Is it cheaper to remove the render and re-render or to restore the brickwork?

Removing render and re-rendering is a great way to remove old and tired render and re-applying it to make the walls of your property to look nice. It is as simple as it sounds. The costing of this will be to remove render and re-render. Re-rendering can cost anything between £40-£80/sqm and removing the render can cost between £15-£44/sqm.

Another way to make the walls look good is to restore the brickwork. Compared to re-rendering, restoring the brickwork may include many things such as jet-washing the brickwork and re-pointing the mortar in order to make the wall look good. This means that not only will there be a cost to remove the render, there may be a number of other costs in order to restore the brickwork. The cost of removing the render here will stay the same (£10-£45/sqm). The cost to jet-washing walls can cost anywhere between £100 and £350, whereas re-pointing the mortar in the brickwork as well as restoring the brickwork can cost anywhere between £30-£120/sqm depending on what is required.

When we compare the cost of a standard semi-detached house at 120m2 we can see the costing:
Render removal and re-rendering = £7,200.00-£14,880.00
Restoring the brickwork = £7,900.00-£20,150.00

To restore the brickwork will not be cheaper than re-rendering with a typical 120m2 semi-detached house and brickwork can look good when fully restored, However, by paying the extra for re-rendering, you are also getting protection against the elements and render doesn’t have to be as maintained as brickwork. Short term, restoring the brickwork is the better option. Long term, re-rendering is the cheapest option.