wall injection

[Anonymous]

Is this a listed building? If so, then I doubt you'd be allowed to render.

Is the stone so very bad? Or is it a simple vernacular building which has rubble? It may just need ground levels lowering and a decent re-point. Is the pointing currently cement?

Good pointing in lime mortar would allow th building, when splashed with water, to dry out again when it stops raining. It may be all you need. Lime render and limewash is rather more work and will require re-coating with limewash every few years.

Pity about the cement - hope it doesn't cause further probs in future. Lime would have been much better!

Many books around to read - try Janet Collings book on appropriate approaches to old buildings, or SPAB leaflets and pamphlets. Jane Schofield's little book on lime is useful too. A bit of reading up now would be useful, then you have some idea when people are giving you rather poor advice.

 

[Anonymous]

It's not clear to me why you want to render the house. But if you do, then you should use lime to render it and then paint it with lime wash, not masonry paint.

As Evelyn says below, if the pointing is defective or cement based and cracking, then that will let driven water into the walls. The finest of cracks will allow water to pass through.

Whatever, you have plenty of time now to read up before you do anything else as this is the wrong time of year to start working with lime. You need to wait until the danger of frost has past in spring.

By the way, I've not yet found a builder or odd job person, who will accept that this is the right thing to do. They all argue the case for cement and concrete until they are blue. But that's because, a) they were trained at a time when this was thought to be the miracle building product of all time, and b) using lime takes more care and time and they want to finish and be off as fast as possible. This means you have to either do it yourself or search long and hard for the right contractor. They are out there, but they won't necessarily be down the road.

Sue

 

[Anonymous]

The cement lining inside will make the wall wetter, but will keep this wet out of the interior, until it cracks. A wetter wall loses more heat, causing a colder wall, more daughts and more condensation.

Also old buildings tend to have little in the way of foundations and move slightly. When this happens, most cement mixes are stronger than the old sfot bricks, and you get broken bricks and cracked render. (Lime is self healing, it reacts with CO2 and grows hard crystals across the cracks)

When your cement eventually comes off, it may take a lot of bits of brick off with it. Once a brick is broken, it will usually very slowly deteriorate until its a gonner. This damage takes > 10 yrs, and can be seen in old houses up and down the country.

Other than that, it was a good move.

Just echoing what Evelyn says, fix the problems rather than look for miracle cures. Remove cement path, it allows soil water to evaporate and base of wall to be drier, check gutters and downpipes, sort out pointing.

If you must render it, use lime and only lime. And lime based paints, not 'masonry' types.

NT

 

[Anonymous]

Hi
thanks all for your valuable information.

I live near Lydney, in the forest of dean (to answer jake's question). And the cottage is not listed...

If i have a modern wall butting upto the old property and it has been rendered with cement etc, can i then apply lime render over the top of it to keep the appearance consistent?

Also, i am assuming you can buy the lime wash in various colours (the cottage is currently white but in bright sunlight this is too bright to look at, so i want to tame it down - cream/magnolia colour ish). Does anyone have a good link to a supplier of coloured lime wash?

best wishes

jase