When's the right time to do lime work?

[vicky whitworth]

Hello again, we need to have the outside of our rubble stone cottage re-pointed all over. The plan is to have the old pointing raked out (some is cement-based, and some is lime but has been done as ribbon pointing and looks awful) and the whole place re-pointed. Being rubble stone there will need to be some depth to the pointing as there are large gaps and voids in the rubble stone.
We live in East Devon and down a sheltered valley. It's wet and damp here but reasonably frost-free except last Winter when we had hard frosts from Christmas through to the Spring.

What do you think is the latest date we could start re-pointing, or if we leave it for this year, the earliest date we could start in the Spring. I want to be sure the lime doesn't crack, fall out or look a mess. I'm tempted to leave it now til next year and start it late April. What do you reckopn?
Thanks, Vicky

 

[worms]

SInce you are talking about the actual cottage walls, I would think that there would be enough heat from the building to ensure that the deeper parts of the pointing don't freeze even in the harshest of winters.

Despite being a few hundred miles north of you, I have repointed sections of my garden wall (and therefore unheated) into October with no apparent problem.

 

[Flyfisher]

Agreed - and there's also the issue of ensuring the mortar doesn't dry out too quickly. I've had some problems in the past and I now cover any lime mortar work for a few days at any time of year,

 

[worms]

the issue of ensuring the mortar doesn't dry out too quickly...

I'm more used to protecting it from driving rain, ... but the same principle applies!

 

[vicky whitworth]

Thank you for the advice. The builder says he could start late October on the lime work, and that he would fleece it. But I'm really worried that is too late - am I right in thinking it needs not to get frosted throughout the period it is drying (which may be many weeks/months)? There is no reason not to leave it til the Spring (we have lived with un-pointed walls now for two years) except we are also having work done to our roof and I want that done as soon as possible because I don't want the poor old roof to have to go through another winter. I'm not sure how much internal heat from the cottage would reach the outer walls as the rubble stone is two foot plus thick. Vicky

 

[Flyfisher]

Being weather-dependent, it's impossible to give definitive advice, of course, but I've done lime mortar work in November and it has been OK (and some that wasn't the following year!). East Devon is one of the milder regions of the country, so that's in your favour as well.

If the builders are already proposing to use fleece then it sounds as if they know what they're doing. You could always ask them to agree to re-do any work that is spoiled by frost damage over the winter at their cost. That would be a measure of their confidence.

 

[skier-hughes]

leave it until the hot weather comes and you've got to protect it from the heat, sun, dry weather........ there is no winning on this one, but as FF says, sounds like they know what they are doing so go for it and get it done.

 

[kevmiles1]

Hi Vicky
Pointing in October is rather late, you might be lucky that we have a mild early winter but it is still taking a risk, if it gets frost damaged it will just crumble to dust and need redoing, you can protect it with hessian but if it does get really cold it could still fail and the hessian would need to stay on till it is fully dry which could be a while if its either frosty or wet

 

[Wren]

We did some lime plastering inside a completely unheated house (ie almost the same temperature as outside) around December time, not ideal but we were desperate to get to a point where the electricians could finish their bit so we could move in. The temperature was above freezing but the fact that it was very cold did mean the lime plaster took longer than it normally would to set.

 

[dave]

Is there any point attempting external lime pointing in a couple of weeks time - mid October ?

Seem to remember some old saying to avoid working with lime if there is an "R" in the month.

 

[robgil]

depends on how cold it is Dave , frost will damage the mortar. if its like it is now then its perfect.

 

[dave]

Beautiful day here also today.

Unfortunately I won't be able to start the work for a couple of weeks and haven't attempted lime work before.

Approx. how many "frost free" days / weeks does it need to have a reasonable chance of success ?

 

[robgil]

I am not sure Dave , it all depends ,there are lots of variables. If you can protect it from frost then it should be ok.
Last winter i did a lot of work with lime inside but there was no heating in the house and it all came out fine , it was really freezing outside. I think for outside work if i wasnt sure i would probably leave it until spring.