Lime Plaster & Breathable Building Conservation
LIME PLASTER & BREATHABLE BUILDING CONSERVATION
ABOUT
A different way of working
I started out as a conventional plasterer, working entirely with modern materials. It wasn't until I began renovating my own old cottage that I started to question whether those same materials were right for older buildings.
Learning from old buildings
At the time, I knew very little about traditional building materials. I simply knew I wanted to understand the building before deciding how to repair it.
Working on the house gradually led me towards lime and traditional plastering. The more I learnt, the more I began to understand why older buildings need to be treated differently, and it changed the way I thought about my own work.
Learning from experience
Wanting to understand lime plastering properly led me to a course with master plasterer Philip Gaches. Afterwards, I got in touch and offered to labour for him if he ever had work nearby, hoping for the opportunity to learn from his experience.
The first job was a large lath and plaster ceiling. I spent much of my time mixing lime putty, sand and goat hair, carrying buckets and filling plasterers’ baths on the scaffold before helping to apply the scratch coat. It was hard work and very different from the modern plastering I was used to, but it gave me my first proper experience of this kind of work on site.
Ceiling prepared for its first coat of lime plaster.
Learning what works
Living with lime plaster in my own home also taught me that simply using traditional materials doesn’t guarantee a successful repair.
In one part of the house, contamination within the original wall eventually caused the lime plaster to fail. When I came to repair it, rather than simply replastering the same background, I introduced a breathable separation layer before applying the new lime plaster.
Experiences like this have taught me to look beyond the plaster itself and consider what may be happening within the wall before deciding how best to approach it.
Still learning
Working on older buildings has taught me that there is always something else to learn. Every building is different, and no two jobs are the same.
Experience has taught me to be curious about what I find, rather than assuming I already know the answer.
That is still what keeps the work interesting for me. Taking my time, paying attention to what is already there, and continuing to learn from the buildings and materials I work with.
