Lime plaster repair / replacement advice

[Kearn]

And the more recent update - Earthborn Damson Mousse on the walls (wip), starting to finally enjoy turning this back into a room again rather than what has felt like making more mess and removal up to now!! The colour looks a bit darker than it dries, plus no full panel will be visible one the bathroom suite is in, so I think (hope) we can cope with the colour as accents as currently it feels a bit oppressive in an empty room. Anyway, this is effectively an en suite with bath, so a more relaxing tone is appropriate!

Hoping to get this room complete in the next week or so - there is a rather large bath, plus the rest of the suite currently waiting downstairs!!

 

[Kearn]

[/quote] 100% buy ready mixed. .[/quote]

couldn't agree more!! even mixing in the goat hair to a tub of ready lime for the skim was great exercise, but tricky to get the right density and distribution. lucky for me I have a store 10 mins away, so no need to pay pallet postage or pre-plan...

 

[Kearn]

When I started lime plastering everyone was using sand lime mixes but it became more and more apparent that this was a relatively new innovation and that any lime plaster in my part of the country (East Anglia) which was more than 150 years old was a completely different beast. Instead of being a sand based render it was a mat of hair held together with lime and chalk. Why this went out of fashion in our area is a mystery but I could hazard a guess that it was in tandem with the development of reading skills and craft colleges.

Sand lime is great for plastering on to brick, block or stone. They are all rigid substrates and hair is optional. Timber frame and daub on the other hand is slightly flexible and you dont want a rigid final coat. The general rule is that the layers should be -less- rigid nearer the surface or at least not -more- rigid.

So these days in East Anglia on timber frames chalk lime hair mat is derigeur and in my travels to other parts of the country I have noticed that -old- plaster onto timber frame will be the same chalk hair lime mat. But in other parts of the country there is much more local building stone so most old houses are built of solid construction and the lime suppliers have not cottoned on to what for them would be a minority requirement for chalk hair lime mat mortar

agreed - all my plaster, Tudor and early Georgian, is chalk, so I will track some down for future rooms. The sand based skim worked OK in the bathroom for patch repairs, but I get the feeling chalk may be easier to work with for a novice!

 

[Kearn]

Realised it has been a while - and thankfully I finished this bathroom quite a few months ago, but thought I would share a few before/after pics. Very happy with the overall result, although can't say plumbing in a period house is much fun!!

 

[Kearn]

Also quite happy with the mirror insert into what used to be a (long removed) Victorian window inserted into the box framing.