Some of the render on our house was becoming loose, pulling away from the wall. If you tapped it, there was an expensive sounding hollow sound.
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| Cracks appeared years ago |
Cracks have always been there. This part of the house is 50 years old. It doesn't look all that bad, does it? Things like this are bound to happen. A few years ago a bit fell off . . . .The Man of the Place patched it and we thought no more about it.
Now that the house is getting a new coat of paint, more attention was given to the north and east walls of the house. In preparing the wall where our bedroom window is, a great chunk of the render came off and crashed to the ground, shattering as it fell. The hole that was made by the falling bit of render gave us a view to what was really happening. You could fit your hand between the wall and the render. As it is supposed to stick to the brick, this is not good.
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| Our bedroom window - The render was falling off of this wall |
A builder was contacted. While we are waiting for the builder, the decision was made to remove all the very loose render. It came off in sheets.
The east side of the house is worse. If it had just been the section on the north side of the house by our bedroom window it wouldn't have been so bad. Because the damage seems to include almost the entire east wall, the cost has trebled. We may even have to have scaffolding. The money that is set aside for a family vacation is going to have to be reallocated.
To add insult to injury and salt to the wound, some friends who work at a dive centre in Egypt have posted this photo. It was taken on the south platform of Elphinstone reef - where we were last year.
With the caption, "We're going again tomorrow, where are you?" I'll tell you where I am. I am right here and it looks as though I am staying put for some considerable time. (picture a sulky me with arms folded tightly across my chest)
I love our house and I do not really begrudge repairing it. I am just sad that the plans we were starting to make have to be stopped.
2 comments:
Dang! I don't know much about render or what we call stucco, but it seems there should have been something used to adhere it to the brick. I recall seeing chicken wire used back in the good ol' days, but they have a new wire base, but I don't recall the proper name. It will be interesting to see if the new render is applied differently. Sorry your vacation money is taken up for house maintenance but it’s bound to happen now and then. Our last big home maintenance expenditure was for a slab leak -- that was NOT FUN!
AZ (Google won't let me sign in!)
Maybe a summer vacation a little closer to home will have to do this year.... don't they call it a "staycation"? House repairs are unwelcome but necessary. And they make you swear a lot.
The same thing is happening to my son's "render" or stucco on his basement wall at the back of the house. But at least that's only a small area..... yours is huge. Good luck with it.
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