28 Brunswick Terrace, Brighton

Cracked, delaminating cement render on a Grade I listed rear elevation

The rear elevation of No. 28 Brunswick Terrace had been rendered in cement at some point in its history. By the time we were called, that render had partially delaminated from the wall and was extensively cracked. A building surveyor acting for the leaseholders had already recommended its removal, and our instruction was clear: take the render off and deal with whatever was behind it.

What was behind it was a void of roughly 2m² in the bungaroosh. Cement render is far harder and less permeable than the lime-bound flint, brick and pebble wall it was covering, so moisture had been held against the core rather than allowed to dry out. The bungaroosh had softened and fallen away behind the render skin, leaving a hollow that only became visible once the cement was removed. This is the pattern described in our guide to rendering bungaroosh walls: the wall looks intact until the wrong render comes off.

Through a basement flat, across the garden and up four lifts

Brunswick Terrace has no rear vehicle access. The only route to the work face was through an occupied basement flat, out into the rear garden and up four lifts of scaffolding. Every bag of hydraulic lime and graded aggregate, every salvaged flint, and every sack of waste travelled that route by hand, with the flat protected and left clean at the end of each day. On a rebuild of this size that is a substantial amount of material, and the logistics shaped the programme as much as the masonry did.

Rebuilding the bungaroosh in lime, with the original flints put back

The defective bungaroosh was dismantled in controlled sections back to sound construction, keeping the surrounding wall stable throughout. Original flints and reusable masonry were cleaned and set aside. The core was then rebuilt in progressive lifts of a hydraulic lime-based mix with graded aggregate, each lift allowed to gain strength before the next so the new work bonded fully into the old. Salvaged flints were re-set to match the original construction, stainless steel helical reinforcement was introduced where restraint between new and existing masonry was needed, and damaged brickwork around the perimeter was locally rebuilt and consolidated. Reveals, arrises and junctions were reformed and the pipework and ventilation outlet made good, leaving the wall ready for a breathable lime render rather than a return to cement.

A structurally sound, fully bonded bungaroosh wall on one of Brighton's most significant listed terraces, rebuilt with compatible materials and the original flints, and prepared for a lime finish that will let the wall dry as it was built to. The works were carried out to a fixed price as a variation to the original render contract, with the existing scaffold retained.