What to do? Old Front Porch in need of repair

Soldato
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Some may remember my other threads but we bought an old gatehouse (1874).

Decided to re-paint the inside of the front porch. I went to sand off some of the old flakey paint but some bits just peeled off. I grabbed a filling knife and started scraping the old stuff off.

However rather than just taking off the top layer it seems it's been re-painted many, many times in it's lifetime and the paint is around 10mm thick before getting to the brick

Underneath, particularly in the front archway, there was a ivy type plant growing under the paint and some of the bricks seems to be damaged and a little crumbly

C7SRBoT.jpg

Also, in the roof part, i ended up uncovering old plaster and lath which i've partly pulled down

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I only started this about 4pm yesterday because in my head "sanding the front porch" was going to be a 30 minute job. As such i stopped after unearthing this as it was clear it was going to be a much bigger job than expected. Here's a pic of the porch as it stands now (and to give you an idea of the size/look of it)

2lv2jHs.jpg

I presume that the best thing to do is strip the whole lot back to bare brick, however i'm not sure what's the best option from there as we can't then just paint using normal paint/render given the age of the building as it would damage the bricks. Plus to the left of the porch is our bedroom (the right is open to the elements)

I'm also not sure how aggresive to be in my attempts to strip it all back. I started using a headgun, but given some bricks are crumbling is that too much?

Any advice would be great!
 
Soldato
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Stripping it off to the bare brick would end up a mess, why not just scrape of the loose material and then smooth filler over the bad parts and sand it off and repaint
 
Soldato
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Well the plan was to strip away all the paint and render which i imagine aren't suitable for the building (there is some damp on the bedroom wall), and replace with a lime based render.

Also found this around the door frame. It just seems to be some kind of wet sand like mix which has been used to fill/seal the door. Anyone seen this before?

gcB2YXN.jpg
 
Soldato
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If you want it nice and have issues with damp (as you have said) then in my opinion the only option is to strip it right back to the brick and redo the lime plaster and use a lime wash not paint.
 
Soldato
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Ok, much to my wifes annoyance. This is still a work in progress. Only worse because i've since stripped off more of the render!

Obligatory pictures in it's current state.

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I've been trying to get people round to fix this up over the last few months but people either come out, then never get back to me or the quotes seem very high (~£1000). Presumably the issue being it's a small job so they're charging full day rate because it's taking them away from other jobs.

As such i've been speaking to a few suppliers of Lime render and have worked out it'll cost around £80 in materials. As such (again much to my wifes annoyance) i'm going to have a go myself. If i screw it up then i'm in the same position i am now minus £80, if it's passable then i've saved around £800.

Because the hardest part would be the ceiling. I've decided to get some oak and clad the ceiling. This will match the front door and should look quite nice. My wife also wants to change the flooring, so i'll also be having a bash at tiling!

Now, on the walls, for the majority of it, it's small sections so in theory it's easy to hide behind a not perfect job, as opposed to a big long 5m wall. However on the inside corners. What are the techniques for getting a decent sharp square corner?

Progress will be happening quite quickly as my wife has threatened to just pay a grand and so i'm determined to get this done quite quickly. I've a week off work in mid October so that's a perfect opportunity.
 
Soldato
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My 2p worth is to wire brush/disc cutter wire brush maybe all the paint off then either paint with a lime wash or possible a `sandtex`finish
Possibly use a clear sealer (tompsons water seal??) on the outside bricks if you want to keep same effect/colour
Nice idea about the oak ceiling BTW :)
Remember about lights and cable etc first though
 
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I like the look of the partly washed bricks. I think I would try to get the remains of the plaster off, and then rewash the whole surface.
The oak inner roof will tidy that up, and the bricks being lime washed so they are uniform colour, but clearly brick will give character.

When the house was young(ish) they probably wanted it to look new as such so rendered to cover up some issues?, now its older we tend to bring the character through and rendering is surely just covering that up?

Although as ever we are balancing what "er indoors" wants right, for an easy life ;)
 
Soldato
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Haha i know!

I've established however that my wife wants a solid rendered look so just using a wash isn't going to cut it.

I've honestly spent ages cleaning the bricks (doesn't look like it), to get it better than it is now would require me to be quite agressive and i've found that ends up damaging the bricks. I did use a small pot of that peelaway on a section and it worked on the paint, but then didn't do anything about the various layers of render underneath.

Hell some areas they'd fixed gaps in the render with cement mortar that i'd have to grind off!

I've also uncovered a load of holes around 30cm from the floor which suggests some idiots have injected damp proofing which will explain why i have areas of damp inside the bedroom. I think the main issue is that the person who owned the house around 10 years ago and that did a lot of renovations was a regular builder so he's just used regular techniques rather than adapting to the old structure of the house.
 
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Render it is then

I cant remember the pictures you posted from when you bought it, does the porch stick out the front or is it in line with the front of the house.

Can you maybe protect the outer side with water seal or something, knowing that the inner side will be able to breath, if its effectively protected from rising damp and no real external direct water gets into the bricks the damp level should be pretty low in the bricks themselves?
 
Soldato
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Yeah no reason not to have a stab yourself, could end up learning a really useful skill, or be a day and £80 out of pocket.

But please don't replace the tiles unless they're damaged beyond repair, they look so nice as they are :(
 
Soldato
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Yeah no reason not to have a stab yourself, could end up learning a really useful skill, or be a day and £80 out of pocket.

But please don't replace the tiles unless they're damaged beyond repair, they look so nice as they are :(

Agreed, my wife wanted some composite tiles because (she knows i'm cheap) but i corrected her that i'll spend money where required and would rather re-tile as long as they're in fitting with the house.

She's since accepted the existing ones as long as they're cleaned up so should be golden there.
 
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