Anyone plastered the interior of their old house with lime plaster?

[MinimalistMommi]

That's it really.
Thank you.

Belize I was trying to remember who we used. It wasn't Rose of Jericho, but they were in Dorset, Bridport to be exact. We didn't use limewash or distemper, it was an ecopaint. Might have been Earthborn. This was a few years ago and there wasn't as much of it about.

Just checked with DP and it was the Decorator Centre, Unit 2, Rope Walks, Bridport. And it was Earthborn paint. We had the same issue with paint matching so we chose an Earthborn one and then got a Dulux colourmatch for the stairs and landing. It worked surprisingly well.

So the plasterer that visited today is happy to do lime putty, we just have to wait for prices to come though now.

That sounds good minimalist. I hope the prices are OK. Ours was much slower than regular plastering so be prepared for it to take longer. It should look lovely when it's done though.

DH has done all our lime plastering himself - we are in a tudor cottage and quite happy with the rough finish on the walls. We couldn't afford (or find) a plasterer that would do it properly for us.

Check out these guys for a full range of plasters and paints. We have used the pastel green and pastel pink paints as well as traditional white finish:

www.lime.org.uk

They also do courses if you fancy trying to do it yourself.

Oh, and as IloveCheese says, it takes ages to dry (although hydraulic lime is quicker), so be prepared. We're trying to do external walls at the moment and are about to concede defeat to the weather!

ilove I'm wondering how long it will take to do a small stairwell???I think there will be three 'coats', two of the coarse with the hair in it and one of the fine. We're ordering in the materials ourselves from the Old House Store.

Rock I can't even hang a picture let alone plaster a wall
Our plasterer has used lime putty in the past (not loads he said but has done) and has also been on several courses about lime plastering so I'm putting faith in him that it will work out ok. The old house store have also sent me through technical sheets for him which might be a bit awkward for me to to give him because I don't want to seem like I showing him how to suck eggs...

We use the Old House Store as well - we're close enough to drive to them and pick stuff up when we need it. I wouldn't worry about giving him the technical sheets, they may be specific to that particular product so useful even to the most experienced plasterer!

Oh, good for him, Rock! I really admire people who can do the lime plastering.

MiniMommi - it can take a long time, because each coat has to dry slowly, so you have to have the radiators down very low. I think we were giving ours about a week per coat to dry inside, with the heating switched off in that room, but it was a while ago and I can't remember.

I will admit that I'm really not looking forward to the next rooms being lime plastered. We've had one room gypsum plastered and the speed and ease is astonishing in comparison.

Grendal I can't say I'm feeling happy about the lengthy process actually but I'm hoping it will be worth it in the end...

We're doing stairwell and then later on the entire downstairs, we're not 'ready' for the entire thing to be done if that makes sense because of other renovations being done.

Thank you for info about radiators is was wondering about that, we're hoping to get stairwell done end of December/early jan....maybe it's not the best time to do it. We really need to get moving with this renovation though as it is frustrating us now.

So you didn't think about hydraulic lime then because it is such a quicker process?

Thanks Rock I will hand them over and just crying inside when I say 'can you read them please?' I thought the stuff from the old house store looks good! We're using two coats of the 'course stuff' at 9mm each and one coats of the 'fine stuff' at 3mm.

The biggest thing I'm worried about is the plasterer coming back at correct time to put subsequent coats on.

rock or Grendal you might be able to help with this, on one of the walls we are having plastered with lime putty, a doorway is being filled in by my builder with a stud-wall which I guess will be wood frame with modern plasterboard over it. Is that ok? Does it matter that there will be a section of the wall with regular plasterboard before the lime putty goes on top. Am I over thinking/stressing about the details to much?! Also I think we need some sort of junction between the original lime plastered wall and the new stud-wall before we put the lime putty on to stop cracking between the two surfaces, any advice?

The timing is the big issue I think. A lot of plasterers could probably work with lime but they just don't want to deal with the waiting time - they want to be in and out in a week, job done.

Re: the plasterboard. I would discuss with your plasterer to be honest. We have had plasterboard ceilings put in and DH uses a thick textured "paint" that gives the appearance of lime without the hassle. It's quite pricey as I think it also bonds with lime so you can "paint" across the junction between the two surfaces and then lime wash the whole thing. There is a whole range of lime primers/paints/plasters available that can do pretty well any job at a price.

Grendel - I have followed your advice on here for a while and have to say I have a huge admiration for people like you who take on and love these buildings (I'm not sure I would have taken ours on if I'd had any idea of the time and money involved)

Rock has it cost you an absolute fortune?

No - but we have let things go a bit and the extension never got built.

Mind you, we are talking about a 500 year old property that we really didn't get a proper survey on.

Oh Rock, we were just the same. DH and I had no idea of what we were getting ourselves into, or how much it would cost. We sat down in a pub shortly after we bought it and made a list of all the works necessary (and it wasn't anything like comprehensive, I now know) and DH turned to me and said 'have we just made a terrible mistake?' Which is why it's lovely to hear about you and your DH doing your own plaster, and now to see MiniAMommi taking on her own new project.

P.s. thank you for the compliment, though

grendal I don't think we realised just how much work it would be in actual fact if that makes sense?! We are enjoying making our home our own though and hopefully it will be worth it in the end.

Just researching clay board for sections of stud wall today where door ways are being filled in.

Also been reading about plastering beading, saying not to use it on edges as it makes it look very modern? Any thought you two? Downstairs we will have a door and dore frame removed and an oblong arch created, should we use the plastering bead or not?

Posting from phone so will just say in my exp the beading didn't actually work - cracks appeared - so go with the rounded edges.

BW!

if you are putting up plaster board i would use normal plaster on top of it, dont see the point of putting lime plaster on gypsum board.

peggy we want a uniform look across whole wall, normal plaster will look different to lime plaster. Sorry should have explained that.

For what its worth this is the stuff we use on most surfaces prior to painting:

www.womersleys.co.uk/pdfs/beeckotex.pdf

You can put it on lime plaster and gypsum plaster (and straight on to plasterboard) to create a seamless join. The thing is, it creates a thick textured finish so no good if you want to end up with smooth walls.

Thank you Rock we're after a smooth (ish) finish.

Update:
So the stairwell is completely back to brick now ready for the 'Coarse Stuff' and the 'Fine Stuff' lime putty to go on I have never seen so much dust in my whole life, I'm staying out of the builders way right now...
The products we are using are here: www.oldhousestore.co.uk/old-house-store-non-hydraulic-mortars--plasters-11-c.asp

www.oldhousestore.co.uk/old-house-store-non-hydraulic-mortars--plasters-11-c.asp

Update: We still don't have any plaster on our walls yet...we still haven't had a quite through which I'm a bit worried about...

Read this with interest, how did you get on with your lime plastering in the end? Very keen hear how it panned out as i'm looking to do this in our 1910 victorian terrace, primarily for breathability, whilst insulating at the same time.