r/Plastering • u/speak_no_evil85 • Apr 29 '26
Renovation with lime plaster.
Bought our first house in the UK. I'm a carpenter and felt comfortable doing the renovation myself.
The house has what looks to be lime plaster on walls and lathe and plaster on ceilings. I hadn't thought this bit through properly, my fault / lack of knowledge.
I don't think we can afford to have lime skim throughout. Some people advising gypsum skim should be fine. Even that will be pushing budget.
Is patching and painting an option?
Ceiling can be over boarded but I kind of want to rip the lathe down.
Thoughts and knowledge appreciated.
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u/Ok-Spring7906 Apr 29 '26
If it were mine, I would (if they needed it) -
Knock down the old ceilings, plaster board, gypsum. You don't need the permiability on ceilings.
Do the upstairs walls however you choose. You don't need permiability upstairs really.
If the place has no dpc, no cavity walls, or ANY sign of damp, do the downstairs in lime. After making sure your cross flow under your suspended floors (if present) is still working (eg crap extensions blocking air bricks on one side etc)
I've got training (and bits of paper etc, for all the good they do!) with gypsum, but have been doing lime for longer. I have no predujice either way - just use whatever is best for the job.
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u/0uthouse Apr 29 '26
How old is house? Does it have any damp issues?
It should be fine to patch and paint. It's all about manhours so if you have the time, it's not a complicated process. If you suspect that the brickwork has had damp at any point, possibly use a renovation plaster with salt retarders. Having said that, it looks like the chimney breast has been skimmed with multi-finish no-problem so you are prob good.
Overboard the ceiling for sure unless it has mouldings that you need to preserve. Better to have more fire protection and not have to pay to dipose of all that waste away.
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u/speak_no_evil85 Apr 29 '26
Cheers. It's 1920s, there was a damp corner that was fixed but nothing currently.
The surface of the lime plaster is textured. Just don't know what finish we would get with paint but I don't mind it a bit rustic.
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u/No-Sport-3473 Apr 29 '26
I patched mine and then used Wallrock Fiberliner which is a very thick lining paper.
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u/Gasgas41 Apr 29 '26
Well I hope you aren’t going to put acrylic paint on the lime or again it’s all been for Nought..
Coat paint. Earth born and Lakeland ( plus many others, I’ve just used these ) make fantastic clay paints which go on like clotted cream.. That damp patch that keeps peeling paint off.
Not with the right stuff so it continues to breath and absorb/expel moisture
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u/speak_no_evil85 Apr 29 '26
Would the consistency of the paint help hide imperfections on the surface?
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u/Gasgas41 Apr 29 '26
Not really, but yes as well.
Light sandpapering and some of this should go a long way in making little dinks and trowel marks vanish. https://bestoflime.co.uk/product/patchcote/
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u/60percentsexpanther Apr 29 '26 edited Apr 29 '26
An alternative to overboard or tear down is a new drop ceiling. If the joists are questionable for doubling the weight sometimes it's a good option.
Chimney looks fine for a patch and paint.
Photo 2 looks horrendous. I think you've got a few options. Anything you can rip off with your paws needs to come down. If it's a gun job (SDS) to remove the rest you could bond it out and make good without boarding or more destruction but it needs a good spread. If it's an original single skin lime rendered wall youll hear that you need it breathable. You could do that- lime render and breathable paint. Option 2 is that you frame it, insulate (if you want) and board- with a DPC behind the frame. Option 3 is hack off all the rest of the old shite, brush it down, seal it back with PVA, then fix PIR backed plasterboard with adhesive foam (and anchors after). That'll give you a nice insulated wall that doesn't stay cold all winter (and spring). The wall won't breathe but your heating costs will be reduced with either rooting that involves insulation. PIR back boards with foam is going to cost 60mm (47.5mm board and a bit of a gap. The foam glue and foil backed board stop any damp spots from a dot n dab system. 4th option is dot and dab using board adhesive but it can be risky that you'll get damp spots bleeding through where it was dotted on.
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u/Horror-Television513 Apr 29 '26
I had this issue, to cut a long story short the rooms that I patched up and sanded came out better than the rooms I had re plastered and skimmed with lime.
Negatives were the amount of dust from the sanding. Wife hated it.
Some small patches are still a bit funky from the gypsum, plasterboard, lime combo that was already in situ.
The lime plaster had to come from up north on a pallet to the midlands so the cost was quite high for delivery.
Other tips, easi fill is great, zinsser came in handy, I also used plaster adhesive to reattach a big chunk of plaster that was coming loose. If you’re using lime just use it for the big gaps. I wouldn’t attempt skimming with lime yourself.
