17th century cotswold stone cottage

[mjc]

hi all

I have recently purchased a cotswold stone cottage that originally was a one up one down. it now sits in a row of five terraces which where added on at later dates over the years.

I am in the process of restoring it after what seems like many years of neglect.

I have just finished of taking of the plasterwork of the walls to reveal the cotswold stone and have unearthed a few other features like old wooden lintel where there where once doors and windows all very exciting stuff for me anyway ?

I would like some advise on which lime mortar to use on re-pointing internal walls. As the property was built into the side of a bank there are some damp issues and I was told that because the previous owners had used cement that I needed to reveal the cotswold stone in order for it to be able to breath.

Regards

MJC[/list][/quote][/code]

 

[biffvernon]

I would like some advise on which lime mortar to use on re-pointing internal walls.

The simple answer is to mix one part dry hydrated lime, the stuff available in a bag at any builders' merchant, with three parts any old sharp sand. Add water to taste and stir well.

There are more complex answers but take some time to search through the archives as there is masses of stuff about lime.

 

[Gareth Hughes]

hi all

I have recently purchased a cotswold stone cottage that originally was a one up one down. it now sits in a row of five terraces which where added on at later dates over the years.

I have just finished of taking of the plasterwork of the walls to reveal the cotswold stone and have unearthed a few other features like old wooden lintel where there where once doors and windows all very exciting stuff for me anyway ?


MJC[/list]

[/code][/quote]

I'm going to be very rude, I'm afraid, but I hope you're going to put the all plaster back on, or do you prefer the utterly inauthentic, tasteless, vulgar, tatty and horrid 1970s pub / "Flintstones" look?

 

[Nemesis]

Well, I was going to say something similar, but as is my way much more delicately and sensitively than that great gurtly clodhopping GH...


Lime plaster would be good!

 

[Ian Bond]

Maybe it was a horrible modern gypsum (or even cement based, inappropriate damp proofing) plaster that was removed?

I'd have thought that even the lowliest cottage would have at least had limewashed internal walls, if not plastered?

How high up the wall does the earth bank reach?

Now the plaster's off, does the wall look wet/damp? Any rotten skirting, floorboards etc?

I remember that Marianne Suhr treated a "built-into-a-hill damp wall situation" in her cottage, and this was described on PPUK. It was on Property of the Month, but sadly it appears to have been removed.

Marianne put up a wainscot (timber panelled) wall, with ventilation behind to let the damp evaporate. This would save dealing with damp plaster related problems, and may last 20 years or so before it needed to be redone. Pity it's gone!!!

The Damp FAQ 'sticky' thread may be of use too, and give you some ideas.

A picture or two, and some more details about the problem / how deeply the house is built into the bank would help.

 

[Nemesis]

The new forum keeps logging me out!

Ho Hum!

However - some back articles are still on site:

http://www.periodproperty.co.uk/ppuk_discovering_ppom_200711.shtml

Others may have been archived?

 

[Ian Bond]

Pity - that was one of the best - far more than a 'look how fab our massive house is' type of thing. Yes, I am jealous

It also covered the effects of cement renders and 'quick fix' waterproof masonry paints too. Someone had paid £000s to seal the poor house's fate with that horrid stuff, but Marianne came to the rescue!!!!

 

[Nemesis]

Suggest you send Simon an e-mail and ask for its 'restoration' to the site!

I agree with you.

 

[Ian Bond]

Done - let's see if Simon can find it.

May be relevant - penetrating damp, built into hillside. Plus all the terrible modern 'remedies' that Ms Suhr put right.

 

[Ian Bond]

Good news

Simon's kindly replied, and they're busy transferring stuff to the new verion of the site, so the missing articles will appear in due course.

Hope we haven't scared mjc off though :/

 

[Ushy M]

"I'm going to be very rude, I'm afraid, but I hope you're going to put the all plaster back on, or do you prefer the utterly inauthentic, tasteless, vulgar, tatty and horrid 1970s pub / "Flintstones" look?"

