Tracking down lime sources
A limestone quarry What a palaver! Being a bit of a fuss pot over lime I wanted to check the lime credentials of the lime putty that is being ordered for my render. I seem to have been around the …
Tag: lime
Lime rendering my home
Money where mouth is moment! I have long been an advocate of treating old solid walls correctly. This means allowing them to breathe using a lime based render (where render is needed of course). Anyway my house has been suffering …
Definition of Economic
There was a great presentation at a Wales Zero / Low Carbon Hub meeting this year and it mentioned the original definition for Economic. It comes from the Latin Oeconomicus and means management of the household. This is obviously quite …
Common re-pointing problem
I was walking around yesterday waiting for my car to be fixed and being in the ‘trade’ it just struck me how many stone walls in Cardiff have been re-pointed using cement. Almost every house (that wasn’t covered in cement …
Damp appearing?
In this sort of weather you might find damp in places that were dry before. Why? Well, when you have driving rain rather than just rain it tends to get into cracks and holes that it might otherwise miss. Key …
Lime – that’s less than half the problem!
Sustainable and historical bodies talk about the need for lime renders and mortars in pre-1919 solid walled buildings and rightly so. Lime is a porous material and will allow moisture to pass through it. This allows the walls to ‘breathe’ …
An old bay exposed
The render under the window was harder to get off. Attached to cement blocks that we used to fill gap when bay removed The front of my house is flat with one large window downstairs. I sort of knew that …
Damp wall on the first floor
Cracks in render can cause damp walls upstairs. I was in a end of terrace house in Cardiff last week and came across one of the dampest first floor wall I have seen. The Home Buyers survey did not pick …
Repointing Lime
Re-pointing irons for lime repointing jobs In the UK we are used now to see repointing being done using a pointing trowel or a brick jointer. However doing a proper job with lime mortar requires a different set of tools. …
Stone in Cardiff and surrounding homes
In Cardiff and South Wales we have a number of different stones that have been used over time for building houses. These stones came from a variety of sources: 1. Red Radyr Stone. 2. Bath Stone 3. Pennant Stone 4. …