Has anyone done Lime Plastering?

Matty0682

Hi Folks,

This maybe a but niche for this forum.....I hope not

We are in the process of renovating our newly bought house (400 year old stone cottage) and am a DIY beginner. It needs a complete re-plastering as the previous owners botched up the old Lime Plaster by patching it up with a mixture of artex and cement over the last 30 years.

We have removed all the plaster and render exposing the stone walls. We would like to use Lime Plaster to keep up the tradition and be able to see the contours of the stone work underneath (and for it's breathable/stretchable qualities) . I have researched the process briefly, and as far as I understand I have to:
1) Dampen the stonework before hand (controls suction from the stones)
2) Apply first coat of 3:1 haired Lime Mortar (10mm thick)
3) Apply second coat of 3:1 haired Lime Mortar (5-10mm)
4) Apply top coat of 2:1 unhaired Lime Plaster (some sites even say use 3:2 for smoother finish)

My questions, as a complete beginner, are
a) would a complete beginner be able to do this?
b) are two coats of the Lime Mortar necessary?
c) how long does it take? (this way I can see if paying someone is more economical)

Please let me know any previous experiences with this process!

Thanks

mackemdave

There was one of these house renovation programs on TV a few weeks ago and they started doing the lime plastering themselves and it was a nightmare...guy ended up having to get specialists in and even then they were very hard to come by as it is supposed to be such a specialist task...not one for the novice diy-er

Matty0682

mackemdave wrote: »

There was one of these house renovation programs on TV a few weeks ago and they started doing the lime plastering themselves and it was a nightmare...guy ended up having to get specialists in and even then they were very hard to come by as it is supposed to be such a specialist task...not one for the novice diy-er

You don't happen to remember the tv programme name (maybe I can use catch-up tv to watch it)

Was is difficult to work the Lime Plaster?

mackemdave

I think it was one of the Grand Design progams....not sure what the issues were,think it was something to do with the correct mixture....

justjohn

Have you done normal plastering??
Because i would think it will be like that but harder too work??

Why does it have to be haired lime plaster???
Why not just ordinary lime plaster on it??
If these are internal brick walls there should not be much flexing?

Lime as an additive on an old house is used for many reasons and i understand why you would want to use it. But i do not understand the need for haired??

Also you want to keep the shape and contour of the bricks is it possible to paint the lime plaster on??(never tried this)

justjohn

i have tried googling. Why you whould have to use haired but never came up with anything.

We have 2 houses built in 1800's never came across a rubble wall in the properies that had haired lime plaster on.(there may be some,we have not explored all walls). However we have lathe plaster walls which do have haired lime plaster.(we repair these with just lime plaster.if it needs a larger patch then plasterboard and a lime plaster)

Would be interested in any further info you have

Canucklehead

Good evening: try Bricks&Brass , Green Building and SPAB. We found these sites to be excellent resources when renovating our stone house.

Several episodes of Property Ladder and Grand Designs featured the use of lime plaster/render, a nightmare job for the inexperienced . Try 4onDemand

HTH

Canucklehead