Living in a 16th century house I was forced to learn this to comply with Listed Building regs, in some ways I found it more forgiving and intuitive that modern plastering - wish I'd found these vids earlier
I love traditional lime plaster walls! I find it a shame that in the US it has become a lost trade. Everything here is now gypsum sheetrock. I had to remove most of the plaster and lath from my late 1800's home. I was wondering if you have any tips for me with the ratios of sand and lime putty. I am also a bit confused as to why some people would say to add gauging... That for the video, it already has been such a big help! Beautiful work I might add!
He’s done a great job on that. Made it look easy. It’s not. Far from it. I’m renovating a 250 year old house in France. It’s all cob walls and lime putty. Hard work for a novice like me.
Hello Mike, great video!! I have 2 questions can you use lime plaster skim coat, on Gyprock? and can you use a modern substitute for horse hair? After lifting my home here in Australia and restumping most of the plaster has cracked but still intact, some area,s the plaster has fallen off completley ,I have the knowledge and skill to glue the plaster back where its still on the wall to the laths , but in some area,s i will use gyprock and Skim ,is this a good idea, thank you for the video, lots of stuff to learn regards David
Hi David, you can use synthetic fibres for the scratch coat as long as they are alkali resistant. You can use a grit primer (www.mikewye.co.uk/product/baumit-premium-primer/) on plasterboard and then use a lime finishing plaster. I hope this helps.
Hey guys I'm going to lime render my house in Bali because places here suffer from mould. Doing it on hebel blocks, should I still use hair in base coat? And would I need 2 coats? Going to steel trowel finish it for that sante fe look, and seal it for the natural look?
Two coats is usual practice (hair is optional on a solid wall) but we would apply a harling coat to a solid substrate this link may help www.mikewye.co.uk/guidesheets/rendering/
@@MikeWyeLtd thanks mate. I'm just going to be telling the wall renderers to use lime and sand instead of sand and cement (their usual). Hopefully it pans out ok 👍...so many forums saying to not let dry before applying next coats but this video series was good to see
Wonderful video. What's the ratio for the skimming mix? I'm assuming that the sand is 100% soft sand, but is this right or is there some special sand that you use?
hi Mike , been wondering what is the ratio for pozzolans . let s say per25 kg of putty. Long time back i worked with an old irish plasterer and he would crush old brick and add to mix ,but i was young then and didnt pay any attention to what the ratio was . Thank You . and might thanks for vids. Cheers
Hi. The amount of pozzolan will vary depending on the job, time of year and exposure. For general external building work, repointing and rendering during the spring and early summer we work on a ratio of 1 part pozzolan to 8 parts mortar by volume. If work is being carried out later in the year or is very exposed then we move towards a higher gauge of 1:6 or even 1:5 for chimney flaunching, for example. I hope this helps.
Thanks Chris. The scratch coat is left for up to one week until it is 'green hard' (unable to make an indentation with your thumb, hard enough that you can scratch with a nail). The A-frame in the video is a training wall which is hacked off and re-plastered many times every year by our course participants. We also take them to trade shows and events for demonstrations.
Mike Wye great to hear from a talented professional. I agree that traditional lath and plaster is a forgotten art here in America. How common is plastering done in England? Thank you for your quick response.
Do you mean plastering in general or traditional lath and plaster? A large slice of our business is based on the repair and renovation of traditional buildings. Many of these buildings are 'listed' in the UK (they have conditions permitting the use of the correct, sympathetic materials) and therefore we carry out and supply materials for lath and plaster work on a regular basis. It still more specialist than it should be but there's a lot of it still being done.
Funny that drywall, which Western countries only started using when WWII got really brutal, is now absolutely ubiquitous in the US. But as in Canada and Australia, the fact that the free space exists means that people want big over good.
In a USA basement (underground interior wall) Can I use galvanized metal lath attached to the concrete with galvanized concrete nails to give the lime mortar a mechanical bondage between the mortar and the flat surface of the concrete ?
