Mike Wye DVD - any good?

[Feltwell]

Has anyone got the Mike Wye DVD on using lime, is it any good? Anyone got a copy that they no longer want and would part with for a nominal fee?

One glaring omission from the "list of things that Feltwell has tried" is lime plastering. I was going to book myself on a course but, at the moment, time is an available luxury but cash is not - the contract I was working on has finished, the business concerned is not doing so well and has made a big round of redundancies, so the permanent role I was earmarked to move to post fixed term contract has been cancelled. Back to the depressing world of job hunting!

Anyway, I stripped back a decent section of plaster in our kitchen probably 2 years ago now due to a leak. I've not got around to sorting it as a window on one side needs replacing (and doing do will involve lots of re-plastering), but realistically that is a fair way away - it's a horrible window and it's got some rot, but I can fix it up for now, other things take priority. So it's a good opportunity to try some lime plastering as a first attempt, as it'll need to be redone when the window gets replaced anyway.

I have a bin full of mature lime putty in the cellar (made up from hydrate a couple of years ago) so I may as well get some hair & sand and give it a go! Lime Green are quite close to me and should have the materials I need. http://www.lime-green.co.uk/.

However - is it worth bothering with the trip to them for sand, or is the "normal" stuff at the local builder's merchant just as good for lime plastering? Is hair definitely required for plastering onto brick (no jokes about bald plasterers please)? Regrettably I don't have the Biff luxury of being able to dig a hole in the garden to get the sand I need!

 

[Penners]

the permanent role I was earmarked to move to post fixed term contract has been cancelled. Back to the depressing world of job hunting!

Tough luck, Feltwell. It must be particularly hard to have been looking forward to permanent employment once more, only to have your hopes dashed.

 

[Nigel Watts]

I had his video. If the DVD content is the same I would recommend it highly.

My lime plastering is not bad although I have yet to master that final, polished finish. I learned what I know from that video.

 

[FamilyWiggs]

Sorry to hear that FW. Times are tough.

 

[LadyArowana]

No idea about lime plastering, but comiserations on the job issue. Based on personal experience I would say there is desperate need for someone doing property management in the city of Bath that has a brain and a good attitude, but that probably isn't helpful!

 

[JohnB]

It may be a bit far away, but Gill Wickenden, of Pembrokeshire Farm on the telly fame, was going to do a free workshop on limewashing and plastering at my place last Friday. I wasn't really ready, and she had to postpone it anyway, but something will happen very soon. The aim is a lots of coats of limewash done over many years look, rather than a smooth and polished finish. Hopefully there will be similar events in future as parts of the house are ready to be done.

I've got the Mike Wye DVD, but haven't watched it for ages so can't comment.

 

[MatthewC]

I've got the DVD and could let you have it, Feltwell - PM me. The sound is not perfect (needed personal microphones!), but the content is very good, I think.

After getting the DVD, I then did their practical 1-day course which was of course very similar but for a complete beginner like me that was useful consolidation There were two glorious moments, firstly when all us amateurs understood the technique for getting mortar off the hawk onto the trowel, and secondly when lime pointing was brushed up after going off for a couple of hours.

In answer to your questions, they recommend hair for the scratch coat but I would say that it is essential for lath & plaster ceilings and possibly optional for walls (but we did use it for 95% of walls). The hair is only of use to hold it up before it goes off enough. I think that any sharp sand will do - it's important to use the right stuff for a colour match for pointing, but I'm not aware of any other special properties required.

Matthew

 

[Penners]

The hair is only of use to hold it up before it goes off enough.

Really? I'm surprised. Given the relative flexibility of lime mortar, as compared with cement, I'd always assumed that hair acted not only as a binding medium during application and curing but also as a reinforcing medium in the long-term for the hardened mortar.

But I hasten to add that my knowledge of lime plaster is rather less than Pontius Pilate's knowledge of nuclear physics.

 

[MatthewC]

The hair is only of use to hold it up before it goes off enough.

Really? I'm surprised. Given the relative flexibility of lime mortar, as compared with cement, I'd always assumed that hair acted not only as a binding medium during application and curing but also as a reinforcing medium in the long-term for the hardened mortar.

But I hasten to add that my knowledge of lime plaster is rather less than Pontius Pilate's knowledge of nuclear physics.

Well, hair is rotted by wet lime, and the suppliers say that you should add more hair if you don't use the mortar in three weeks. Although strands may remain in dry mortar, they are much thinner than original, so I would not expect them to be of any real significance. Perhaps some expert out there can confirm or deny?

 

[Feltwell]

Thanks for the commiserations on the job front. Not the best situation, but I found quite quickly that this particular industry wasn't a good long term bet, volumes were going one way only by about 20% per year across the industry as a whole. It's pretty dead out there at the moment job-wise for what I do, but hopefully it will pick up in Jan. If I have to look nationally and live away from home during the week I will do, far from ideal with 3 young kids though - it's a pretty miserable existence to be away all week every week.

I suspect you're a bit far away from me JohnB - by West Wales I presume you mean South-West Wales - but thanks for the offer. Matthew, very generous of you, I'll drop you a PM.

Interestingly I may have found an appropriate window second hand. A Victorian box sash on Ebay, in good condition & complete - it's slightly too narrow but for what it's on the site for - a penny! - it would be worth buying to modify. Even if only the box frame can be used with a new cill and top piece, and new sliding sashes have to be made up, it would be a considerable saving on having a complete new one made. But we'll see what the auction goes for, they tend to either shoot up dramatically at the last moment or do nothing!