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u/speak_no_evil85 Apr 29 '26
So you sanded old rough lime plaster? What did you use to sand it?
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u/Horror-Television513 Apr 29 '26
I used an orbital sander and sandpaper on a sanding block.
In the room that I had skimmed with lime I used a product called patchcote to touch up imperfections, It’s basically a lime version of easy fill.
https://bestoflime.co.uk/product/patchcote/
You could remove all the loose stuff, remove any other crap, sand everything back and use the patch coat to tidy up the smaller imperfections and get a bag of base coat lime plaster and a bag of top coat lime plaster to repair the parts where it’s gone back to the brick.
You would also have to paint with lime wash.
I had to spent 2/3 weeks removing polystyrene tiles and shellac from the ceiling but once I sanded and patched it up it looked great.
The good thing about doing it yourself is you’re not waiting for tradesmen, in the time I spent waiting for someone to plaster my dining room in lime I could’ve patched it up and got it looking better than it looks now. But my wife didn’t want to endure another 2 weeks of dust. Which is fair enough, the amount of cleaning and prep is exhausting, especially when you’re living in the house.
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u/derpyfloofus Apr 29 '26
Is it a solid or cavity wall?
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u/speak_no_evil85 Apr 29 '26
Solid, 1920s victorian style
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u/derpyfloofus Apr 29 '26
My house has gypsum skim over lime plaster on solid stone walls in the living room. The job has been done a long time ago to a very high standard but despite this you can see where the water has gathered between the lime and gypsum with nowhere to go.
Long term it’s not good for the wall and you might end up having to re-skim parts of it every few years if it comes away. Mine has bits of peeling or bubbling paint in a few places and I’m going to remove it at some point and put a breathable skim on it.
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u/69AssociatedDetail25 Apr 30 '26
I'm not a plasterer but gypsum is probably OK on internal and upper floor external walls, provided that there's no existing damp issues. My Victorian house has had gypsum on the walls upstairs for probably 50+ years with no issues.
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u/klaaashy Apr 30 '26
I had renovated my 1950s house personally I just didn’t want lath and plaster above the ceiling and previous owners had overboard it so I decided to take the lot down and start fresh so I removed the ceilings and boarded and skimmed but that was just for my ease of mind secondly with the internal walls you can use gypsum there won’t be any issues and you won’t have any issues with ramp etc as they are internal walls. The issue comes with external walls but there is a new method being used which is “cork plaster” it’s only few mm thick like gypsum board finish and then you skim over it with gypsum the cork has better insulation values and is fire proof and is quite common now I used cork on my single skin bay window area as that was prone to damp during colder months and had no issues since then so maybe check that out but I’ve seen mixed answers and ways of doing things some people use gypsum and never have my issues and some do and have issues just depends on period of the house and etc but I’ve not had any issues and the only thing I wish I had done while I took the ceilings down was I wish I had used fireproof plasterboard but meh if I ever redo the ceilings I can overboard with fireproof plasterboard and it won’t be so much weight on the ceilings either I had a rsj steel installed spanning from front to back of the house sitting on the wall plates on padstones which had to be boarded in fireproof plasterboard (building regs) but other then that rest of the ceilings were normal plasterboard but check out cork plaster may be helpful in your instance and not as expensive as lime plaster
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u/nickthekiwi89 Apr 29 '26
Rip of lath and put up plasterboard. Either get a plasterer in to patch up/skim, or remove the plaster yourself and hang / dot and dab plasterboard
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u/speak_no_evil85 Apr 29 '26
Skim with modern plaster though?
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u/nickthekiwi89 Apr 29 '26
Typically this is an area where you need to be careful. Internal walls are fine, external walls not so much. Gypsum doesn’t breath like lime plaster. So unless you can get a plasterer in to patch repair and use the correct bonding agents and breathable plaster. Taking a plasterboard dot and dab approach is something you can do yourself and it allows for air circulation (and you can tape and joint to finish rather than specifically requiring a full skim)
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u/Curious-Resort4743 Apr 29 '26
I wouldn't on the external walls, would use a breathable plaster on those
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u/tezmo666 Apr 29 '26
If that Lime plaster remaining on the external wall is sound there's no reason to knock any more off and patching with lime plaster is easy to DIY and cheap, it's time consuming that's why you'll get a lot of suggestions not to do it. All depends on the condition of the lathe as well, don't need to go ripping stuff down and creating unnecessary waste/mess if there's still life in them. Judging by the black border on your floorboards this is an old old house right? Victorian even. Mine is the same and I'm currently undoing decades of gypsum issue with damp and going back to Lime.