Hi. First post here. We live in an old ca. 1860s stone house which has painted cement render. Whilst there's nothing really wrong with it apart from needing painting, we've been toying with the idea with removing it to expose the stonework.
There is an unrendered section of wall to the side of the house and the stonework is a mixture of all sorts and sizes of local stone and I'm assuming this is the case all around the house.
Our thinking is to remove the render and as the stonework isn't the best to paint it to give a painted stone look. This has been done on a few other similar cottages in our area.
I doubt the house would have been rendered originally as it's modern-ish looking and cement, but are we likely to cause any damage or affect the integrity of the stonework underneath by removing it? Or could we actually help it? There are several internal damp patches inside the house, could removing the render help the house "breath".
Lots of questions sorry but any advice welcome.