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I've just applied woodfibre external wall insulation on my house. It's not yet been rendered.
It's a very old timber frame house and where the beam ends originally protruded through the original lime plaster, and now I have applied external wall insulation onto the frame, these beam ends still protrude, though not very far. - I could perhaps leave them exposed and cut in the render around them, and seal the joint with frame sealant, though with the risk that if water gets down between the beam and the insulation it will rot the insulation from the inside. - Option 2 is render straight over them, though there is the risk that differential expansion will cause the render to crack at this point. Or could I stick a layer of expanded metal lath over them to stop that? - Option 3 is to make little lead hats to cover them, tucked in between the beam and the render at the top, but running out over the render underneath, though with the drawback that this won't allow the beam ends to breathe.
Which do you reckon is best? Or any other ideas?!!
Seal, mesh and then render over, although in the LONG run, that may cause more decay in the ends of the beams than leaving them exposed and ventillated.
I would be worried that any sort of detail that exposes then will lead to a MAJOR weekness in the water resistance of the rener.
Cutting them off was what I was not going to do. It's an old timber frame that's stood for over 300 years. For me to cut bits off to fit my insulation on is wrong, to me. Timber, when you say "seal" - what were you thinking to seal with?... To avoid the long term risk of decay I was hoping to retain the breathability of the render, by not using something impermeable to seal them with - breathable roofing membrane then lime render perhaps?
Why not cut them off flush with the wall, woodfibre over and render then plant the ends back on afterwards for effect, who would know? (except all of us on here). even if they did rot it would not effect your house and they could be replaced easily.
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