Lime Mortar and a Cement Mixer

Tuesday this week saw the commencement of plastering.  To facilitate this protracted process, I decided to invest in my own cement mixer.  This was a financial decision based on the probable number of days that one would have to be hired at about £27/week, not to mention the effort of taking to and from the hire shop when not in use.  Boots, wheelbarrow, mixer... where will it end?                                         
As a listed property, there is no doubt about it: we have to use lime mortar to plaster, just as I had to replace rotten ceilings with oak laths, NOT plasterboard.  Another important principle is that you must not strip all plaster from complete walls regardless - only really bad plaster has been taken down, and as much as possible of the original plaster has been retained.  Due to the leaking roof, we had a fair amount of poor plaster, not only in two whole ceilings but also on solid walls which had been subject to continual dampness for years.  We have left several small patches of popped plaster where they were surrounded by good plaster; this benefits you for several reasons:

1. Applying lime plaster is not cheap as the application is a three part process which is quite labour intensive.
2. Removing the old plaster is a VERY messy job!
3. The lime mortar itself is not particularly cheap unless you slake your own lime and mix it all on site.
4. Replacement laths are not cheap either - I have already used almost 1000 feet of lath (at 27 pence per foot plus VAT).
5. Getting rid of the old plaster is also not cheap - and we have so far removed between three and four tons of it!

(You might ask why one does such a renovation?  Well, in my view, either you do it properly or else you buy a new house - it is not fair to our heritage to buy a traditionally built house and then fail to respect its method of construction.)

Anyway, progress this week has been good.  In three days, both entire bedroom (lath) ceilings, both sides of the lath wall between the two bedrooms and a stone/brick wall have been scratch coated, as have two large repairs on the landing ceiling, and some other parts of a wall (right).  This means that you can no longer see the rafters from the bedrooms, and so the roof space is now physically separated from the first floor, for the first time in several years, I suspect. 
If you think this doesn't sound much, then you try making this soft mixture attach to the roughly 1" x 0.2" oak laths without dropping too much on your own head.  Actually, the process is made easier by adding hair to the lime mortar to strengthen it - our mix uses straight horse-hair.  I admit that some of ours had been bought (ready-mixed) before Christmas and the original hair was probably weakening as it dissolved in the alkali, so to be sure we added extra hair.  This decomposition was certainly happening as it was starting to smell quite bad!

Just to be clear about the general process for plastering: a fairly thick layer of haired lime mortar (normal ratio 3 sharp sand to 1 of lime putty) is applied to a prepared wall or ceiling - this is known as the "scratch coat".  Then when that has "gone off", another thick-ish coat (without hair) is applied, called the "float coat" because a float is used to get it smooth, ready for one or two thin coats of lime plaster (which is 2:1 very fine sand mixed and lime putty) to give a smooth finish.  There are variations, of course, but that's the general gist of it.  It is a very labour-intensive process, spread over a considerable time, so you can see why modern plaster (gypsum-based) is so attractive to builders.  However, lime mortar is more carbon-friendly, as it absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as part of its setting process (as it reverts to calcium carbonate), and it is also easier for a DIY-er to use as it does not set so quickly but stays workable for hours (or even days in low temperatures, as  I have found out!).

The house emerges from the Enchanted Forest

Following last week's removal of the scaffolding, and with the completion of the 1st fix electrics, I have been recovering my breath before the start of the plastering, and doing some tidying up.  Hopefully, inside we have almost seen the last of plaster removal; the outside especially was getting very bad as contractors do tend to throw things anywhere out of their way, and it was pretty bad to start with as all the ivy from the roof is still lying beside the house.  I have tidied up the scrap metal, moved a large quantity of old plaster into a huge pile, and have even cleared the path!

Today Chris and I attached the top two sections of cast-iron downpipe on both the side and back of the house.  (The bottom pieces have to wait until the drains are sorted out.)  While we were doing that, Adam the joiner came round, bringing his chainsaw, so at last the pear tree (the one that grew up to two inches from the house) could be felled.  Adam also does wood turning and you can see why he likes pear for this activity as the wood is very close-grained.  To complete the change I decided to take the garden saw to the large buddleia before it reached conservation size.  So, the side of the house lost its pear tree and the buddleia in one day, and now feels decidedly spacious.  The Enchanted Forest (see "It's all in the Name" last August) really is no more, therefore, and is now just a patch of undergrowth with a couple of trees.


Confession Time

 

This week I have finally finished the laths in the ceilings of the two back bedrooms and the patch on the landing, ready for the plasterer.  These are hand-riven oak laths from a well known supplier in Devon.  I bought 300 and, to my surprise, have only about 20 left.  After all my hard work, I think that they actually look quite good, and I am very pleased with my efforts; right now I am almost feeing disappointed that they are about to be covered up!

