Advice on where to go with my house's roughcast

J

jdrphillips

New Member
Hi all

Hoping to get some opinions on where to go with my house's roughcast. I have been talking to a variety of different people but everyone has a different opinion.

The roughcast is 30+ years old and has never been painted and is now blown/cracked in many places. Not to mention it's covered in algae and looks grotty as all hell. The house is timber framed construction and covered on all walls with roughcast (apart from the sub-floor void)

Our goal is for the house to look good and need minimal maintenance on the walls for the next 10-20 years.

Now how do we achieve this?

Option 1 - masonry creme

We have a quote from a company that says they will crawl over the house, find and fix all broken sections of roughcast, and then coat with a masonry creme (properla) that is water resistant, stain resistant, breathable, and self-cleaning.

Pros:
  • low maintenance
  • Single company to do everything
  • Looks good once done
  • Relatively cost efficient given the work involved and guarantees held after the work
  • They claim the creme will last for 10-20 years without needing to be redone, opposed to paint which needs to be redone every 2-3 years
Cons:
  • A roughcaster told me that if we do this, maintenance will eventually be harder as paint/creme will prevent "going over" roughcast, necessitating a costlier job in future
  • We don't know if we're being sold snake oil
  • It's unclear how cracks/bossed sections are fixed within the guarantee period and maintaining the look

Option 2 - redo it all

Take it all off, put on brand new roughcast.

Pros:
  • Consistent look
  • No painting
  • Probably the most reliable end product
Cons:
  • Most expensive option
  • A builder told us removing the existing roughcast that isn't blown could damage the wall
Option 3 - New over old

A roughcaster has told us he would advise to take off all the blown sections, and redo them, and then go over the entire house with new roughcast, laying new over old stable roughcast.

Pros:
  • Cost effective
  • Consistent look when finished

Cons:
  • A building forum told me that roughcasting new-over-old could add too much weight for a timber framed house, as it will obviously be quite a bit thicker once done
  • More risk of existing, stable roughcast blowing in future due to increased weight.

So - in your opinion - what do we do? Option 1, 2, 3, or other? Again our only goal is for the house to look nice (or better than now at least!), with low maintenance, on a 20-year timescale.

Any advice appreciated - this is a huge project and so many people have different opinions I would really like some advice from people who do not stand to gain financially from my decision.
 
Very difficult without a site visit, or at least some photos. Need to see the blown areas and the type of rough cast.
 
Advice on where to go with my house's roughcast


Please excuse the photo it's all I have to hand atm as we are not home for now.

This is the general idea of the roughcast, there are pink and blacker patches aplenty. It is a dry roughcast (I think that's the term).

You can just see in the corners of the windows where it is starting to blow and crack - it's worse since this photo was taken.

In general most corners of the house are blowing, and large swathes of the ground floor walls that we can check. But less than 50% at the moment.

Would you recommend a masonry creme such as properla in principle? It is hard to find any information about it online, other than from the salemen themselves, so I am naturally wary of it
 
I'd cream it.

By the time that's through - in 20 years - you'd probably want a change of appearance anyway - if you're still at the gaff.
 
bobski said:
I'd cream it.

By the time that's through - in 20 years - you'd probably want a change of appearance anyway - if you're still at the gaff.
Click to expand...
Do you have experience with them then - they do stand the test of time? Last thing I want is to blow near £10k on this creaming job just to have to rip it all off in 3 years because it rotted everything and redo it from scratch for an additional £20k
 
jdrphillips said:
Do you have experience with them then - they do stand the test of time? Last thing I want is to blow near £10k on this creaming job just to have to rip it all off in 3 years because it rotted everything and redo it from scratch for an additional £20k
Click to expand...


Yes
Yes

How is it going to rot mate?
 
bobski said:
Yes
Yes

How is it going to rot mate?
Click to expand...
Just generally worried as the only people I can see advising it are the salespeople.

If it's not properly permeable or breathable it could ruin the concrete or cause damp. Or if it's not self-cleaning then it's a waste of money as paint would do the same job, etc.

Just being an anxious millennial who was never taught how to maintain a building!
 
No

Better than paint - penetrates deeper and bridges fine cracks.

And lasts longer.

Main reason is - if you like the current 'natural' look of your current finish......


Other than that either decent silicone paint or keim.



Bang for your buck - decent facade cream is mental stuff.
 
I had rough cast on my house when I moved in kept it on for a few years and when I had the time took the lot off and not all of it was blown ocr and cullamix job done
 
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