Oh yeah, all the Andys ganging up on me :RpS_biggrin:
Someone said it earlier in the thread, but try hacking off render on rib lath bonded straight to the brickwork - its like trying to hack off them white Victorian tiles stuck on with s/c in old bathrooms/ kitchens.
I worked for a firm called malabright (gibbo did aswell) in the 90's and the spec on the job was building paper, EML, bond, skim. Obviously it was internal but the building paper on this refurb was to stop the painted brick underneath 'contaminating the new plaster'. Anyway, tap it and is sounded blown, hit an office desk off it and it was like an eggshell.
Some years later, the site agent off that job was cont manager on a Laings job I was doing the external s/c on. Insisted on building paper under mesh n render on externals. It failed miserably within 3 yrs
Each to their own in different conditions I suppose, every job is different