Next room in the house, living room.

[discobarry]

Hello all, over the winter months i will be cleaning back the modern plaster in the front room where the gable end also sits against solid ground which to one the left of the external stack has been taken back and drainage put in but on the right hand side this hasn't been done for some reason but i'm looking into it.

Thus far i have uncovered two whopping beams over the mullioned windows and a gorgeous small one which leads down into the kitchen. I'm looking forward to what i find and will hopefully post pics onto here for you to see. I won't be lime plastering it myself I've happened across a guy who was taught by his dad who was taught after world war two when there was a skills shortage. We are going to put horse-hair into it as well as we believe this was traditionally done?

Exciting times, i'll let you know how we get on.

 

[Zebra]

Good luck discobarry. I hope the plasterers turn out to be as good as you hope. Look forward to seeing your progress.

 

[88v8]

Horse hair is a good binding, rather like the chopped fibres in fibreglass, and is useful where the substrata may flex, such as lath. On a solid wall I doubt it will contribute enough to be worth the considerable faff of mixing it.

Our two-coat plaster had hemp in the first coat, which is supposed to give an insulation gain - just a little - and also protect against cracking.
https://www.lime.org.uk/products/lime-plastersrenders/pre-mixed-non-hydraulic-lime-plastersrenders/lime-hemp-plaster/
Second coat no hemp.

The finish was bagged to follow the contour of the stone. As this site well expresses it 'the finish does not have to extinguish the character of the wall'.
http://cornishlime.co.uk/information-services/articles/technical-advice-note-for-bag-rub-finish/

Ty Mawr also offer Glaster, a finish lime plaster with glass that can be trowelled to a twinkly finish. That might be superb in a sitting room.
https://www.lime.org.uk/products/lime-plastersrenders/pre-mixed-hydraulic-lime-plastersrenders/glaster-plasterrender-dry-hydraulic/

If ever I get around to our internal plastering, that will be the finish I use.

Ivor

 

[discobarry]

Glaster looks interesting, The lime plasterer recommended using horse hair for a binder so i'll assume he knows what he is doing.

 

[88v8]

Horse hair was a go-to hi-tech add-on back in the day. If it's one of his things, I wouldn't deter him from putting it in the undercoat.

Ivor

 

[discobarry]

I'll let you know how i get on in due course, i find it very exciting removing plaster as you find things sometimes. I think we have a little cubby hole up the wall in the old part of the house as its totally hollow behind the plaster board for about 0.5m2

 

[88v8]

Or an old window?

Ivor