Hahaha 'free quote' - message saved for future litigation 
On the damp note, the blokes have done a very thorough job, so this week i'll be re pointing the bottom bricks (as its an old property, a lot of mortar/brick surface got chipped off with the exterior render when they stripped it to find the damp course & inject)
I'm going to repoint the bottom 7 inches of the house, and paint over with a black rubber paint....I'm keeping 2" away from the damp course line, to prevent 'bridging' it, but can I bring the top plaster/render over the damp course (as in from the top of the house downwards) a couple of inches, into a bell curve/drip bead.
Hahaha epic u.k. slang no doubt
In all likelihood you've got portland cement mortar and render, but if your place is old enough it may have a straight lime or hydraulic lime mortar and render. Lots of places in the UK do. Old bricks were softer than modern ones and portland cement will fail and cause spalling damage, so work out what the existing stuff is before you put new stuff on. Lime/sand is a PITA and will take weeks instead of hours (just sitting on the wall, not actual working time). Wet the area thoroughly, then let the water sheen drink in, before applying. Overly thirsty surfaces/mortar joints are no good. Jumbo tube calking guns are great for repointing (make sure to rake out loose mortar), but if you're rendering right across there's no need to be clean.
Tbh, I question why they bolstered off the render. I would have simply drilled and injected, but I've never done a damp fix. I remember reading something about the molecular size of siloxane vs silicone, and spread through capilary passages in
brick & mortar concrete. It travels like crazy, but there's lots of polymers that get used too, I think, and cost way less than siloxane, so hard to say what they used. I trust it was injected, not just surface applied.
I question putting on a bituminous coating. It'll do as much to seal out moisture as to seal it in. If water is coming up from the bottom rather than in from the side...idk. You'll also have bond issues with putting a simple sand/cement or sand/lime render over it, if that's what you mean (tar to pointed brick & render over).
I would use ethylene vinyl acetate in the [appropriate] pointing and render mix at 10% by total mix volume. It has excellent bond, waterproofing, and rheological (troweling) properties, no shit. You may see it in the hardware as exterior grade wood glue, abbreviated EVA. (Don't use interior grade PVA plyvinyl acetate, aka bondcrete, which re-softens with water.) I'd post you some dry but it's a white powder, lol. I'd up the % if going over cured rubber paint and test a spot before doing the lot.
More than anything, I'd work out where the water was coming from. If it's bad gutter fall, a full soakwell, a fucking artesian, etc. I might also hold off on the full repairs until you can gauge the effectiveness of the damp fix. If problems persist after you render you'll never know if it's the newly applied render drinking up and feeding through the brick around their fix (clearly it was coming through to the inside?) or the same old brick drinking from whatever source. And if you're not happy they can do more work without fucking up your new troweling.
Who loves his typing!
