lime wash

[vicky whitworth]

Hello, we are shortly to have our cottage lime washed. Part of the job will be to lime wash onto new, bare lime-based rough cast and part will go onto newly repointed rubble stone. We want the whole lot to look reasonably cohesive so that the rough-cast bits and the rubble stone bits look similar.

How many coats do you reckon we need of lime wash and will we be able to have the same number of coats on the different finishes? We're not planning on doing this ourselves - we're having a man in!

Also a question on colour - our cottage seems to have been various colours in the past but is currently white - ish. All modern paint finishes (which are being taken off first) over in places a variety of colours of old limewash. We think we want to go for white limewash rather than coloured for a couple of reasons. It seems to me that it will be easiest to touch up the limewash over the years if it is in basic white - no colour matching required and secondly while I love some of the coloured finishes (what I think are ochre?) sometimes it all seems a bit garish. White is plain and simple for a country cottage - yes? What are your thoughts? I know that it is personal taste but I wondered what you would do and if you could recommend any soft and subtle colours for lime wash?

 

[Flyfisher]

Fortunately, I doubt we have a choice as we're listed and the house has always been white. But, to be honest, I think I'd go with white anyway because of what I've read about the near-impossibility of accurately matching coloured limewashes so that, as you point out, it would be difficult to make any future patching invisible.

Having said that, I've also read that limewash should be redone every few years anyway, although 'few' seems to vary from about 3 to 6 years, so interim patching might not be such a big consideration.

Suffolk Pink is a traditional colour around these here parts but might be less appropriate in Devon. I know what you mean about some fo the more garish colours, but I think it depends to a large extent to the locale. And personal taste of course.

 

[FamilyWiggs]

I doubt the patching issue matters, as FF points out - it should be redone every few years anyway. Go with whichever colour you like best. A nice ochre will be very handsome and will be interesting as the colour changes over time. White is popular.

Either way, please cn you post some before and after pics. I also have two halves to my house - the original 16thC local stone, and what can only be described as an awful, unmatched, differently coloured, "foreign" crazy-paving-facing-over-brieze-blocks early 2000s extension. I am keen to limewash the whole lot - and am interested to see how the limewash can bring uniformity to the two halves.

 

[JoceAndChris]

How lovely for you Vicky! :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: So very jealous here!

Just on colour - it's your house and go for what you like. My feeling is that when you see proper limewashed, colourful, houses they aren't garish. It's the brightly painted non-limewash houses that can be a bit garish, because the texture of the paint and the way it weathers is very different. If it was my choice I'd probably go for soft ochre with sage green windows, like the Temple of Flora at Stourhead. Lots of pink roses and pastel hollyhocks too -but that's just my taste.

As white is very discreet it maybe you'd prefer that, no doubt a colour stands out and says "look at me" a lot more.

It's going to look fab I'm sure, and as FW says please post pics!

 

[fjpdesigns]

I would give the house a minimum of five coats, and be prepared to go higher, even up to ten coats. Thin limewash is far better than trying to cut corners with a thicker mix. It always looks as though you havn't got it thick enough till you see it the next day. It's like magic!
Be aware that if you apply a coloured limewash and then decide you don't like it, it will take loads of coats of white to hide it, and it will probably still show through when the walls get wet. Colour matching can be a real problem as the liquid limewash is so much darker than when it dries. I would stick to white and live with it for a few years.You can always do a coloured wash later.
One last tip - cover everything up before you paint; limewash will splash everywhere, and wipe it off glass and wood with a clean wet sponge before it dries.

 

[robgil]

limewash looks patchy anyway doesnt it? especially when it rains and its drying out.
there is a beautiful suffolk pink cottage up the road from me a bit painted in limewash and its stunning , when it rains its colour variations are simply gorgeous.
our cottage on the other hand is painted in a nice pink sandex bubblegum , it looks awful.

 

[vicky whitworth]

Nice bubblegum! Oh, that raises another point - what's the view on the black strip at the bottom of the walls? Is it bitumen traditionally and is it something to do about water splashing up from the eaves and if so is it only relevant to thatch where there are no gutters? Thank you.

 

[robgil]

that black stuff round my cottage is a water resistant bubble gum paint , as a result my brick plinths dont get a chance to dry out. when i strip all this gunk off i will be lime washing the whole lot. the thatch should send the water away from the house due to such a large overhang.

 

[Flyfisher]

We also have a bitumen-like paint all around the base of our walls and I've wondered about what to do when we finally get around to repainting. It's certainly very common to see these days but, assuming bitumen is only about 200 years old, what did they do before then?

I presume it's to protect against rain splashing up the walls, although the extent of this would depend on the ground conditions and, as robgil says, is probably not a big issue with a big thatch overhang. Perhaps they just didn't worry about splashing too much?

I was reminded of the advantages of large overhanging roofs when in Austria recently (period property renovation has the curious effect of changiong one's focus when in foreign parts - while others revel in the dramatic scenery I was wandering around gawping at the constructional details of their buildings). It seems to me that a large roof overhang is a wonderful thing for helping keep a house dry as the walls and the immediately surrounding ground will rarely be rained upon.

