Pros/Cons of 'accidental' exposed stone wall in bedroom? (Solid stone walls, old house)

bris

Personally I would just treat the wall and dot and dab it with plasterboard, a simple DIY job for someone with a little bit of DIY skills.

FreeBear

bris said: Personally I would just treat the wall and dot and dab it with plasterboard, a simple DIY job for someone with a little bit of DIY skills.

On a solid stone wall, any damp penetrating the wall will eventually turn the plasterboard & skim coat to mush. In addition, there is a very real risk of the PB+plaster trapping moisture in the wall - Damp walls are cold walls. Condensation will form, adding to any existing damp, and making the problem worse.

Old buildings need to be treated with respect and the appropriate materials used in repairs - Whilst cement, gypsum (including plasterboard), and modern paints have their place, lime products are eminently more suited to this building.

stuart45

https://www.diynot.com/diy/media/untitled.66239/
Here's one that was done on an old stone wall.

Apodemus

stuart45 said:

If you and your mum like the look of... It's really a mater of taste...

Stuart, love the Latin pun!  

stuart45

Apodemus said:

stuart45 said:

If you and your mum like the look of... It's really a mater of taste...

Stuart, love the Latin pun!  

Thanks for spotting it, but it was a typo. I'm not that smart.

ST1991

Small update... for anyone who is interested... thank-you for everyones input it has been really helpful

This weekend we've stripped the rest of the wall, and the plaster/cement literally came off in handfuls. I'm almost certain that the other exterior walls in the house are gypsum/cement too, however there is nowhere else with damp issues so we will just tackle them as we come to redecorate in due course.

For now... my bedroom is a lovely, dusty, draughty, castle-esque mess. We hacked off the plaster around the window too and discovered 2 things: the window fittings were only held into some cement plopped ontop of the stone (which of course came straight off...) so those will need to be put right, but also that the stone around the window/wall is actually quite nice, so that saves us having to try and make things 'square'! There are also a few more holes between the wall and loft space where the roof comes down that were previously just packed with cement.

We are now going to:
Fill gaps/edges with lime mortar and cover the particularly 'ugly bits' around the ceiling, floor and window. Try to do this as tastefully as possible.
Scrape out and re-point the stonework with lime mortar. The existing point work is lime, it just had cement caked on top.
Plaster over with lime plaster the ugly bits (mortar will be the scratch coat)
Lime wash the exposed stone with white (the rest of the room will be re-wallpapered as the plaster is sound)

Money is tight... but my partner is handy so he's going to give it a go! I'll also be trying to help as much as possible but trying to keep a distances as i'm pregnant. I imagine i could help a little with the re-pointing as i can sit down on a chair and concentrate on one area at a time... lol!
Worse case scenario.. it will look awful for a while until we've got the money to pay someone a few hundred £££ (i imagine...) to neaten it up.
Best case scenario our old house has one more 'feature', and will at least be fixed in the appropriate way!

FreeBear

ST1991 said: Lime wash the exposed stone with white (the rest of the room will be re-wallpapered as the plaster is sound)

If you don't mind the "rustic" look, a bagged lime finish is pretty quick & easy. A random page to give you an idea - https://www.celticsustainables.co.uk/blog/bag-rubbed-lime-render-finish/

If you are using lime wash, mix your own from a tub of lime putty - Dirt cheap that way, and the putty will keep as long as it is stored in a frost free area. Well worth having some putty to hand so that you can mix plaster/mortar for all those little repair jobs. NHL lime (best for external repairs) should be purchased as and when needed as it doesn't keep too well.

Please, keep us updated with photos of progress - Always nice to see how someone tackles a job and you might get a few pointers in the process.

ST1991

FreeBear said:

If you don't mind the "rustic" look, a bagged lime finish is pretty quick & easy. A random page to give you an idea - https://www.celticsustainables.co.uk/blog/bag-rubbed-lime-render-finish/

Oooh - wonderful idea (and a great link, thank-you i've saved that one for later!)
There are definitely a few uglier areas of the wall and a few bits that NEED covering due to holes between the wall and loft space - but i had so far only considered my options being:
1 - keep ALL the stone exposed (and just fill the holes)
2 - keep MOST of the stone exposed, and plaster around the edges/ugly bits to give it a cottage feel.
3 - Cover it all back up again!

I'm not keep on option 3, although the stonework is not to everyones taste, (and this house is certainly not as masterfully built as a listed Cotswold cottage.. lol) i do actually like the overall look to it!

Option 4 of throwing mortar at the wall seems easier and more fun...! 
I haven't ordered any of the mortar/putty yet as i need to work out how much i need, and i'm struggling to find somewhere where the shipping is not more expensive than the products... - but i know there are a few local places where hopefully i can pop down to (in Bristol!)

FreeBear

A (very) quick search turns up several suppliers in the Bristol area.  Kellaway are listed as a distributor of Ty Mawr products, so they might be worth a look. Also came across Chards, but some of the lime products they list are not. Limelite (from Tarmac) contains cement and very little lime. I suspect the Cornerstone range may suffer from the same problem..

I'm sure if you ring around, you'll find several builders merchants that stock lime and can offer free (or cheap) delivery. Brands to look for are Ty Mawr, Singleton Birch (a lovely cream coloured putty), St Astier, Lime Green, Cornish Lime (there are others).

ST1991

Thanks again Freebear honestly your advice is invaluable!
I often feel that when speaking to a supplier/fitter without having some knowledge myself, they can exaggerate your needs (prime example.. when i moved into this house i had 3 or 4 people quote for some remedial work as there were a few damp patches, 3 of them advised me that tanking every single wall was 'necessary' to fix the problem, and the last one said re-plastering everywhere would do the job alone (but with gypsum).  None of them asked what the wall material was, looked at the outside of the house, or even thought to ask why they might need to do that in a 1600's property... In hindsight i'm glad i didn't have the money to do it then or that is probably what i would have done...)

Anyway! Not to go off on a tangent, but off the back of your comment above I have found a local supplier based in Bristol/Gloucester who has advised me how much material i need (mortar, plaster and limewash) to do the wall based on photos and measurements, along with some useful help about applying the coats in XYZ order etc. They are currently working on a project in Clifton (lot's of older/period properties there) so i can thankfully collect very locally! It does seem i will need alot more mortar/plaster that i had thought, but then an awful lot came off the wall to begin with...

For now here is my wall - i hope to post some updates in due course. I've had to 'fisheye' the photo slightly to get it all in, but it's just short of 5m wide.
First port of call is to tackle the re-pointing. Once that's been done it should look much neater and give us a better idea of how much of the wall to cover back up/leave exposed!