The advantages and disadvantages of decorating with lime wash.

As most people are watching the pennies, this may be useful.

Limewash was used in England for inside and outside decorating before the advent of modern paints.  As this is a ´wash´it is much thinner than modern paint...so it goes on much faster, but takes more coats to cover.  

With each coat, a layer of lime is added to the wall.  The water evaporates off and the lime reacts with the air to harden on the wall.  The look and feel works well here in Catalunya, as there is plenty of limestone around anyway.

The end result is a chalky matt finish that lets walls breathe...great for older casas with damp problems.

Odour free and very easy on the lungs..so good for people with allegies or those striving for a toxin free environment.

Costs less than half the cost of conventional paint...less if you have the time and inclanation to mature your own lime putty.

Now the disadvantages....

You have to wear gloves to paint it on.  Lime is highly caustic..it dries your skin..believe me, I´ve decorated a few rooms with it.
Once it´s dry it´s fine.

It will take 4-5 coats-maybe even more.  But each coat is very fast.

The chalky matt finish does not give a diamond hard finish like modern paints.

You´re wasting your time trying to cover new conventional plaster with it.

In summary....great for those people striving for an eco-finish or for covering a damp wall in your old casa.


Best wishes,
gavin  





 

Hi Organic Gav

Yes that fine for you eco people out there, but some of us don't have all the time in the world to let 5 coats of paint dry so on the ECOnomic front what I do is to buy Sabecos or Leyroys cheapest white emulsion paint and mix it with water and the plaster that is used for filling joints in plasterboard the water thins the cheap paint down and the powder plaster makes it thick again it dries with a matt finish goes further but has the same plastic finish which makes it easier to clean and not so powdery and flakey as lime plaster which leaves marks on your clothes if you lean against it

Just a suggestion!!

I am sure I will be shot down in flames though by the Eco brigade

G.O.M.

I think that watching 5 coats of paint dry would just about suit me. :)
But actually painting something 5 times wouldnt :-?
But as for all that hard work messing about with water and fillers :(
Just use Yeso on the inside,it dries to an almost white finish  8-)
And use whatever colour monocapa on the outside and never paint again ;D
Hey its called PARADISE ::)
As for limewash, I wouldnt even put a lime in a drink, yucky stuff :-?

Hi Gavin
I had always wondered about limewash and how it was done. Thanks very much for the info. Any knowledge is welcomed whether it is put to use or not.
Regards
Bruixot

Lime paint and Lime mortar are not really about ECO solutions, it is just straight old vs new building technlogy.

Modern concrete built houses are designed 'not to breathe' and are happy painted with plastic paint, or Lime.

If you have an old house built from Lime and painted with Lime, you are going to cause serious problems if you use nice-n-easy plastic paint as you are adding a new impermeable layer, to a house designed to be wholly permeable, paint, walls, the lot.

Feel free to ignore this and keep on splashing the emulsion, my stepdad made a very good living for many years putting buildings right after exactly this. Plastic paint and Concrete do not mix well with Lime buildings.

All the responses are relevant.

The number of coats needed is time consuming....and yes I´ve used monocap to mortar the outside of my almacien.

But then I wouldn´t coat with plastic paint the interior of an old casa that has a tendency for damp.

I´ve painted a very nice 14th century house in UK with limewash..again I wouldn´t have considered ´"doing a dulux" on that one.

The article is just my point of view...from my experience...hence the advantages and disadvantages...I´m not interested in trying to convert you.

Best,
Gavin  

Hi Gavin

Good job re converting me to lime plaster as I am 14 stone and you wouldn't get me over the cross bar ;D

Re your lime solution I agree its Horses for courses, we have concreted all our floors with a rebar mesh strengthener, visqueen waterproof membrane and 2" of polystyrene insulation so we don't expect damp  :-/, all the outer walls are painted and roof waterproofed, we have removed our underground cisterna and all the pipework so not expecting our walls to need to breath as much as a traditional castita, we have also been through 2 years since the renovation work and no paint has lifted so fingers crossed

Regards G.O.M.

British or Spanish paint used?

Cactus Jack,

What´s Yeso?

Gavin

wrote on May 1^st, 2009 at 3:15pm:

Cactus Jack, What´s Yeso? Gavin

Yeso is spanish plaster.
I have just had 3 rooms plastered by an old Catalunian with 40+ years experience (el Yesero) and he has done an excellent job, especially considering the 'vino induced' walls that I build.
Local products and local labour, cant beat it :)

wrote on May 1^st, 2009 at 3:15pm:

Cactus Jack, What´s Yeso? Gavin

..be careful - there are several types..

If you ask for Yeso - that's what you'll get - it goes off in about 30 seconds and is mainly used as a 'glue' for sticking in pipes, blocks and so on.. it's a nightmare trying to use it as regular plaster.

If you want to do plastering then you want to ask for Yeso para maquina - machine yeso - this you can work for ages and is more what you would expect if you asked for plaster.


I'm sure there are many others but I'm not a builder so I can't advise.

Nigel I did say 'LOCAL LABOUR" they know how to use this stuff and the end result is well worth paying an extremely good rate for

Hi everyone, could anyone please give me some advice while we are on the subject of paints
 our little casa suffers from its fair share of damp and we were planning on giving it a paint up inside and out next time we are over it was built probably sometime in the early 1970s it is renderd outside but not sure with what sort of render how could we find out and if not can anyone recomend what paint to use and what we need to ask for in leroys
thanks J  :P

Hi.

If it was me, i´d use a paint that lets the walls breath rather than seal it up.  But before you do any painting may be worth considering sorting out the damp problem?  I´m no builder, but a few vents in the base of the walls?

Best,
Gavin