Lime plastering

[mtt.tr]

Yep use one of those and vertical battens on the wall the same width as as a guide and you'll get acceptable results. A friend plastered her entire house using that method and it looked great.

Dot and screeds, traditional and only acceptable way to get a flat and level job

 

[Wozzaaah]

Let the experts do the job, look how long its lasted because it
was done by experts with pride in their work.

Why pay someone to do a job you could do (and want to do) yourself?

 

[mtt.tr]

Because they know how to do it and have years of practice, have figured out
what works best and what to avoid doing. That's only my opinion.

The counter argument to that is "why do anything" sometimes it's more than just the money, rather it's the interest.

 

[reb78]

I'd have no money left if I got someone in every time I couldn't be bothered to learn how to do something new myself.... Its not like most of these jobs are beyond the practical folk on here...

(plus the mess I have seen some of the supposedly qualified members of various trades make of simple jobs is amazing - grates to pay someone qualified to have to make good the mess they make afterwards)

 

[Wozzaaah]

And the argument to that is, not everyone is equally capable, so let the experts
who are capable get on with it.

I’ve already said I’m a keen and competent diyer. going by everyone else’s advice I WILL be tackling this job, if it saves me £2k (which is quite probable) I’ll have £2k to spend on paying someone do do something I’m not willing (or able) to do myself.
I appreciate your input but unfortunately it’s not really helpful to me.

 

[Neilj]

First thing is if you've got no dpc then don't even consider anything cement based, you're definitely on the right track using lime. If it were me I'd do it, I can render with cement (slowly) but am absolutely useless with gypsum plaster as I can't cope with the limited timescale involved to get it flat and trowelled off before it sets. With lime it's a very slow drying process so you get lots of time to play around with it. Plus if you're back to brick / rubble you're going to need at least 2 possibly 3 coats. Getting someone in to do that will mean multiple visits as each coat needs time to dry and it's not measured in hours.

 

[Wozzaaah]

Well I was trying to help, I have seen keen diy people take on standard
plaster work, every inch of had a different consistency, tap it and it was
all different, eventually cracks came, all had to be done again, I actually
hired out tools to a man who had to strip his whole house of plaster, luckily
the hardwall had not been applied, that was a new build with wet walls, I can
only imagine an old house with bone dry walls.
I was only trying to save you having to do it twice.

Apologies for my earlier reply, I do appreciate that you’re offering the “best” advice but I’m determined I’d like to have a go as it’s such a small area.

 

[Bullet2012]

if you DIY lime plastering, does it help with avoiding scurvy ?

 

[gaz1]

you will be fine as long as you dont mess with it and just get good thinish layers on the walls as your layering it you can check levels as well and yes you can use a long level

a good 6ft level will get you better results

too help you out better watch this for a layering way

if you listen advice is via old walls from floor to half way then up to ceiling

 

[gaz1]

this will point you in the right direction for a 2 coat application for lime

but i wouldnt advise doing top first if theres any heat in the room the top will dry out fast

 

[reb78]

What sort of thickness would you work to for a layer Gaz?

 

[gaz1]

but each layering is different as different thicknesses are required as your doing a leveling coat its different when youve had practice over the years as you tend to level up on each coat of layering

bare walls first coat 10mm second layer your leveling up 3rd plaster layer is a first coat then a second coat over that

like i said its all down to practice over the years ive had the practice so i can adjust to do different layers thats needed

just trying to point wazzaaah in the right direction of speed and dont mess with the material whilst getting it on the wall with the right way of angles for his float from the edges to the the middle of the wall

 

[mtt.tr]

And the argument to that is, not everyone is equally capable, so let the experts
who are capable get on with it.

I would agree if worst outcome was significant, here @Wozzaaah might get good at knocking of like plaster.

Realistically it will probably go ok.

 

[armalites]

These people are very helpful, I've done a couple of courses at their place.

Ty-Mawr Lime Ltd - Lime Plaster, Putty, Mortar, Limewash, Limecrete and more.

Ty-Mawr

www.lime.org.uk

There is awful lot of confusion over lime, you will find many "expert" builders will talk about using lime when all they are doing is adding some lime to a normal mortar and that is totally different to using traditional methods.

