Dubbing Out

Haired lime putty render thrown into deep holes in wall

One of the jobs associated with re-rendering the house has been to make good the walls before the main render coat is applied. This involves getting hold of some lime putty render (same as the top coat) and throwing it into the main holes that were left by the removal of the old cement render.

The walls were quite a mess after the initial removal. The cement render is far too hard for the walls and so it takes off lots of the underlying mortar and also breaks bricks etc when it is removed. The removal process also involved fairly heavy equipment in the form of breakers and if they are not used carefully then they too can remove parts of the wall. If using breakers then it is advisable to use lower powered ones rather than being all macho about it. So medium breaker, with a wide chisel end, used in as parallel an angle as possible is the way forward.

Anyway the upshot of the job is that rather than expecting some areas of render to be 10cm deep and others 2cm it is best to 'dub out' the holes to make the surface more even.

The process I have used is to throw the mix into the holes as this gets more air into the mix and hence it cures quicker. I have also had to replace some half bricks. Any exposed wood has been treated using Osmo 4005 and the windows have been insulated into any void reveals. Next will be to sort the various joints in the wall so that any variety in movement of the walls does not crack the new render.