how can you tell the difference?

[robgil]

how can you tell the difference between

1, cement render and lime render under paint?

2, a paint designed to allow breathability and modern type that seals every thing in?

and if i cant tell the difference should i assume the worst?

and if so , with regards to the paint , is it easy to strip paint off wattle a daub walls?

 

[skier-hughes]

I found by taking a little of the plaster off it had hair in, so I assumed the best and that it was lime.
As for removing paint..... I found a stanley knife blade in my fingers was the best. I tried warming with a paint gun and thought about using a paint stripper, but a few weeks of gently scraping away resulted in bare lime, look back at my pictures, and shredded fingers

 

[JoceAndChris]

Drive a small scewdriver into an inconspicuous place. (This might be tricky if you're at the househunting stage!) Lime render yields easily, it has a soft and crumbly texture almost like chalk. Cement practically needs a hammer to shift.

Modern paint peels off on sheets. Limewash softly flakes, erodes, and crumbles away. And I think I'm right in saying that limewash is always matt. (I have no doubt I'll be corrected if I'm wrong again. :roll: )

I think it's probably pretty rare to find unadulterated limewash on lime render. You're probably looking at a mixture.

As for how linseed oil paint, another breathable one for wood, looks compared to oil eggshell, I wish someone would enlighten me.

Sorry I don't know the answer to your stripping paint off wattle and daub, I bet Strippers of Sudbury would though.

 

[CHRIS]

As for how linseed oil paint, another breathable one for wood, looks compared to oil eggshell, I wish someone would enlighten me.

It will never dry completely and has a very slightly sticky feel to it, it also smells like linseed not nasty oil based stuff. I think if you ran a cloth with some raw linseed on it over the woodwork it would bring out the shine of dull and old linseed paint.

 

[DaveBrigg]

Our new lime render is quite hard, although can still be poked with a screwdriver. It may be imagination, but it feels slightly warmer to the touch than cement, even when painted.
Paints come in various levels of breathability, and thinking back to an earlier thread there doesn't seem to be an industry standard way of measuring and recording where on the scale each type of paint sits. If you can speak to the owners, especially if they have lived there a while, the best bet would be to ask.

 

[Feltwell]

As for how linseed oil paint, another breathable one for wood, looks compared to oil eggshell, I wish someone would enlighten me.

Rather depends on which oil eggshell I guess. Linseed paint has a sort of a mid-sheen to it, more sheen than matt but much less than gloss, is how I'd describe it. Take a look at these pictures and compare it to the glossy finish of the brass sash pulley - yes I know, not very period looking sash cord but it also should never break so I decided to live with it:-

It is lovely stuff to work with and has to be the only paint ever that I love the smell of, even your hands smell lovely after painting! I'm not sure that it is breathable as such, Biff is the knowledgeable one on that sort of thing, more that the oil nourishes the wood.

I've found that it does dry completely hard, although it takes a long while to do so, and once completely dry does not smell of linseed any more. Wiping linseed oil on it will bring the sheen back when it fades - that's what they recommend you do after 7 years, presumably when used externally.

Only major drawback with it is that it takes forever to dry - at least 24 hours, and I'd give it a minimum of 72 before over-coating. In that 24 hours if outside it can give you problems if it rains (I had to rub down all the gable end woodwork again because of that ). And when they say paint each coat thinly, they really really mean it. It's expensive but 1 litre goes a very long way.

I'm definitely using it for all external woodwork, for internal it depends on where it is. I'll use it on my sash windows as I restore them, for skirting boards & architraves I probably won't as it takes too long to dry to be practical with young kids in the house.