 

[JohnB]

I suspect you're a bit far away from me JohnB - by West Wales I presume you mean South-West Wales - but thanks for the offer. Matthew, very generous of you, I'll drop you a PM.

Newcastle Emlyn, so it's some way.

 

[Penners]

I found quite quickly that this particular industry wasn't a good long term bet

Retailers of 8mm cine cameras, perhaps? Or 8-track audio equipment? Or CRT TVs?

it's a pretty miserable existence to be away all week every week.

I can attest to that. When I started my last pre-retirement job in Oxfordshire, in 1990, we were living in East Anglia. Our kids were about to start their final A-level year at school and we really didn't want to move them. So I rented a tiny cottage in a village near Witney and worked as a weekly commuter for 15 months. It was, quite frankly, bloody miserable. The job involved quite long hours (anyway, I was in no hurry to rush back to my bachelor cottage in the evening) and this, plus the nearly four-hour drive home through Friday night traffic, meant that I was pretty exhausted when I got back to see the family. Then on Sunday evening I'd haul back to Oxfordshire.

For your own and your family' sake, I do hope you don't have to resort to that.

 

[Penners]

I suspect you're a bit far away from me JohnB - by West Wales I presume you mean South-West Wales - but thanks for the offer. Matthew, very generous of you, I'll drop you a PM.

Newcastle Emlyn, so it's some way.

Newcastle is not in Wales - and his name's not Emlyn.



OK - I note your correct use of the comma, but I couldn't resist it. :wink:

 

[JohnB]

I suspect you're a bit far away from me JohnB - by West Wales I presume you mean South-West Wales - but thanks for the offer. Matthew, very generous of you, I'll drop you a PM.

Newcastle Emlyn, so it's some way.

Newcastle is not in Wales - and his name's not Emlyn.



OK - I note your correct use of the comma, but I couldn't resist it. :wink:

Oh ok then. I'll try again in Welsh - Castell Newydd Emlyn .

 

[Feltwell]

Newcastle Emlyn, so it's some way.

It is indeed, but then as someone who once lived on the Eastern extreme of the UK, I can testify that whilst such places are lovely they are a long way from pretty much everywhere!

Retailers of 8mm cine cameras, perhaps? Or 8-track audio equipment? Or CRT TVs?

No, it was making trophy cabinets for the England world cup team.

Seriously, it was paper, for commercial printers. Whilst we still as a country consume vast quantities, the digital era means that more & more marketing is now done without paper, and it's a trend that I can't see stopping. Printers are going out of business at an alarming rate and there is very little money to be made anywhere in that industry right now.

Living away does not appeal, for all the reasons you've said. I'm bad enough for working long hours as it is, with only a rented room to go home to I know that I'd practically live in the office during the week.

Oh ok then. I'll try again in Welsh - Castell Newydd Emlyn .

I've always thought how unimaginative and lacking in foresight were all those towns that decided to call themselves names like "Newcastle" or "Newport". To compound matters I now live in "New Church Road", no doubt due to some unimaginative Victorian town clerk in about 1850 not being able to think of a better name for the road that ran to their nice new church.

 

[Penners]

paper, for commercial printers. Whilst we still as a country consume vast quantities, the digital era means that more & more marketing is now done without paper, and it's a trend that I can't see stopping. Printers are going out of business at an alarming rate and there is very little money to be made anywhere in that industry right now.

I've been out of touch for nearly 8 years, but I suppose I can understand that jobbing printers are suffering as SMEs move their marketing to the internet or produce their own stationery and small-run print on inkjets. But, judging very subjectively from our own mailbox (not, perhaps, a universally recognised market trend metric!), I don't see any reduction in large-run web printing. But I've no idea how much of it is moving from offset to digital one-to-one work. Judging by the number of mail-order brochures that now feature my name on the cover, I guess that's a significant trend.

 

[MdB]

Seriously, it was paper, for commercial printers. Whilst we still as a country consume vast quantities, the digital era means that more & more marketing is now done without paper, and it's a trend that I can't see stopping. Printers are going out of business at an alarming rate and there is very little money to be made anywhere in that industry right now.

There are niche markets which seem to be doing well.

I've just had a single copy of a custom hardback book printed for birthday present for my nephew. Full colour, good quality paper with colour cover for £21 including delivery from Holland in a week and it looks fab. Custom black and white paperback can be had for £2. Bargain if you ask me and there must obviously be a margin in it for them.

 

[Feltwell]

The specialist areas of printing are doing OK, but the volume areas are definitely not. "Print Week", the trade magazine (which ironically I got daily via Email!) was always headlined by "So-and-So have gone into receivership" stories.

Digital print is doing well but volumes are small. The firm I was working for were reckoned to be the market leaders in digital print, but only had about 11% of the big volume "coated" paper sold in the UK for non-digital print. Even so, digital papers were only about 5% of their daily volume.

There will be an upturn next year for the Olympics - so many companies will run sports-themed promotions at that time - but after that, there is a long running declining trend that seems to be accelerating. Seems hard to believe with the amount of junk mail that comes through our door as well!

 

[fjpdesigns]

Hair in lime plaster isn't necessary if you are plastering onto brick as it's unlikely that the brick will move very much. With laths it's essential to use hair to bind the plaster ( first coat) and give it some tensile strength. It's not just for application, it's an integral part of the plaster.
Wet plaster does eventually destroy the hair so it should be added just before plastering and not kept for more than maybe a month. The plaster will be fine, but not the hair. Just add more hair or use as it is.
Once cured the plaster won't affect the hair at all.

 

[skier-hughes]

I'm sure I've got a copy somewhere............ it could be in the shed Do I need to look it out?