Plastered - Again

Regular readers will be aware how significant a thing plaster has become in my life. I’ve blogged before about French plaster and British plaster, one thing they have in common is that they are both made from gypsum and have been in general use for a few decades. Another common feature is that they don’t deal well with damp and moisture – at some time or another everyone’s been in a damp house where the plaster is coming off the walls.

So let me introduce you to the original plaster that has been in use for thousands of years. Lime based plaster has been around for a long time, it was used by the Romans and then came back into fashion in Britain in the seventeenth century. It was traditionally the preserve of rich people and applying it was a skilled job. Lime plaster differs from modern plasters in several ways; it’s much slower to “go off”, it goes on in a much thicker layer and it is moisture permeable which means it allows the walls to breathe – vital on a stone wall with no damp proof course. One end of La Basse Cour was used as a house whilst the animals were housed at the other end and here we found some parts of the walls that had been originally rendered in a sandy lime plaster and then painted with limewash.

We had decided that the lower floor would be plastered on top of the hemp render using traditional lime and so Lloyd and the guys (Lewis, Steve and Geoff) from eco-renovations came back in to plaster out the downstairs.

Starting to apply the plaster in the (future) kitchen area

Finished wall in the kitchen area

Finishing the north wall plaster

Starting work on the south wall