Rednaz
Member
- Messages
- 5
- Location
- North West
Hi all. I recently purchased a 1895 Victorian terraced house. I posted about some damp investigations here if you're interested. This is a separate post trying to nail down the wall build-up.
I've done some mild demolition in a few rooms to see what I'm working with regarding renovations. The findings below are present on both external walls and my party wall. My ideal scenario going into it was to find original lime plaster in fair condition that I can spot repair. After knocking at some walls, I might have that (or some variation of that) but need some help determining what I'm working with.
Firstly, there's a very thin layer of gypsum skim on every single wall. My guess is that when the property was last bought, that was the extent of their renovations. You can see that layer in the image below. Getting a scraper tool behind makes it fall off with very little effort in massive chunks. Should I be knocking this off everywhere?
The beautiful mustard colour you see there could very well be the original lime finish.
One of the questions I have is how I can determine if this paint is impermeable and therefore in need of removal?
When I try and scrape the paint off the suspected lime finish, it just scrapes off with it. Here's a close-up of the front and back of a section of that suspected lime finish.
Finally, underneath the above white layer is this what originally appeared to be cement-like material. Naturally, my heart sank when coming across this stuff as it would be the worst type of material for this house. It’s quite a crumbly texture and powders pretty easily; the parts I removed were not firmly adhered to the brick either, but that doesn't appear to be the case everywhere.
After doing a bit of research on here and elsewhere, it's possible this is black ash plaster, which, from what I can tell, might be a good result as it’s composed of lime and has the breathability this property needs. Not sure how to best determine if this is the case. I'm hoping someone on here has seen and worked with this before?
Closeup of the stuff here below.
My ideal result would be:
Black ask plaster/mortar is solidly adhered to the brick in most places and just need spot repairing/replacing with a suitable alternative
Lime finish on-top of mortar has been painted with a breathable paint that I can replace where its blown and then skim over the whole lot (keeping the good painted stuff)
Bad result
Its not black ash and its some impermeable guff that needs completely removing
The paint on the lime finish is unstable and the entire lime finish needs removing (or its not even a lime finish)
I've done some mild demolition in a few rooms to see what I'm working with regarding renovations. The findings below are present on both external walls and my party wall. My ideal scenario going into it was to find original lime plaster in fair condition that I can spot repair. After knocking at some walls, I might have that (or some variation of that) but need some help determining what I'm working with.
Firstly, there's a very thin layer of gypsum skim on every single wall. My guess is that when the property was last bought, that was the extent of their renovations. You can see that layer in the image below. Getting a scraper tool behind makes it fall off with very little effort in massive chunks. Should I be knocking this off everywhere?
The beautiful mustard colour you see there could very well be the original lime finish.
One of the questions I have is how I can determine if this paint is impermeable and therefore in need of removal?
When I try and scrape the paint off the suspected lime finish, it just scrapes off with it. Here's a close-up of the front and back of a section of that suspected lime finish.
Finally, underneath the above white layer is this what originally appeared to be cement-like material. Naturally, my heart sank when coming across this stuff as it would be the worst type of material for this house. It’s quite a crumbly texture and powders pretty easily; the parts I removed were not firmly adhered to the brick either, but that doesn't appear to be the case everywhere.
After doing a bit of research on here and elsewhere, it's possible this is black ash plaster, which, from what I can tell, might be a good result as it’s composed of lime and has the breathability this property needs. Not sure how to best determine if this is the case. I'm hoping someone on here has seen and worked with this before?
Closeup of the stuff here below.
My ideal result would be:
Black ask plaster/mortar is solidly adhered to the brick in most places and just need spot repairing/replacing with a suitable alternative
Lime finish on-top of mortar has been painted with a breathable paint that I can replace where its blown and then skim over the whole lot (keeping the good painted stuff)
Bad result
Its not black ash and its some impermeable guff that needs completely removing
The paint on the lime finish is unstable and the entire lime finish needs removing (or its not even a lime finish)