Alternatives to internal lime render?

[realslyshady]

Hello helpful people,

In renovating our 1880 semi-detached house (construction stone rubble), we need to re-render several large walls. Builder suggested sand and cement at roughly £40/m2. On asking for a permeable option, his price for lime render comes in at £90/m2 — and we'll pay it if we have to, but we're on a tight budget, and I've been wondering about alternatives — like EcoCork or Bauwer perlite, perhaps? I was wondering whether anyone had experiences of alternative breathable renders, or could recommend others? I know we have to get the house breathing (we've seen first-hand the appalling damage caused by cement in well-meaning 'repairs') but I'm trying very hard to keep costs down.

As always, advice and ideas very welcome!

simon

 

[a twig]

In my experience hydraulic lime will be your cheapest option, "specialist" modern stuff tends to come out more pricey.

As a fag packet example using some online retailers, buying enough premixed hydraulic lime render (just add water) to do 1m2 at 20mm thickness comes in at ~£20 per metre + VAT, and that's buying low volumes without an account or anything. Buying sand and hydraulic lime separately and mixing it yourself would lower the cost further. Essentially then it seems like your chap is charging you around £65 labour per m2 - seems like a lot to me, so might be worth asking the question or shopping around?

For a decent sized wall at that price you could by one of those fancy air powered lime mortar harling guns, and the materials, and splat it on yourself!

There are some expensive trades around, I was quoted £5,000 recently by a Heritage firm to lime plaster two walls and a ceiling on a 3.5m x 4m room :lol: :lol:

Usual disclaimer - all this is from my experience, your mileage may vary, value of investments can go up or down etc...

 

[GPHouse]

I had a play with Ecocork at Mike Wye.

Interesting stuff but the outside of your house becomes slightly spongy.... Weird stuff but really easy to apply... worth considering.

I've been looking at something similar - if its any consolation I was quoted £80 per sqm which I was staggered by. This was a non conservation specialist who has worked with lime before.

I also saw some other coatings at Ty Mawr / Lime.org which looked interesting - Glaster. A bit sparkly.

It might be worth speaking to Ty Mawr or Mike Wye to ask what produicts they recommend, and what pricing might be... I haven't got around to it yet as I;m having to deal with a 12M deep well i've just found under the foundations of the back wall!

 

[Flipjango]

we're going to use Bauwer light. I was very impressed with their technical data, and can be applied by a normal plastered/rendered so should cut costs. Can even be DIY'd. It doesn't work out particularly expensive.

 

[realslyshady]

Thanks for the replies, folks. Greatly appreciate your input! May simply have to fork out for lime — we have well over 100m2 of wall that needs it, but having seen the damage done by cement, I don't want to go making things worse! There are half-a-dozen wooden lintels and two stone lintels that need replacing first, plus all the pointing, so I'll keep researching in the meantime — any other suggestions very welcome.

 

[steveb]

Hi Flipjango

I'd be interested to see how your experience with Bauwer Light ends up. It would be a no brainer for us except that it seems to be cement based rather than lime - although with stated properties (breathability) nearer that of lime.

If the stats are true then it should be a very good solution. We're looking at this and ecocork or similar for both internal and external rendering over a old thick rubble stone wall.