Unfortunately, I had a little accident this week whilst splitting a wide lath to fit a narrow gap.  I was standing beside a window for added light, and managed to tap the window with one end, with disastrous results.  The really annoying thing is that I now realise that the glass was clearly old - it's only when you break it that you notice the distinctive features of old glass.  I have checked most other windows and now know that a lot of the window glass is older than I realised so I'll just have to be more careful in future.

The scaffolding comes down!

At last, having had a nearly finished roof for several weeks, it is now complete (and is a thing of beauty) so the scaffolding was taken down yesterday - photo right (ours is the left hand half).  We have actually owned the house for only eleven weeks and a lot has been done, but I have really become fed up with ducking my head to avoid the diagonal scaffolding tie-bars between the French door and the front. I'll probably still be ducking for weeks, even though the path is now clear. 

Today it was quite a surprise to find how the left side of the house was now quite light, without scaffolding, undergrowth and leaves; working inside (with no electric light) is now much easier.  Also, we had not really remembered how light the house itself was, as we had only been inside it a few times before the scaffolding went up.  It was a real delight to find the sun shining into the front room this afternoon.

Apart from repairing ceiling laths in the two back bedrooms, we have been removing lime plaster in preparation for replastering.  Much has been damaged by water ingress from the roof, especially though a split in the lead in the box gutter. The two back bedrooms are separated by a lath and plaster wall, which also required to be stripped as the plaster was all crazed and had come away from the laths - huge areas moved alarmingly, and some had been patched with modern alternatives.  Don't ever assume, just because something is covered with lath and plaster, that it is not load-bearing.  Kirsty What's-her-name on one of those property programmes on TV loves to suggest that a wall will come down in minutes, just based on tapping it and saying that "it's only a stud wall".  It's not always true for plasterboard, and it is certainly not always true for lath and plaster!  This is the wall structure we uncovered:

Those two X frames which you can see are both made from oak beams, 4 inches by 3 inches.  Each X is about 6 feet wide and 8 feet high.  At the top of the central stud, pointing downwards, is a metal bolt which has a square head about 1.5 inches across.  The laths are in really good condition and even the nails are still shiny, not rusted.

This is a major piece of structure and not just a simple stud wall, although at first its purpose puzzled me.  There is no corresponding wall in the kitchen beneath; on the right of the picture is a major internal structural wall, about 18 inches thick, largely of squared limestone, and on the left is the external wall which is about a foot thick, in limestone rubble.  After mulling this over whilst going to sleep, finally it dawned on me: this structure is holding the external wall in place!  [Edit: a more learned friend says that it "to provide lateral bracing and stop any movement in your load-bearing walls".  That's what I meant to say...]

We now move to the next phase of work; the first fix electrics is almost done and re-plastering starts this week.  My groundworker will be in soon to look at lowering the path and drain, the gas supply is being arranged and the plumber will be giving me his quote tomorrow.  We are applying for various permissions (still) which I am afraid might well turn out to be the critical path.  Perhaps we might be in by June?

Happy New Year

A Happy New Year to all my readers. I am really surprised by the number of readers recorded, and the amazing variety of countries represented from all round the world. Please feel free to recommend this blog to any friends who might be interested in this sort of thing, and also to make comments against any entry (especially if I've said something silly or missed a horrendous typo!)


Christmas Presents

Not only do I have a "contractor's wheelbarrow" (see earlier), I have now bought myself (as a personal Christmas present, because Santa didn't) a proper pair of working boots with steel toecaps.  They are very comfortable, although I note sadly that they were made in China, like most things these days.

However, I did get a few books for Christmas and some tools, like a new spirit level and a plumb bob.  The books included not one but two copies of a really useful book called "The Old House Handbook" (Roger Hunt and Marianne Suhr, published by SPAB).  My two children obviously know the sort of thing that I like now - it's just a shame they don't talk more often!

Fun with the local District Council

I put in claim for exemption from Council Tax on the grounds that the house is uninhabitable.  They quickly sent me a bill showing that I owed them nothing for this financial year; however, they soon followed that up with a request for documentary proof of the uninhabitable status, such as a contractor's estimate or surveyor's report.  Having neither of these, I sent them a set of 22 assorted photos by e-mail and have heard nothing back yet...

In October I submitted the required (being in a Conservation Area) "Notice of Intent" to cut down the 24 cm diameter pear tree which grows very close to the side of the house (there is just a 10 cm gap).  They replied, saying that they had six weeks to object and, if I heard nothing by Dec 1st, I could go ahead.  On Dec 3rd, I received a letter dated Dec 2nd which formally granted me consent to fell this tree.  Of course, by Dec 2nd the tree was a 5 metre high stump, with all four branches on the ground!

"Hey Big Spender"


Before Christmas I promised the answer to why I found myself humming Shirley Bassey's "Hey Big Spender" whilst doing laths in the bedroom ceilings. Think of the words which go something like (from memory):

"Would you like to have fun, fun, fun?
How about a few laffs, laffs, laffs?
We'll be having a good time!"

Personally I don't regard doing lath repairs as a good time, and can't see how anyone else would either.