Hi. Why do you want to lime plaster the concrete exactly? Lime is generally much weaker than cement and we're not big fans of using expanded metal lath (EML) where lime is concerned as there is a risk of it cutting into the lime itself. It's not impossible to do so but we would never recommend this approach.
@@MikeWyeLtd in some spots the 1880s concrete is chipping of, in some spots you can see the aggregate already, I'm renovating the property and I would like to have an smooth finish in the basement, is my understanding that lime plastering is better for this situation (underground) walls then any another type of cement. I was also considering plastic/vinyl lath to give the lime plastering a mechanical bondage to the concrete instead of the galvanized to avoid corrosion. I was also considering using a chisel and lightly chisel the face of the concrete to git rid of the smooth surface and create a rough surface for better bondage between the concrete and the new lime mortar whitout the need of any kind of lath. What would you do in this case? thanks for your response in advance.
@@macrapidito1 cement lath or a combo of cement and lime would likely be best in a basement against poured concrete. If you use a cement base you shouldn't need lath, but I work with different materials than what you might have in the US, so I can't guarantee that you would be able to do it that way. Here in Germany, you only use metal lath if you are plastering OSB on a wooden house. otherwise you just plaster directly on the wall. you do however need a special primer to do this. in fact, different primers based on the surface or what you are plastering with.
We typically use horse hair as standard in our mixes but can also produce mixes using goat hair. We import the hair from China but you can buy it direct from us to save you the trouble!
Hi Nabil, we don't recommend the use of NHLs onto lath as they can be quite brittle, although some people use them The hair is an essential part that reinforces the mortar.
Jauhien Sasnou, thank you for your kind comment. We tend to only add hair into the scratch coat as standard these days. However, it’s not uncommon to find hair used in both the scratch coat and the float coat of historic plasters. Adding hair to additional coats adds to the cost a little and arguably adds very little benefit.
Thanks, Mike! I'm finally starting the plastering project and I'm following your video as a guide. Is there any information you could suggest on how to make transitions and repairs to already existing lime plaster on lath using traditional ways? I'm only plastering sections of interior walls. All the videos I find on youtube involve some sort of nasty modern products which I'm reluctant to use. I want to keep it real. Thanks in advance!
Absolutely! www.mikewye.co.uk/product/lime-mortar/ Pre-mixed and ready to use (they do benefit from a little mixing before application to plasticise and improve workability).
there's many different types of lath. a binder and a filler. sand is almost always the filler, but the binder can be cement, lime, plaster, clay, or in some cases combinations of these binders. in these traditional walls however, lime is the most commonly used binder.
![Patch-up repair on lath & plaster walls [Video #375]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/qZojl5Gv8ZE/mqdefault.jpg)
![Дон ДОН, Алаудинов и СБЕЖАВШИЕ из под Курска ахматовцы 😁 [Пародия]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/dEfCf5IK26Q/mqdefault.jpg)
The only true lath and plaster video on line... Amen...
Thank you Lance
Living in a 16th century house I was forced to learn this to comply with Listed Building regs, in some ways I found it more forgiving and intuitive that modern plastering - wish I'd found these vids earlier
I love traditional lime plaster walls! I find it a shame that in the US it has become a lost trade. Everything here is now gypsum sheetrock. I had to remove most of the plaster and lath from my late 1800's home. I was wondering if you have any tips for me with the ratios of sand and lime putty. I am also a bit confused as to why some people would say to add gauging... That for the video, it already has been such a big help! Beautiful work I might add!
Hi Kurt, we tend to go for a ratio of 3 parts sand to 1 part lime putty (or NHL). Thanks for the comment
Thank you for this wonderful video.
He’s done a great job on that. Made it look easy. It’s not. Far from it. I’m renovating a 250 year old house in France. It’s all cob walls and lime putty. Hard work for a novice like me.
Great vid from a fellow plasterer
Thanks for your positive comment Jacob, it's appreciated!
Great video! Same process for exterior walls-scratch, float, skim, wash? Thinking of in-fill for timber-frame panels. Thanks! 🙏
Thank you, yes the same process for exterior lath.
