Internal limewashing advice needed

[Tom]

I've got quite a lot of limewashing to do internally (onto lime plaster) but I've never done any before, so I'm after a bit of advice. Here are my questions;

1. Just how dirty a job is this? I've no idea what consistency the limewash should be, so am wondering whether it's likely to flick or drip everywhere.

2. How many coats do you put on? How much drying time between coats.

3. Can this be made at home using NHL 3.5 or is it better to buy it pre-made?

4. What product should I use to add colour to the wash?

5. Finally, can I limewash gypsum plaster? If so, will the colour be quite different to that on the lime plaster?

I'm sure I'll have more questions as time goes by but these will do me for now. Thank you for any advice you can give me

 

[Pford75]

Can't answer all of your q's but here are some thoughts......

1. Just how dirty a job is this? I've no idea what consistency the limewash should be, so am wondering whether it's likely to flick or drip everywhere.

>>Very. it goes everywhere. (but perhaps that's just me...)

2. How many coats do you put on? How much drying time between coats.

>>We needed 5 coats...drying time will vary between coats and on temperature etc. The early coats dry quicker. We managed a coat per day

 

[Tom]

Oh, what have I let myself in for??!! :roll: I've got soooooo much to do. I thought doing 3 coats of liquid wax on all the wood was enough!! Ah well, looks like our house will continue to be a labour of love. Good job I love it to bits

 

[JoceAndChris]

Hi Jaqy, hope all is well.

I haven't done it, but the idea of mixing in colour sounds like a nightmare to me. What if you want to touch up a patch in a year or two's time? Farrow and Ball do all their colours in limewash and distemper, as do Rose of Jericho. Good luck!

 

[robgil]

mask off everything! it takes ages to do detailed work and masking makes it quicker but spillages and drips can wash off easily.
i find that to get an even coat you really have to work lime wash with a brush almost until its dry , but this is on chalk plaster and daub which are very absorbent.
it should be the consistency of milk. put too much on and i crazes so light coats and plenty of them.
use a garden sprayer first to wet down the surface , do this a while before you start depending on what you are lime washing onto and how absorbent it is , if its too dry the lime wash will dry out too quickly and become chalky , make it too wet and you just dilute the lime wash.
i always spray it afterwards a few times with a fine mist of water and leave 24 hours between coats.
i always use putty to make limewash , apparently nhl will leave a chalky finish.
just remember it needs to dry slowly to give a good firm finish.
as Joce says its a nightmare to get two different batches the same colour so mix enough for each coat, i doubt even f+b could mix limewash at a later date to be the same as a previous batch but im no expert either, also if you are mixing your own colours it usually dries out a lot lighter than it is when its wet.

 

[JoceAndChris]

http://www.rose-of-jericho.demon.co.uk/index1.htm

The advice sheets there, on the different products, make for interesting reading.

There's no way I'd make my own. Brave souls who do though!

 

[Moo]

Surely if you have a large acreage to limewash it would be a case of giving the whole lot a coat at one 'go'. Exhausting, of course, but five coats might well take only five days (depending on drying times). And once you'd done the final coat that would be that - no dispiriting prospect of starting all over again on another room.

 

[JoceAndChris]

But then you'd have to have every room the same?

And it would take 5 days to just move the ladder round DWB's living room for one coat I think! It's vast!

 

[Moo]

Ah - I didn't know the scale of DWB's rooms!

 

[Tom]

Hi Jaqy, hope all is well.

Yes, it is now, thank you. We've had some ups and downs, as you do, but things are rolling along again

Joce is right, Moo, these rooms are big. Although upstairs isn't quite as good/bad as downstairs. I do like the theory of what you said but there's just no way I could do all the walls in a day...I'd be knackered!! :lol:

God knows how I'm going to mask off everything. Some of the walls are adjacent to stone walls and I'm not sure how I'm going to cover them from top to bottom :? Plus, at the top, the walls go up between the joists. I can't possibly cover all the joists up, either. You can see this here;

Since using a colour might be just asking for an even bigger headache, I wonder if I should just stick to white. It does look rather nice as it is and bounces the light around the rooms quite well. I must admit to being rather scared of using colour in case I get it wrong and it looks horrendous :shock: OK, so I'm just a scaredy-pants

 

[Moo]

Why not leave them as they are? If they're anything like the photograph, I'd be very happy with them.

