser for workability.

That's what I thought but really wasn't sure. I'll post some photos showing a close up of the plaster/ and sand/cement(?). I've done some with the flash on and some with it off.

Posted By: Peter_in_HungaryThe render has a number of jobs, one is to stabilise the outer surface, that is to stop bits falling off and out from the infill, another is to stop ants and mice coming through the wall and a third is to stop the howling gale that will come through if it is not rendered.

Would re-pointing not solve all of those things? Also, you mention below that pointing in lime might not last... Why might that be the case?

Posted By: Peter_in_HungaryIt is usually thick in places because this type of wall is usually far from straight and the render is a way of making it flatter.

That makes sense and I did wonder... With there being innie and outie stone, I guess you have to render to the outies which means the innies will have a lot more render.

Posted By: Peter_in_HungaryIf it were mine (and I have a couple of houses built like this) I would leave the render if in good condition or re-render if it was in poor condition.

The render is in good condition as far as I can tell. However, I prefer the aesthetic of bare stone. And more importantly I thought the idea was to allow the wall to breath? There is a concrete render externally which we are going to remove and is seemed a bit daft to do that but then leave a thick non breathable inner render.

Posted By: Cliff PopeI'd be very cautious about hacking off that rendering... in my experience a few centuries of gradually built up render/plaster/whitewash etc contribute greatly to the security of the wall. Pull it off and you risk the soil inside the wall trickling out through the gaps between the stones.

So far it would seem that there is not such a "build up". It seems the render goes right back to the stone. Granted some of the "pointing"/infill is crumbly but would that then not be dealt with by re-pointing (and would that also not stop soil or whatever trickling though?)

Posted By: Cliff Popemummified cat.

Yikes! Not sure what the dog would make of that!

Posted By: fostertomIf there's cement render then it's modern-ish and there was a previous, less brutal finish before that.

Yes, I think it is cement render and will post some pics. No signs of an underlying render though, so perhaps there never was one or it was removed prior to applying the current render??


RE: aesthetics, etc. I really like the look; or at least I will when it is done. We did the same to the fireplace wall downstairs and I love how it came out. In the photos above, the stone has only been through phase 1. More phases of cleaning up and it will start to look a lot better. A least to my eye.

But I don't want to inadvertently cause problems, so I am listening to what's been said and welcome any further thoughts....

....I don't want the wall to collapse! And in addition, I should add and ask - the floor joists that go into that wall are already undersized. Could removing the render (will be doing the same in the room below) weaken the joists by removing an inch or two of "support"?

Thanks for the fantastic help.

...

We did something similar in our home. We took down the plaster board on an internal wall that had a damp problem at the base. The gypsum plasterboard was dot and dab fixed onto the stonework and was relatively easy to get off. The main problem was removing the dot and dab plaster. We just got the wall sandblasted and it came up really well. I then lime pointed the wall, which is quite a nice material to use for a novice as you can take your time to get it right because it takes so long to go off. Once it goes off, you just brush off the excess.

The photo below shows the wall after it had been sandblasted and then lime pointed. The white area at the bottom of the wall is a lime plastered parge coat to make the wall air tight as I fitted a radiator there. The combination of the lime pointing/plaster and the radiator means the damp problem has been eradicated.

All excellent. Those slabs of cement look disgusting - old stone/brick just loves to get some 'fresh air', usually looks good, or at least is ready for a gentler, more traditional finish.

I too have removed the render of one of my croft rubble stone walls. I repointed it with lime which does take time but the end result is very pleasing. If you like the look I would go for it.