DIY SOS comment
I watched with interest the TV programme DIY SOS this week. Working on a building in Cirencester for a family with a very allergic and depressed daughter. The whole build concept was stressing the need for a clean, dust free …
Tag: breathing structure
Should we insulate solid walls?
There are a wide range of issues associated with insulating solid walls and this has been illustrated by some of the results seen with the ARBED 1 programme in Wales. With our current obsession with energy and carbon we have …
Fed up with paint bubbling off of stone work?
External stone work has a real habit of shedding paint. It peels, bubbles and dusts off. This is because masonry paint is designed to be waterproof. Stone on the other hand generally isn’t. The stone that we use for mullions, …
Can visible mould and damp be good in a house?
Perhaps an odd question to ask, for how can visible mould and damp be healthy, beneficial or aesthetically pleasing? The short answer is that it cannot, but there is a BUT. This BUT is quite a big one as well. …
Getting a smooth finish on a lime plaster
Some people are looking for a gypsum style finish on their lime plastered walls. The temptation for some (especially builders) is just to plaster gypsum onto the lime plaster. This is not a pretty relationship between the two and even …
How to dry out damp solid walls
The solid walls so common in Wales are prone to damp after the ‘modernisation’ they have received over the past hundred years. The addition of external cement renders especially has locked moisture into the walls and the remedial work of …
Gypsum plaster and lime render
One of the major mistakes that we see in refurbishment of old solid walled houses is the use of modern materials over over the original substrates. I have written before about the use of cement render over these types of …
Plastering partially renovated walls
I have just been renovating one of the rooms in our house. This has meant taking off the wallpaper and stripping it back to the plaster. Aprt from the multitude of other layers of paper and paint that we uncovered, …
Barn conversions and the system
Wales is home to a large number of barn conversions. The old stone barns look really attractive in their rural setting and the materials used create the local vernacular. The old stone walls are the main feature of the barns …
Wall paper and Eco wall covering
I have been busy removing old wall paper from an old lime plaster wall at home and I have discovered that: a. Non breathable paint sticks very well to wall paper b. Wall paper paste as a tendency to stick …