@@MikeWyeLtd Thanks for the quick reply!
applied for a job being a traditional lime plasterers labourer....
Looking forward to hearing if i got the job
Did you get the job??
@@bendoyle5023 nope
I'm a 360 operative now 😂
so cool thats an art wow
Thank you
Good work, Sir
Hello Mike, great video!! I have 2 questions can you use lime plaster skim coat, on Gyprock? and can you use a modern substitute for horse hair? After lifting my home here in Australia and restumping most of the plaster has cracked but still intact, some area,s the plaster has fallen off completley ,I have the knowledge and skill to glue the plaster back where its still on the wall to the laths , but in some area,s i will use gyprock and Skim ,is this a good idea, thank you for the video, lots of stuff to learn regards David
Hi David, you can use synthetic fibres for the scratch coat as long as they are alkali resistant. You can use a grit primer (www.mikewye.co.uk/product/baumit-premium-primer/) on plasterboard and then use a lime finishing plaster. I hope this helps.
Thank you Mike .@@MikeWyeLtd
Wonderful demo. Thank you
Thank you for the kind, positive feedback. Glad you enjoyed it.
What type of plaster mix used? Is it just Lime and sand?
One part lime putty to three parts sand, first coat has the addition of horse hair
How much time per area unit does it consume to do the job for worker with experience in modern plasters but not in this more traditional technique?
Hey guys I'm going to lime render my house in Bali because places here suffer from mould. Doing it on hebel blocks, should I still use hair in base coat? And would I need 2 coats? Going to steel trowel finish it for that sante fe look, and seal it for the natural look?
Two coats is usual practice (hair is optional on a solid wall) but we would apply a harling coat to a solid substrate this link may help www.mikewye.co.uk/guidesheets/rendering/
@@MikeWyeLtd thanks mate. I'm just going to be telling the wall renderers to use lime and sand instead of sand and cement (their usual). Hopefully it pans out ok 👍...so many forums saying to not let dry before applying next coats but this video series was good to see
Wonderful video. What's the ratio for the skimming mix? I'm assuming that the sand is 100% soft sand, but is this right or is there some special sand that you use?
Thanks for the kind comment, we use a kiln dried sand at a ratio of 3 parts sand to 2 parts lime putty
hi Mike , been wondering what is the ratio for pozzolans . let s say per25 kg of putty. Long time back i worked with an old irish plasterer and he would crush old brick and add to mix ,but i was young then and didnt pay any attention to what the ratio was . Thank You . and might thanks for vids. Cheers
Hi. The amount of pozzolan will vary depending on the job, time of year and exposure. For general external building work, repointing and rendering during the spring and early summer we work on a ratio of 1 part pozzolan to 8 parts mortar by volume. If work is being carried out later in the year or is very exposed then we move towards a higher gauge of 1:6 or even 1:5 for chimney flaunching, for example. I hope this helps.
@@MikeWyeLtd Sweet , Thank You Mike. You are Top man
Great video. How many day's from beginning scratch coat to finish coat? Are you going to transport that wall?
Thanks Chris. The scratch coat is left for up to one week until it is 'green hard' (unable to make an indentation with your thumb, hard enough that you can scratch with a nail). The A-frame in the video is a training wall which is hacked off and re-plastered many times every year by our course participants. We also take them to trade shows and events for demonstrations.
Mike Wye great to hear from a talented professional. I agree that traditional lath and plaster is a forgotten art here in America. How common is plastering done in England? Thank you for your quick response.
Do you mean plastering in general or traditional lath and plaster?
A large slice of our business is based on the repair and renovation of traditional buildings. Many of these buildings are 'listed' in the UK (they have conditions permitting the use of the correct, sympathetic materials) and therefore we carry out and supply materials for lath and plaster work on a regular basis. It still more specialist than it should be but there's a lot of it still being done.
Funny that drywall, which Western countries only started using when WWII got really brutal, is now absolutely ubiquitous in the US. But as in Canada and Australia, the fact that the free space exists means that people want big over good.
