Our lime putty is going on!

[Anonymous]

Finally, after it sitting on the kitchen floor for weeks, our lime putty is coming out of the buckets and onto the walls! ) The plasterers who are doing it know this stuff inside out and in their apprenticeships even slaked their own, so I have every confidence in them.

Our house is really coming on now. We've started the underpinning on the internal walls and once this is finished we can dig up the earth ready for the limecrete floor with UFH. If all goes well with the underpinning, this should be in about a week and a half!! I can't wait - all the big bags will disappear and I'll have that half my yard back )

Just thought I'd share this with you all. Hope you don't mind me having a mini gloat ))

Jaqy

 

[Anonymous]

Jaqy
Will you be done by Chrimbo?
And Which corner will you place the Christmas tree in????
;-)

 

[Anonymous]

I am hoping that between coming out of the tubs and going onto the walls the lime putty is getting mixed with sand?

Well done, you seem to have got to the stage were you can start to think of the finishing rather than constant distruction.

Sue

 

[Anonymous]

A gloat is well deserved!

As our boiler has now broken and today is being removed (weighs a great deal...) that has given us a chance to do something with the fireopening.

We have hacked off two layers of tiles set in cement - took ages, white ones with primrose brick shaped ones ones under - and under that is a skim of very VERY hard cement. We've tried knocking off but it's proving difficult, and the stone under is rough rubble. As there is no damp issue here I think we'll simply have to try skimming over - hope lime plaster will go on top, don't want to use gypsum! I know it won't make much difference here but lime is easier to work and much nicer stuff! Anyone any thoughts?

We've also knocked off the tiles which formed the hearth. Under that is a line of battered white glazed bricks at the front, then a bit of battered stonework and lots of earth. This is where the black range would have been standing before it was remved c 1950.

We intend today to clear that out, and we have ordered up three new flagstones to be cut from the local stoneyard.

Anyone got any suggestions as to the best thing to lay them on - some form of lime obviously - and a pointing mix for between the flags? We have the rest of the floor to point too - uncovered flags on earth.

I thought the pointing a feebly hydraulic may be best - a little harder wearing poss?

Any thoughts appreciated!

I think a trip to Rydale is on the cards... so any of their products can be used.

I hate having the boiler where it is - former scullery with nice stone surround fireplace - but it's the only place, I'm thinking of some sort of disguise eventually.

 

[Anonymous]

bed the flags on hydrated lime (not hydraulic.... boo-hiss) and sand dry mix. lay with a butt joint, not with a pointing gap. fill any small gaps with same mix, tamp with a churn brush then lightly water with a watering can with rose. you can plaster over the tiling if you break th eglazed surface to allow a key and suction..... or drill and fix battens and lathe and plaster over.....

 

[Anonymous]

If the cement is really hard then the lime won't be able to bond properly by soaking into the surface. So you will be in danger of forming a new layer that could just fall off in one piece one day.

Try drilling into the cement with a fine drill and screwing in a network of small brass screws to leave the heads protruding by 2 or 3mm. This will form a support system for the lime to hang on to. Then hair the mix well. Apply a first coat more or less by throwing it onto the screws and smoothing over, then once that's started to go off nicely another coat of haired. A final thin skim of fine plaster for the top will give a good finish.

Sue

 

[Anonymous]

Flags - husband thought hydrated (hopefully in plastic bags...) and sand would be the stuff to lay the flags - (I know you don't like hydraulic etc but it's a contentious issue!!) so thanks. Hopefully he's ordered stone which will butt joint as far as poss, However the edges will need to be filled as they are irregular and also the original rough flagstone floor on the rest has wide gaps which mice like <IMG SRC="http://www.periodproperty.co.uk/discussing/smileys/smile.gif" BORDER=0 ALT=""> and we need to now point those with something hard wearing and reasonably attractive too!

What volume sand to hydrated lime would you recommend?

I was only thinking of the hydraulic for the pointing between you know!

Sue - thanks for that idea. The tiles are actually all off now (hammer and hard work) and the cement is criss crossed with diamond incisions, but the screws sound a very useful idea. It doesn't have to be totally smooth - a bit of rough will look better where it is - but having to re-do once the boiler is back in place will not be easy.

I'm actually wondering about trying to build up something resmbling a late Geo range with a housing for the boiler to hide the wretched thing! Something simple. Fakery yes but it isn't pretty!

