Hello all,
Well I'm a Brit but I live in an 1800s log cabin in central Sweden. I have insulated and dry lined the upstairs, I'm interested in using a lime plaster as a skim to retain an older aesthetic (everything is incredibly wonky here and the original purlins are still on display).
Plastering is much less of a thing here in general as nowadays most single dwellings are timber frame with taped plasterboard, of course we have some old horse hair plaster hidden downstairs though and it was / is used in older buildings, but in general less products and information are available, and they are less familiar at the builders merchants.
Pre mixed Lime putty does not seem to exist here. Ignoring any hydraulic lime products (although I'm a bit confused if I should be doing that?) I have access to 'lime plaster' and 'lime plaster fine' both of which are powdered (not putty) and without any fibre. I do have access to 'hydraulic lime plaster fibre' but as the name suggests it is hydraulic.
Anyway names aside I picked up a bag of the 'lime plaster fine' to experiment. I've never used any lime plasters before (only gypsum). The mix seemed quite dry. It wouldn't stick to the hawk at all, made a complete mess. I did manage to get some on the pb but it was really awkward as it wouldn't adhere and had to go on quite thick, and very patchy. I didn't hydrate the board, I didn't use PVA and the humidity here inside is very low over winter (20% sometimes lower). It has dried quite a bit overnight already but is very crumbly / sandy. Remember just a scrap of plasterbaord I was using.
Any guidance? From what I gather people in the UK seem to use lime putty the most, does anyone use the bagged powder variant for plastering indoors? Or is it a no go?
In terms of the mix / adhesion, am I just used to using gypsum? Or perhaps it's the product - difficult because translations here are quite confusing (e.g. product translates as 'lime mortar' but product sheet clearly indicates its for plastering)
Application to plasterboard - clearly it needs priming in some way ? Hydrating ? PVA?
Mixing - I mixed up a practise batch in a bucket with a paint mixer on an electric drill. Seems to work fine for gypsum but perhaps not for lime?
I might be barking up the wrong tree but historic building techniques interest me and there is some crossover between countries. Alternatively I have access to gipsputs which is a fairly coarse gypsum plaster with its own interesting texture (interestingly whilst British Gypsum have a Swedish arm, they don't sell anything equivalent to multi-finish / smooth finishing plaster as there is no demand).
Any guidance through the weeds is much appreciated.
Well I'm a Brit but I live in an 1800s log cabin in central Sweden. I have insulated and dry lined the upstairs, I'm interested in using a lime plaster as a skim to retain an older aesthetic (everything is incredibly wonky here and the original purlins are still on display).
Plastering is much less of a thing here in general as nowadays most single dwellings are timber frame with taped plasterboard, of course we have some old horse hair plaster hidden downstairs though and it was / is used in older buildings, but in general less products and information are available, and they are less familiar at the builders merchants.
Pre mixed Lime putty does not seem to exist here. Ignoring any hydraulic lime products (although I'm a bit confused if I should be doing that?) I have access to 'lime plaster' and 'lime plaster fine' both of which are powdered (not putty) and without any fibre. I do have access to 'hydraulic lime plaster fibre' but as the name suggests it is hydraulic.
Anyway names aside I picked up a bag of the 'lime plaster fine' to experiment. I've never used any lime plasters before (only gypsum). The mix seemed quite dry. It wouldn't stick to the hawk at all, made a complete mess. I did manage to get some on the pb but it was really awkward as it wouldn't adhere and had to go on quite thick, and very patchy. I didn't hydrate the board, I didn't use PVA and the humidity here inside is very low over winter (20% sometimes lower). It has dried quite a bit overnight already but is very crumbly / sandy. Remember just a scrap of plasterbaord I was using.
Any guidance? From what I gather people in the UK seem to use lime putty the most, does anyone use the bagged powder variant for plastering indoors? Or is it a no go?
In terms of the mix / adhesion, am I just used to using gypsum? Or perhaps it's the product - difficult because translations here are quite confusing (e.g. product translates as 'lime mortar' but product sheet clearly indicates its for plastering)
Application to plasterboard - clearly it needs priming in some way ? Hydrating ? PVA?
Mixing - I mixed up a practise batch in a bucket with a paint mixer on an electric drill. Seems to work fine for gypsum but perhaps not for lime?
I might be barking up the wrong tree but historic building techniques interest me and there is some crossover between countries. Alternatively I have access to gipsputs which is a fairly coarse gypsum plaster with its own interesting texture (interestingly whilst British Gypsum have a Swedish arm, they don't sell anything equivalent to multi-finish / smooth finishing plaster as there is no demand).
Any guidance through the weeds is much appreciated.