 

[robgil]

to retain a damp surface to work on it might be wise to just do one wall at a time , you can easily do a few rooms this way in a day. it would be much easier if there were two of you.
use masking tape on the bits you want to protect although its bits that will be dripped on that will really need protecting , the ceiling joists should be easy to brush around with a 1/2'' brush.
i take it you will be doing the ceilings as well?
a colour wash should not be any more difficult than a white wash , usually its just the last two or three coats that need to be coloured so just make sure you mix up enough for one coat at least , you can measure how much you will need when you do the first few white coats.
also you need to ask your self which walls actually need to be breathable , not all do , for instance you might get away with a more modern type paint on the ceilings.

edit - did you know that an authentic lime wash will be an off white because of the impurities that were in the lime?

 

[christianb]

My personal answers...

(1) very
(2) as many as it takes - 4 or 5 minimum, but it will continue to whiten for months afterwards.
(3) make it from lime putty (from bagged hydrated lime) rather than NHL. The latter isn't as pure white as the former.
(4) use natural earth pigments such as yellow ochre, burnt sienna and the like. Make test batches to see which you like most.
(5) yes. and no, the colour won't be any different after a few coats.

 

[JoceAndChris]

It would be an enormous labour of love to mask everything off. I never do, but then I've got dexterous at cutting in - if I do say so myself - and can paint in a dead straight line, and do weeny sections contrasting with other weeny sections - it's all just practice. Also, normal paint is very good at being wiped up. I'd imagine limewash or distemper to be just the same. I'd have a wet rag on top of the ladder, get those splashes off immediately.

It's your house, so tell me to shut up, and that room will be so impressive whatever you do with it - but if it was mine I'd b tempted to lean that white towards yellow ochre, or some degree of butteriness. It's a big space to have bright white. I'd be tempted to use something like a distemper in Dorset Cream by Farrow and Ball. (though if it were mine I'd want it all hung with tapestries like Hardwick Hall!!!)

 

[Moo]

So, between us, Joce and I have solved your problem.

Leave the walls as they are, and invest in some hangings.

 

[robgil]

adding a small amount of chalk to lime wash makes it a nice kind of off white creamy colour.

 

[skier-hughes]

I spoke with RoJ and they didn't recommend limewash on gypsum, saying it was best to use casein distemper.
I took their advice and all is great.
If you look back at my pics you can see walls of lime and gypsum that have been painted and you can't tell which is which.
We did have white gypsum.
Casein distemper is also thicker, so you dilute the first coat and we only required two further coats.
We used straw as our colour choice.

 

[JoceAndChris]

I spoke with RoJ and they didn't recommend limewash on gypsum, saying it was best to use casein distemper.
I took their advice and all is great.
If you look back at my pics you can see walls of lime and gypsum that have been painted and you can't tell which is which.
We did have white gypsum.
Casein distemper is also thicker, so you dilute the first coat and we only required two further coats.
We used straw as our colour choice.

Very difficult to know how to look back at your pics Graham, without spending about 4 hours searching through all your posts, but Straw looks lovely on the chart!

http://www.rose-of-jericho.demon.co.uk/index1.htm

It's so intereresting reading through the paint advice sheets on the Rose of Jericho website - this thread has helped me too so thanks Jaqy! (I will be making a breathable dining room).

 

[Tom]

If you look back at my pics you can see walls of lime and gypsum that have been painted and you can't tell which is which.

Very difficult to know how to look back at your pics Graham, without spending about 4 hours searching through all your posts

I did think the same thing. Graham, can you give me a link to your posts with the pics, please?

 

[skier-hughes]

Kitchen pics
http://periodproperty.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=10957&hilit=kitchen

pictures of the bedroom painted