Help - Any plasterers out there who know about lime render?

[Sally1723]

Hi,

We have bought a stone built house - semi detached, 1904 - and our surveyor advised that the old sand and cement render needs to come off to be replaced with lime render. I have read up and realise that hydraulic lime is probably the way to go from what most websites say.

The house is fairly standard and by no means huge:
Front door and window downstairs
Two windows above upstairs
Gable end 3 storeys high as we have an attic
Back of the house has two very small 'extensions' in addition to the area that equates exactly to the front

We are getting what I consider to be ridiculous quotes
One guy wants 26k to do it - hydraulic lime applied by hand and painted with secil
Another wants 18k to do it with Parex coloured lime using a spraying machine

Please can anyone out there advise me as to whether these quotes are about the going rate? I am really hoping they are way over the odds as we can't afford anywhere near that amount of money.

Thanks for any help that is forthcoming, any help at all
S

Not sure if this helps but we paid £800 for 2 interior walls in our bedroom to be plastered with lime plaster - it's a labour intensive job and materials are expensive

No personal experience of paying a trades person to lime plaster/render as DH did the lime plastering where necessary at our previous house , but you might want to check out the period property uk forum as there are lots of posters with experience of the correct way to deal with old houses including lime plastering/rendering over there!