NOTES FOR THE SUCCESSFUL & SAFE APPLICATION OF LIME WASHES

Old buildings need to be able to \'Breathe\'. Also pointing and renders should always be weakear, and hence sacrificial to the building stone/ material.

Everything that has made cement a brilliant modern building tool (High strength, impermeability, high density) makes it completely inappropriate for the repair of old buildings.

If you use modern paints to coat lime renders you defeat the purpose of using lime in the first place!

The simple answer to this is no. It is true that they do require preparation of the background before application and extra care after, however this is very simple and takes very little time.

Although at face value limes appear a lot more expensive than cement there is in fact very little difference. This is because when mixing you measure by volume and not weight.

Generally Putty limes are far superior to hydrated non-hydraulic limes because the maturing process means that they develop an excellent crystal structure, which gives them an exceptional workability and a better chance of successful application. However the hydrated types of non-hydraulic limes are a lot cheaper and there are certain circumstances in which their use may be preferable because of this, such as some mass walling applications.

The main difference between hydraulic and non-hydraulic limes (Lime putty and hydrated lime) is that hydraulic limes can set under water via chemical reactions within the mortar, whereas non-hydraulic limes can only set via Carbonation (absorbing CO² from the atmosphere).