 

[Anonymous]

1 part lime, 2 parts sharp sand for the bedding..... then 1 part lime NOT HYDRAULIC! and 1 part soft sand for the pugging/pointing..... then finish the surface with 1 part turpentine and 1 part raw linseed oil.

 

[Anonymous]

> Jaqy, Will you be done by Chrimbo?

Oh, sure, no problem! ;o)

> And Which corner will you place the Christmas tree in???? ;-)

Well, I was thinking the one to the left of the fireplace - what do you think? ) LOL

Jaqy

 

[Anonymous]

Great stuff - many thanks! Not sure the mice will be amused!

I may be forced then to keep the flags clean of course <IMG SRC="http://www.periodproperty.co.uk/discussing/smileys/frown.gif" BORDER=0 ALT=""> or perhaps not!

 

[Anonymous]

The company I bought the lime putty from didn't say anything about it being mixed with sand, and neither have the pasterers. Is this likely to be going wrong? (

Jaqy

 

[Anonymous]

Jaqu, you are joking me aren't you? You can't plaster with neat lime putty. It will simply craze as it dries and fall off when you touch it.

You need to mix it with sand to form plaster. Tell me you are joking.

Sue

 

[Anonymous]

Is it lime putty in the tubs, and not ready mixed lime mortar (coarse stuff for backing coats, fine stuff for finish) ?

Perhaps they're adding the sharp sand and hair/straw to the putty themselves.

There's no way you could mistakenly plaster with pure lime putty and nowt else - believe me it would all go obviously wrong very early on if you tried!!

 

[Anonymous]

Sorry, sorry, sorry - my mistake. I get so used to poeple referring to anything Limey (plaster, render, mortar) as putty that I've gone and done the same thing myself!! It is, of course, Lime Plaster that's in the tubs

When I ordered it from Mike Wye's, they asked what finishe we wanted, what type of walls it was going on etc. and gave me intructions on what thicknesses each coat should be. We're having a 3 coat finish, with no hair - this is what they recommended.

I'm so sorry for the confusion.

Note to self : 100 lines - I must refer to things by their proper name!

Jaqy (with a very red face but lovely looking walls!!)

 

[Anonymous]

Phew! It's the excitement - it's addling your brain!

Interested in no hair - any idea why?

 

[Anonymous]

> Phew! It's the excitement - it's addling your brain!

LOL I think you're right, Evelyn!!

> Interested in no hair - any idea why?

I'm not sure. Would it be because of the type of walls it's going on? Or the finish we wanted? Hmm, you've got me wondering now and I can't remember what the reason was.

Jaqy

 

[Anonymous]

Glad to hear it's *still* going well - I knew that there'd be a simple misunderstanding somewhere !!

I tend to use much less hair when plastering onto stone (or rendering) then when plastering onto laths.

All my internal walls are rendered, the ceilings are lath and plaster - the hair will make the plaster more flexible and able to cope with movement on ceilings. It's best to mix the hair in when knocking up the plaster, as it would just rot away to nothing if left in the buckets of plaster for months on end.

If you're plastering onto laths anywhere it would be well worth double checking about the hair before proceeding, expecially for ceilings. I'm sure Mike Wye would be happy to advise.

 

[Anonymous]

Ah, that probably explains it - all the plaster that's going on at the moment is going onto brick.

Jaqy

 

[Anonymous]

flags are laid on sand depending on thickness,old flags could be up to 3 to 4 inches thick and very heavy.modern flags are thin 25 mil or so so need solid fix. 5 sharp sand,or half and half,to one cem,
or in your case one lime but theres no point realy.
point with a dry mix again i use sharp 2, 3 sand 1
cem,ram in with peice of thin wood and brush of streight away, gives a nice old finnish.

 

[Anonymous]

Think we will avoid cement, which is lousy stuff really in historic buildings, best avoided, and use the lime/sand mix. The new flags aren't as thick as the old, which are remaining in situ on earth, they simply need pointing, as the original lime is missing in places. The hearth only needs three new ones, now all the old stuff has been removed, which will be not too bad to manipulate into place.

Andrew's a Historic Buildings Officer and is usually right, although I'm not hugely always convinced by his passion for hydrated lime I think we'll try it here. As long as we can get fresh in plastic sealed bags not old stuff in paper, which may well have gone off before it's used.