A previous owner of our C17th stone cottage has taken the plaster off some of our internal walls, revealing the stone (other walls still covered in gypsum... sigh.....). Now that I know how tasteless and vulgar our naked walls make me, could anyone advise on what sort of finish the walls would have been c. 1760? Lime wash only or lime plaster? It would have been 2 x 2-up, 2-down cottages originally, converted (we think in the sixties, pre-listing) to 1 cottage and part of the local Duke's estate.

 

[JanieB]

I stayed in the same hotel I have always used when visiting my relatives in Cumbria, to find that it has been taken over by some Americans. They have stripped the bedroom walls down to the stone and put in "pretend" cubby-holes and shelves. These are "artfully" decorated with mucky old boxing gloves and open old books :x .

Now, since this was always one of the "posh" hotels, it would most definitely not have had the bare stone showing. The room also smelt rather disgustingly of old rocks (not surprising).

Nothing to do with the 16th century building, but they were trying to do the gourmet chef bit and failing.

 

[Gareth Hughes]

"I'm going to be very rude, I'm afraid, but I hope you're going to put the all plaster back on, or do you prefer the utterly inauthentic, tasteless, vulgar, tatty and horrid 1970s pub / "Flintstones" look?"

A previous owner of our C17th stone cottage has taken the plaster off some of our internal walls, revealing the stone (other walls still covered in gypsum... sigh.....). Now that I know how tasteless and vulgar our naked walls make me, could anyone advise on what sort of finish the walls would have been c. 1760? Lime wash only or lime plaster? It would have been 2 x 2-up, 2-down cottages originally, converted (we think in the sixties, pre-listing) to 1 cottage and part of the local Duke's estate.

99.99% certainly lime plaster.

some useful advice here on lime and its use:

http://www.restorationmortars.co.uk/Using%20Lime.doc

 

[Penners]

Now that I know how tasteless and vulgar our naked walls make me...

Ushy - it's your house. If you want bare stone walls you're perfectly entitled to have bare stone walls (unless it's listed, in which case your CO should be consulted).

Don't let the lime police tell you what's good taste and what isn't. Taste is in the eye of the beholder, and it's you that has to behold the wall every day.

If you've hacked off gypsum, you've done nothing to the detriment of the building, and future occupiers can always lime plaster it if they want to.

Penners dons flak jacket and tin hat...

 

[Gervase]

To true - de gustibus non disputandum. Just don't tell my wife, who still has a strange hankering for naked stone. Philistine!

 

[Penners]

de gustibus non disputandum

Caesar adsum jam forti
Pompey aderat
Caesar sic in omnibus
Pompey sic inat

 

[Gervase]

O puer, O puer, O puer!

 

[biffvernon]

I copied it into a famous internet translator and got this message

Too many translation requests by millions of users. Please click here or try again later.

Didn't know that PPUK was that popular.

 

[Gareth Hughes]

Taste is in the eye of the beholder, and it's you that has to behold the wall every day.

Penners dons flak jacket and tin hat...

Well, you'd be disappointed if I don't come back on that. "Taste is in the eye of the beholder" is precisely the sort of pseudo-democratic relatavistic cr@p that has led to the whole country looking like a dungheap over the past 100 years. You can't say "that looks horrible" any more because the response is "well it's my taste and I like it". Sorry Mr Pleb, but you are wrong to like it and just as I get annoyed by poor written English, architectural grammar needs to be respected too.

Back when you knew your place, your educated landlord would impose his taste on the look of everything. It may not have fitted in with modern notions of everyone having "rights" to inflict their appalling visual sense on the world at large, but it did mean things looked better.

Can I have my cocoa now?

 

[borischarlton]

Well, you'd be disappointed if I don't come back on that. "Taste is in the eye of the beholder" is precisely the sort of pseudo-democratic relatavistic cr@p that has led to the whole country looking like a dungheap over the past 100 years. You can't say "that looks horrible" any more because the response is "well it's my taste and I like it". Sorry Mr Pleb, but you are wrong to like it and just as I get annoyed by poor written English, architectural grammar needs to be repected too.

Back when you knew your place, your educated landlord would impose his taste on the look of everything. It may not have fitted in with modern notions of everyone having "rights" to inflict their appalling visual sense on the world at large, but it did mean things looked better.

That really takes the biscuit!! That is the most pompous post to date, and there really have been a few!!

Rob