Lime plaster in bathroom

[dans]

I'm at a stumbling block here...

In my Oak framed house, my bathroom faces an outside wall. Do I...

a) Lime plaster this wall and expect that damp patches will occur in the lime as it soaks up the moisture and condensation from the bath/shower
or
b) Plasterboard & Gypsum this wall, therefore making the timber framed wall 'unbreathable'...?

Thanks as always....

Dan

 

[Schoolmarm]

a. Is the best solution. Also if you can hide a fan somewhere in addition to lots of warmth your bathroom should stay nice and dry.

 

[agbagb]

a. with good ventilation

Our cruck suffered from many years behind panneling and hardboard, as it was a perfect environment for the woodworm.

b. could be OK if with a vapour barrier and space between well ventilated

 

[skier-hughes]

Our bathroom has 3 outside walls, none of which are now timber framed in this section of our 1300's house.
We have an opening window instead of a vent.
We lime plastered all 4 walls internally and repointed with lime externally.
We painted the lime with Caesin Distemper.
After a super hot bath or shower the walls go all amazing shades as different areas take up the moisture and in an hour or so everything is back to it's own equilibrium with equal colouring.

Sorted.

 

[dans]

That's great - Lime it is - thank you all!

We'll have an extractor fan going out through the loft, then the roof anyhow, so it should minimize damp...

Thanks again!

 

[Gervase]

I've put in battens, sheepswool insulation and Heraklith board, which I've lime-plastered. And, where showers and tiled areas go, the Heraklith is replaced by green moisture-resistant plasterboard, tanked with the BAL tanking system. So far, in the bathroom I've done like this, the walls have stayed snug and dry, the showers work because the battening ensures that verticals are true and nothing leaks.

 

[skier-hughes]

Yep, we had to batten the shower corner!

 

[dans]

Our shower corner has been purposefully placed against internal stud walls, which makes things a little easier...

Thanks again.....

 

[MatthewC]

We'll have an extractor fan going out through the loft, then the roof anyhow, so it should minimize damp..

Make sure that your vent hose is as short as possible. I wondered why our extractor wasn't working very well (if at all) and when I went up to the loft I found that the electrician had connected a >2 metre length of flexible hose to the fan, and then connected that to the 800mm bit of hose attached to our carefully positioned vent slate. There was no way that the fan had the power; the air compressed a bit and couldn't flow. I just connected up the 800mm bit direct to the fan (as intended) and it works pretty well now.

 

[tobydog]

Frustratingly this is something we relied on the electrician to fix in our house but he only fitted a fan with the strength to just get the air through a normal wall. The vent pipe in question in the loft is 6-7m long!.

When a much better electrician came along he pointed out the error ( :x ) and fitted a powerful inline fan in the loft. This clears a large amount of air, however, with the overrun, it also sucks out a great deal of heat. Couldn't win but logistically we can't move the vent.

That reminds me, I need to insulate the vent pipe because it now sits above the new loft insulation and will be colder with condensing issues.

 

[JohnB]

I've just discovered that my bathroom fan wasn't wired up, and there was no ducting attached to it, so it would have vented into the loft if it had worked :?.

 

[MatthewC]

I've just discovered that my bathroom fan wasn't wired up, and there was no ducting attached to it, so it would have vented into the loft if it had worked :?.

I've got some spare flexible pipe! :lol:

 

[JohnB]

I've just discovered that my bathroom fan wasn't wired up, and there was no ducting attached to it, so it would have vented into the loft if it had worked :?.

I've got some spare flexible pipe! :lol:

I discovered it when the rain got in, and a load of dirt fell through the fan and into the bath. After that was cleaned up, more landed on one of my tenants when she was having a shower! So I've taken down part of the plasterboard ceiling, and the fan will be scrapped!