earth render

[charlie-ia]

went on the lime course in malton yesterday, and had a go.
i learnt that i have a lot to learn if nothing else!

we did earth rendering too, which was really good as i didnt realise that some of our lime plaster is actualy earth render. i think our rocks are bedded in lime, and then have been earth rendered. in various places in the house, and outside, various stones have come loose or falllen out. i was thinking that the best plan would be to bung them all back in place immediately using this mud mix.
our house is in ireland so we cant work on it continually (i wonder how the dehumidifier is diong...) last time we went we did emergency repairs to doors and gutters, dug some rudimentary drainage channels and took down the tanking. next time we go its windows and more exploring.
this is going to be one step at a time and slow.

My theory is that if we get the stones back in it will be
good practice(in both senses) and prevent further deteriation. then hopefully we can stand back and get our priorities in order.
i thought we could do it with earth insted of lime as its quick cheap, easy to do and easy to undo (when we're a bit more confident with the lime (ive never used cement before either).
i wonder if it will be a waste of time and better just done once and if it will introduce moisture in to the parts we're trying to dry out.
i dont assume it will last long outside at all, but i thought if we did a piece of the small garden wall it would clearly show how it reacts and works.interesting even to watch fall apart. (perhaps it will last suprisingly well?)

is it ok for small indoor repairs as a permanent solution?
the existing mortar is about NHL2 from the look of it. (according to the man on the course) it doesnt appear to have much or any hair in it either, in the lime or earth. (is this unusual? all the stuff i saw in malton was revoltingly hairy!)

have any of you used earth renders or mortar? it looks so much fun!

 

[middi]

Quite a number of humble or " workers" cottages were built with nothing but " mud", the main mortar constituents being nothing more than sieved sub soil, straw, hair, with a good helping of cow dung all puddled to create a gungy mess to build with. the quantity of these materials was at the discretion of the builder or determined by as far as he had to walk to get them. Usually at the bottom of the average garden.

A lot of the early " added on " chimeys, brick or stone, were built with just clay and subsoil mixes.

Internal mud renders were used, smoothed over or trowled, on stonework or internal wattle and daub panels in oakframed buildings. Some of these renders are still in exellent condition today and they can, and should, be repaired like for like.

For external application a lot more of "binding" material was used but the lasting effect in not very long. Who really cared anyway when one could go to the bottom of the plot dig up another lot and slap it back on the walls

I have done some repairs, internally, with just sub soil mix and it worked out quite nice, cheated a bit by using a modern steel float .

It looked quite nice after the panels were " whitewashed".