Porthtowan lime rendering a holiday cottage

Towancott Cottage is thought to be the oldest dwelling in Porthtowan, 8 miles from Truro Cornwall and dates back to the 1600s.
This client wanted to rectify the damp problems on the gable end of their holiday cottages. The building is constructed of stone and rendered with sand and cement which means that water gets trapped in the walls and creates a damp problem over a period of time. We removed all of the original render to check for any structural problems before the new rendering commenced.

At this stage, there were some structural issues uncovered. A disused chimney flue was found which had been covered at the top of the building and had subsequently cracked and let in amounts of water. This meant that we needed to fill and rebuild this part of the chimney using stone and heatproof insulation.

After the structural issues were solved, we began the rendering. There are pictures of the first coat (Harling) and the second scratch coat.

Here is the 3rd and final coat before painting.. The sun even showed up for a day!