The application of lime putty plaster takes time because you can't just knock it out in a couple of days and depending on weather/temperature it needs to be monitored so it doesn't dry, it needs to cure.

Lime putty mortar/plaster is very forgiving and that why it has lasted so long in thousands of properties. It often gets used on bricklaying training in colleges because it can be taken apart and "knocked up" again and reused.

On one of the courses I did there were a couple of plasterers who wanted to learn about lime plaster, they were saying how nice it was to work with. It is bizzare stuff in that the more you work it the wetter it gets.

Most plasterers just don't want to be doing multiple visits over potentially a few weeks.

The other thing worth noting is to get the best benefit from lime then any coatings need to be breathable, ideally lime based.

 

[eLuSiVeMiTe]

I would agree if worst outcome was significant, here @Wozzaaah might get good at knocking of like plaster.

Realistically it will probably go ok.

Really does boil down to the individual. Some people have a natural aptitude and will pick up new skills quickly regardless of the trade in question.

 

[armalites]

And the argument to that is, not everyone is equally capable, so let the experts
who are capable get on with it.

This kind of attitude is one of my pet hates.

So many times in my life I had people say, "You need a specialist", "Can't be done without specialist tools" and in my experience in most cases it's total nonsense.

I've seen the work of people who profess to be experts where their work wasn't even half as good as mine. I know in many case that's because the job has to be finite and if I take 5 days to do something it doesn't matter to me but if I was paying someone for 5 days it would be different

Just because you pay someone a load of money to do something doesn't mean they are doing it right or doing a good job.

I built some oak window frames for my house, I'm not a joiner by trade but it's something I'm good at. I dropped the frames off to get some triple glazed units made. The chap making the units said they needed to allow some tolerance because glass is very unforgiving. When I collected the units he said he had measured my frames many times and even got someone else to check because he had never seen a window frame that was so square and true with zero run out. He said normally they allow a few mm but they did not need to do that on mine.

^^ One of those jobs where I should have got a specialist to do it.

 

[armalites]

this will point you in the right direction for a 2 coat application for lime

but i wouldnt advise doing top first if theres any heat in the room the top will dry out fast

Normal mixers don't do the best job for lime putty based products. A forced action mixer make a better job, anyone doing a lot of it will have a forced action mixer/mill that has rollers in to work the material.

 

[brightspark]

Let the experts do the job, look how long its lasted because it
was done by experts with pride in their work.

that can be a joke

This kind of attitude is one of my pet hates.

So many times in my life I had people say, "You need a specialist", "Can't be done without specialist tools" and in my experience in most cases it's total nonsense.

I've seen the work of people who profess to be experts where their work wasn't even half as good as mine. I know in many case that's because the job has to be finite and if I take 5 days to do something it doesn't matter to me but if I was paying someone for 5 days it would be different

Just because you pay someone a load of money to do something doesn't mean they are doing it right or doing a good job.

I built some oak window frames for my house, I'm not a joiner by trade but it's something I'm good at. I dropped the frames off to get some triple glazed units made. The chap making the units said they needed to allow some tolerance because glass is very unforgiving. When I collected the units he said he had measured my frames many times and even got someone else to check because he had never seen a window frame that was so square and true with zero run out. He said normally they allow a few mm but they did not need to do that on mine.

^^ One of those jobs where I should have got a specialist to do it.

at school i was allways top of the class at joinery so why would i pay someone to do mine when i like doing it .4 of my mates have building businesses concreting bricklaying roofing and plastering all good tradesmen and self taught

 

[Wozzaaah]

Really does boil down to the individual. Some people have a natural aptitude and will pick up new skills quickly regardless of the trade in question.

I’m not meaning it in a big-headed way but I’ve always been that type of person, even from a young age.

 

[Wozzaaah]

These people are very helpful, I've done a couple of courses at their place.

Ty-Mawr Lime Ltd - Lime Plaster, Putty, Mortar, Limewash, Limecrete and more.

Ty-Mawr

www.lime.org.uk

By pure coincidence I’ve just stumbled across one of their YouTube videos.