Historic Plastering

English trained plasterer with over 30 years experience in the UK and New Zealand. Member of the Lime Forum NZ and UK. When restoring historic properties in the UK was a member of Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (S.P.A.B.).

I have restored over 50 historic buildings in the UK for both private owners and the Uk National Trust, for example many of the historic Milton Abbas houses, Martyrs Cottage, Tolpuddle,..these are all Dorset, to name but a few.

In New Zealand I have restored and/or worked on various museums including Tiptree Cottage (cob museum), Christchurch. Waiau Cottage (cob museum), Waiau. Fyffe House Whaling Station, Kaikora (lath and plaster museum). All these have been for heritage New Zealand. I also do private homes for example Claremount House which was solid lime stone with traditional lime plastered walls.

The historic work is done using non-hydraulic lime putty based plasters. I also make my own lime wash paints.

Clay/lime plasters

Earthen floors (Cotons Cottage Museum, Hororata) in the traditional manner with no modern damp proofing needed or used.

Pointing walls

Historic walls which were usually built without damp proof courses for example cob, sod must be restored using non-hydraulic lime putty based materials as these walls need moisture for their integrity and the lime plasters allow them to breath naturally as their builders intended unlike sand and cement which will destroy these walls in time.

Walls that are built with lime must be repointed using lime mortar to prevent delamination of the brick or stone as the mortar must be sacrificial to the main building material.