I now realize how long it would have taken to build my house. Damn this stuff takes time!
It took them four years to build my house from 1900 to 1904
In a USA basement (underground interior wall) Can I use galvanized metal lath attached to the concrete with galvanized concrete nails to give the lime mortar a mechanical bondage between the mortar and the flat surface of the concrete ?
Hi. Why do you want to lime plaster the concrete exactly? Lime is generally much weaker than cement and we're not big fans of using expanded metal lath (EML) where lime is concerned as there is a risk of it cutting into the lime itself.
It's not impossible to do so but we would never recommend this approach.
@@MikeWyeLtd in some spots the 1880s concrete is chipping of, in some spots you can see the aggregate already, I'm renovating the property and I would like to have an smooth finish in the basement, is my understanding that lime plastering is better for this situation (underground) walls then any another type of cement. I was also considering plastic/vinyl lath to give the lime plastering a mechanical bondage to the concrete instead of the galvanized to avoid corrosion.
I was also considering using a chisel and lightly chisel the face of the concrete to git rid of the smooth surface and create a rough surface for better bondage between the concrete and the new lime mortar whitout the need of any kind of lath.
What would you do in this case? thanks for your response in advance.
@@macrapidito1 cement lath or a combo of cement and lime would likely be best in a basement against poured concrete. If you use a cement base you shouldn't need lath, but I work with different materials than what you might have in the US, so I can't guarantee that you would be able to do it that way. Here in Germany, you only use metal lath if you are plastering OSB on a wooden house. otherwise you just plaster directly on the wall. you do however need a special primer to do this. in fact, different primers based on the surface or what you are plastering with.
what kind of animal hair to you use in your plaster?
Hi David, as standard we use horse hair but we occasionally get requests for cow and goat hair.
What type of hair do you add and where do you get it? Thanks
We typically use horse hair as standard in our mixes but can also produce mixes using goat hair. We import the hair from China but you can buy it direct from us to save you the trouble!
Could you use NHL 3.5 mixed at a 3 to 1 ratio for the plaster instead of lime putty? Also is horsehair always required?
Hi Nabil, we don't recommend the use of NHLs onto lath as they can be quite brittle, although some people use them The hair is an essential part that reinforces the mortar.
nice
Great video, thanks Mike! Very informative and spot on. Do you use hair in the scratch coat only?
Jauhien Sasnou, thank you for your kind comment.
We tend to only add hair into the scratch coat as standard these days. However, it’s not uncommon to find hair used in both the scratch coat and the float coat of historic plasters.
Adding hair to additional coats adds to the cost a little and arguably adds very little benefit.
Thanks, Mike! I'm finally starting the plastering project and I'm following your video as a guide. Is there any information you could suggest on how to make transitions and repairs to already existing lime plaster on lath using traditional ways? I'm only plastering sections of interior walls. All the videos I find on youtube involve some sort of nasty modern products which I'm reluctant to use. I want to keep it real. Thanks in advance!
Can I buy ready-made hair lime plaster etc to do repairs in an old house?
Absolutely!
www.mikewye.co.uk/product/lime-mortar/ Pre-mixed and ready to use (they do benefit from a little mixing before application to plasticise and improve workability).
kirks the best
Wow
Do you used cement for the plaster..??
Hi Elisha, no just sand and lime putty
there's many different types of lath. a binder and a filler. sand is almost always the filler, but the binder can be cement, lime, plaster, clay, or in some cases combinations of these binders. in these traditional walls however, lime is the most commonly used binder.
What is 5 mil in inches?
5 mm is roughly a fifth of an inch
Man men used to work much harder back then… methods are easier now.
Methods certainly do change, but if we keep the traditional practices alive it will be good news for our historic buildings.
And quality is lower.
Seems like concrete. Isn't it?
Hi Jose, no cement. Just lime putty, sand and a pozzolan
Thank god for sheet rock
Chalk and lime is better on laths 👌
Norfolk/Suffolk hair chalk lime plasters/render most other areas use sand & lime.