help with this farmhouse

[bobby spray]

Good Morning and Happy New Year to everyone on this helpful board. I have a question relating to the building shown in the pictures below. The building in question is a farmhouse of 1855. The construction is solid wall of whinstone with sandstone detailing (quoins, window reveals, cills etc) as this is the west coast of Scotland the building has taken a fair battering from the weather. The mortar has severely eroded in places and Ivy has also damaged a few walls. In the past some cement repairs have been performed – which I am planning to remove. The question is – what lime mix do you think would be appropriate here?

Other jobs to tackle are replacing the plastic pipework with cast iron, killing the acre of Japanese knotweed, deciding on the fate of two huge Wellingtonias, reinstating the overgrown front drive and fixing some dodgy drainage.



Kind regards

bobby

 

[Cubist]

Hello and Welcome,
Others here can and will offer better advice than I concerning the house and its mortar issues. For my part though a word of warning regarding the Giant Sequoia - leave em alone, they'll do more to off-set your personal carbon debt than anything else you could do.

 

[Lacan07]

Good Morning and Happy New Year to everyone on this helpful board. I have a question relating to the building shown in the pictures below. The building in question is a farmhouse of 1855. The construction is solid wall of whinstone with sandstone detailing (quoins, window reveals, cills etc) as this is the west coast of Scotland the building has taken a fair battering from the weather. The mortar has severely eroded in places and Ivy has also damaged a few walls. In the past some cement repairs have been performed – which I am planning to remove. The question is – what lime mix do you think would be appropriate here?

Other jobs to tackle are replacing the plastic pipework with cast iron, killing the acre of Japanese knotweed, deciding on the fate of two huge Wellingtonias, reinstating the overgrown front drive and fixing some dodgy drainage.



Kind regards

bobby
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Welcome to the forum Bobby,

If you were being really fussy you could send a sample of your mortar away to be assessed for its content but that's not exactly cheap!

You can buy powered bags of NHL lime mortar from various outlets but there's quite a debate raging on as to how good NHL lime really is compared to lime putty. The main issue with NHL mortar is some people seem to think it gets progressively harder over the years, so NHL 3.5 might become NHL 5 in time. However, this might suit a property like yours in the harsh, coastal environment of West Scotland. If you wanted to explore this avenue I'd go with NHL 3.5 or even NHL 2 to be safe.

Or a lime putty based mortar might be more suitable to your property, this would be softer, more breathable and allows for more movement within the structure of the building. You could probably get it ready mixed in bag form or you could buy your own putty and create your own mixes with sand from a builders merchant.

 

[fernicarry]

Nice house. The sandstone has lasted really well. That would suggest you're not too exposed, at least you're a good deal less exposed than I am. The sandstone quoins on my house were quite badly eroded in many places. The contractors who repointed me used NHL3.5 supplied by Mason's Mortar. Whinstone as you have probably found is extremely hard. Good fun if you need to core through it...

Window openings seem to be the weak point in my building. At least 2 letting in copious amounts of water over the years which wrecked anything and everything made of timber within the vicinity. Your original window at the side is looking a bit ropey so you might want to take a close look at it. The modern replacements may also be hiding damage as the window fitters are unlikely to have concerned themselves with the state of the surrounding fabric. Express Timber in Paisley are a good source for timber sections for repairing sash windows.