lime

We want to plaster a feature wall of our living room to have a natural organic finish, a bit like a "faux" lime render. It is a 19th C. house but it is a sand-cement mortar, so the work involved with a lime plaster is unnecessary. Ideally we'd have it plastered flat and add a textured layer at...

Hi all, just wondering what people’s thoughts are on cavity wall insulation on a 1910’s built house constructed with lime mortar. I’ve read a couple of horror stories online about people installing modern cavity wall insulation into a period property which subsequently caused a multitude of damp...

Hey guys, I have a chunk of slate comming for my hearth, 30mm thick, I'm setting it above the laminate so I created a concrete bed around 2cm, so the boards will slide under to create a nice finish. But I'm not sure what to use to stick it down, I want about 5mm, I was thinking flexible tile...

We have some builders currently half-way through lime rendering for us. They've finished scratch coat ... but: -> I think without wetting bricks first -> have nailed hessian to this overnight (into the brick) until temperature consistently back to 5'c from Monday onwards What impact is this...

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Hi. So some of you may have seen my other posts on our hallway rennovation of our 1920s semi. Well it's been back to brick and laths for a couple of months now and we are not getting anywhere! I had to let our agreed builder go, before he put it back together, as I learnt that it had lime...

Hello, So I have recently brought a c.1800 stone cottage and am at the start of the extensive work it needs doing to it. The area which is a bit of mine field is the topic of cement rendering and keeping walls breathable. Now the house is basically split into 3 section as I've illustrated in...

I’m stripping our bathroom and found that behind all the layers of skin and tile over the years, we have lime plaster on the external solid wall. My initial plan was to just leave it be, but annoyingly it is blown from about 300mm above where the top of the new bath is going to be. The wall is...

Hi all - and firstly apologies if this is in the wrong place but hopefully addresses my question! We've recently had a loft conversion done, and as part of this, have put aside a section of the eaves for storage. The builders have plasterboarded out most of the eaves area, but have left the...

House is circa 1910, London yellow stock bricks. Original pointing is quite a light colour. I seen and been quoted for repointing in lime ranging up to around £50/sqm with a 'weather struck' finish. I'm also contemplating doing this myself, with some ready mix products like Limetec or similar...

Hi all Looking to remove the ugly cement pointing that will damage the stonework of an 1860s Terrace house. Pointing has been thickly applied over a traditional lime pointing. This will cause the stones to spall and damp issues within the property. Much of the pointing is already loose so is...

Hi I am planning an extension that will involve removing some old outside walls. I would like to reuse the bricks to make a path and patio and also to build a dwarf wall. Will the bricks be OK for the path and patio? This is the look I was wanting Also I was wanting to build a dwarf wall...

Hi So, 1860s Victorian end Terrace. Old plaster delaminated and have removed from the walls - see pics. The external walls are faced sandstone, with solid stone rubble - they’re almost 30 inches thick! The partition walls are single skinned brick. The previous owners have wallpapered and...

Hi, I'm a novice building a small natural stone (Cotswold) wall with recessed seating – c. 4m long wall, double skin. I have about 200 stones, various shapes, sizes. My plan is to do footing, then get cracking. My questions are: 1.Which mortar do I use? I want it to be light coloured to...

We've had a problem with damp in our kitchen cupboards since we moved in. Only against one of the external walls. This is a single story outshoot from a sandstone building (I would say extension, but all the houses have them so I suspect they were built with them) The outshoot is brick and...

Hi, my house is 1900 Victoria terrace with a ground floor passage ginnel on one side. I have a tiny single brick room on the second floor. The brick is old stock I think and is very soft. The mortar is lime and the original plaster was lime. Someone has skimmed over the plaster with a cement...

Morning all, I removed the architrave around a ~100yr old sash window and a load of plaster came off, which wasn't a surprise. I've removed the lose plaster which has left a gap all around the window between the brick and wood liners / frame. The attached photos show the area above the...

I have uncovered a large red sandstone fireplace (about 2 meters wide and a meter deep). It had been infilled with a large amount of bricks and cement. The stones at the back of the hearth are in very poor condition and in places have brushed away completely, exposing the concrete harl on the...

I have a 1910 London house covered side and back with limewash, then masonry paint on top, it was like this when we bought it and have been trying to figure out how to remove it ever since. The masonry paint is fairly loose and peeling in most areas (common for paint over limewash). Chemical...

I'm about to put the finishing coat of lime and sand on the internal walls, over lime hemp plaster. Can I use standard sharp sand from a builders merchant to mix with the putty? I'm sure the putty supplier will answer this when I go there tomorrow, but I'd prefer to be just a little less...