Repairing lime plaster wall

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Gossamer

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Hello.
I’ve stripped the wallpaper of my ~100 year old house lounge walls revealing a light grey plaster. It’s in pretty good condition and I plan to fill and paint it. There are however a few areas that require plaster patching back to the brick. I have a few questions:
  1. I assume its lime plaster as its light grey, could it be anything else?
  2. I cant see any hair in it, would it be obvious?
  3. If it’s lime then for small areas can I use Easifill or must it be lime plaster? Would small areas cause moisture issues? By small I mean max 100mm x 100mm.
  4. Once repaired, filled and sanded I assume I can simply coat it with super matt before top coats?
  5. When I come to paint it I assume I need to use breathable paints?
Cheers.

 
Hi,

1. Lime plaster can be light grey or white. The final coat should have a very fine sandy texture, if not it could be grey plaster.
2. You should be able to see hair within the base coat, unless it was originally plastered without. Hair can also decompose to an extent if the mature lime putty is kept for too long prior to plastering.
3. It is best to keep to original materials for period properties, but 10cm x 10cm is small, not sure about moisture issues but I wouldn't put too close to the ground if you use a non breathable material.
4. No need to sand it, just use your trowel firmly, if not a damp sponge over it one to two hours later.
5. As your lounge would presumably be downstairs, personally I would not use an acrylic paint if your property does not have a damp proof course.

There are some suppliers of lime and breathable paint online but it can work out a bit expensive.

Hope that helps
 
Ambergreen45 said:
Hi,

1. Lime plaster can be light grey or white. The final coat should have a very fine sandy texture, if not it could be grey plaster.
2. You should be able to see hair within the base coat, unless it was originally plastered without. Hair can also decompose to an extent if the mature lime putty is kept for too long prior to plastering.
3. It is best to keep to original materials for period properties, but 10cm x 10cm is small, not sure about moisture issues but I wouldn't put too close to the ground if you use a non breathable material.
4. No need to sand it, just use your trowel firmly, if not a damp sponge over it one to two hours later.
5. As your lounge would presumably be downstairs, personally I would not use an acrylic paint if your property does not have a damp proof course.

There are some suppliers of lime and breathable paint online but it can work out a bit expensive.

Hope that helps
Click to expand...

Thanks very much for responding.

Re #1 - I spoke to a lime plaster firm yesterday and they said if you can crumble it between your fingers its lime, if not its gypsum. If gypsum then the damage has been done and I suppose I can do whatever, its no longer breathable anyway.

Re #3 - some patches are nearer the skirting board where plaster came loose after a rewire. I have suspended wooden floors so its at least 1m from ground level.
 
My old man used to use it so did some of the boys on here it was used over sand and cement in my opinion its better than today's plaster/ skim I have it on my walls but it was all crazed where it wasent applied properly
 
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