We were able to comfortably sit out on our guest house balcony in the pouring rain (and it rained a lot!) without so much as a drop of water falling on us. I wonder why such construction never caught on in the UK where even a slightly leaky gutter can cause havoc with walls.

 

[robgil]

i dont think splashing around the foot of a wall would really do too much damage , i suppose it depends on what the wall is made from , if bare brick just keep an eye on the pointing and drainage. the main priority i would imagine is for the wall to be able to dry out afterwards.

 

[JoceAndChris]

Rob - your cottage is so pretty, (even with the unbreathing pink) I can see why you wnat to fight for it so badly.

We also have a bitumen-like paint all around the base of our walls and I've wondered about what to do when we finally get around to repainting. It's certainly very common to see these days but, assuming bitumen is only about 200 years old, what did they do before then?

I presume it's to protect against rain splashing up the walls, although the extent of this would depend on the ground conditions and, as robgil says, is probably not a big issue with a big thatch overhang. Perhaps they just didn't worry about splashing too much?

Ours has a stone plinth for this reason, I suspect it's original in places judging from what I've found in the garden (not the front York stone section though.) I'm sure it was designed to keep the weather and spashing off the rubble stone, or render.

At the front of the house, where the worst of the weather hits, the plinth is up to a metre in places, at the back it's bewteen 10 inches adn a foot - clever.

Anyway, where can I see a pic of Vicky's cottage?


And can anyone explain how to photoshop my house so that it's pale yellow with sage green windows?

 

[robgil]

Rob - your cottage is so pretty, (even with the unbreathing pink) I can see why you wnat to fight for it so badly.

thank you Joce , you too have a very beautiful home. lately ive been working on the overgrown garden and i have uncovered lots of lovely wild roses , seems like pink was the colour of the day.

its going to be such a shame when i peel all the bubblegum off it and paint it white. :lol:

 

[Flyfisher]

i dont think splashing around the foot of a wall would really do too much damage ,

Probably not, but I was thinking more about the aesthetics. White limewash right to the ground would probably soon be discoloured by splashing rain and dirt whereas a contrasting border would disguise it quite well. But I'm guessing really.

However, I'd rather have Joce's stone plinth than bitumen paint; far more attractive I think.

 

[robgil]

Does limewash actually do anything to protect the render? my house is rendered in a chalk, hair and lime putty mix and i am wondering if there is any need to limewash it , originally i might not have been limewashed at all on the outside.

 

[JohnB]

originally i might not have been limewashed at all on the outside.

:?: :?: :?: :lol:

While we're on the subject of limewash, I never got an answer to whether my place looks like it was limewashed, but it has worn off
http://www.periodproperty.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=11289

 

[JoceAndChris]

I quote Marianne Suhr

" Random rubble masonry would never have been left exposed, inside or out, even in the humblest of dwellings"

"Externally, , lime render and roughcast provide the ideal breathable coating for a solid walled structure; finished with limewash, this has an aesthetic which is a million miles away from modern cement and plastic paint"

Hear hear. I think the covering on your house John, has gone the way of most- it's been inappropriately stripped.

Rob, thanks for the nice comment about BC, the roses look totally gorgeous around yours. Don't paint it white!

 

[vicky whitworth]

Hi, thank you all for the suggestions. I agree about the splashing will make the white lime wash look grubby very quickly but I really don't want to use bitumen or anything else unbreathable so I will probably live with the grubbiness. Round here everything goes green pretty quickly with all the rain and Devon dampness so I expect to be re-lime washing regularly.

I will post some before and after pics but I'm afraid I don't really know how to do it. Can anyone give me a quick lesson - I work on a Mac, does that make a difference?

Our cottage is random rubble stone and although there is evidence that it was lime washed there is no evidence that it was ever rendered. Presumably Marianne isn't suggesting that all cottages however humble - ours was one-room, no upstairs - would have been rendered outside, is she? That seems amazing to me.

 

[JoceAndChris]

I don't think she is, though she suggests roughcast as being a very commonly used finish for cottages. There's an implication that limewash was put directly onto rubble stone, but I can't say for certain:

" Limewash extends back over two thousand years and remains the ultimate breathable paint. Easily made by diluting slaked lime, it was recognised for its antiseptic qualities: farm buildings were given an annual wash with lime to maintain a clean environment. Externally, limewash was used to decorate rubble stone walls or to finish plaster." (P165, "The Old House Handbook")

I'll take a pic of the remaining finish I've got downstairs- see if it's the same as yours Vicky.

 

[JoceAndChris]

This is a pic of what's now our wine cellar (it's been partially sand blasted by the previous owner, who seems to have changed his mind half way through) but I guess would have been a cold storage room, maybe cheeses and the like as it's underground?

I'm pretty sure that the first layers of this are the original limewash, and that the low status of this room meant they didn't bother with a lime plaster:

Is that the kind of remnant you found Vicky?

 

[vicky whitworth]

Thanks exactly like it, Jose. We are going to rough cast part of the outside - a nasty 1990s extension built in 'public convenience' style, but the rest I want to lime wash over the rubble stone. Just wish we could get started sooner but the builder can't start til the end of August, and will then need to crack on before the frosts set in.