More Lime Plastering

Well, I've finished off the scratch coat on that wall, and I'm now waiting for it to go off before I do the float coat.  I'm pretty happy with my efforts (so far) but I must say that the bit around the door was far more difficult than I had expected.  My admiration for Phil the Spread and all other plasterers has increased in direct proportion to the ache in both my arms, specifically the elbow joints.  Both forearms felt as though they were about to fall off after I finished, and I had only done two mixes on each day; how do these guys do five or six?

Anyone who saw me will probably have wondered why that idiot was mixing mortar outside on such a cold day.  Even cement would have been out of the question, so to knock up lime seems idiotic.  I'm well aware of the issues with lime and cold weather (or, for that matter, lime and hot weather!), but I did have a plan.  The mortar was all carefully kept inside so was at about 18 deg C, but I had no intention of using my mixer indoors as you end up with lime splashes over everything within a wide arc in front of the mixer.  These splashes can also be at quite an unexpected range!  My solution was to pre-warm the mixer with a couple of kettles of boiling water, and then cover it up again as soon as the load was in the wheelbarrow.  Once inside, the joy of lime is that it stays workable for as long as you can be bothered, although you do need to knock it up again when the hawk is loaded.

The other real pain is cleaning up afterwards.  The mixer is done first, then the water/sand/lime mix is poured into the wheelbarrow which acts as the sink to do all the tools, leaving the wheelbarrow itself as the last thing.  On a cold day there is a real incentive to all this VERY quickly!  Then, inside to sort out the floor: our black limestone flags look wonderful but you need to clean all the lime mortar off before it sets or you will have a real job on your hands later on.  A decorator's sponge is a good tool, plus a large bowl of warm water and some disposable gloves (which of course I was also wearing for all the plastering).  Then it's wipe and rinse continually for ages.  One thing is always to do complete flags so that cleaning doesn't show.  I used the same method while doing the grouting, but you have to develop a technique for wiping the surplus off the flags right to the edges without leaving any signs of wiping.  I found that a careful sponging along the edge with a gentle turn with the fingers to use a fresh bit of sponge seemed to work very well; the turn twists the sponge from behind and brings it over the mortar which reveals a nice clean edge behind it.  Again, frequent rinsing of the sponge is critical.  I really am longing to have the whole job finished so that perhaps the floors will need cleaning less often!

One reason for the extension taking a long time is of course the weather (and the forecast for Saturday is minus 10 deg C!).  Another reason is that I get tired quite quickly, and have realised that pushing myself too much on one day simply means that I then achieve even less the next day, so a sensible, steady pace is required for maximum achievement.  Thirdly, I have been to see the doctor recently and it took several visits to decide that there was nothing wrong with me apart from advancing years. Finally, of course, there's my grandson to see - when you've got a cute little kid like him to play with, it certainly puts things in perspective and you wonder why you bother doing things at the speed of the modern world.  I spent three hours babysitting one afternoon the other week and it was FUN!