Lime Plaster Repairs

A lot of my work involves repairs to lime plaster on walls and ceilings and examples are shown below. Lime plastering also lends itself well to repair/tuition - see the Doncaster case study below.

Due to a toilet cistern overflowing water came through the downstairs ceiling of this Victorian house in Matlock loosening the ceiling rose. The rose had been made in situ and was very heavy and was virtually hanging by the electric cable.

A frame was made to support the rose and then the frame was gently lifted using a car jack until the rose was in position and could be fixed to the joists.

Damaged laths were replaced and three coats of lime plaster was used in the repair area.

When the wallpaper was stripped off the stairs and landings walls in this three-storey Victorian house in Derby the original lime plaster was revealed. It had been finished to look like stone and then lime washed. The finish was copied onto a new internal plasterboard wall.  

This is a Victorian terraced house in Doncaster which retains much of the original lime plaster, much of which is on lath. On the staircases and landings there were patches of damaged plaster caused by either wear and tear, and/or failure of the underlying lath. The owners decided that they wanted a proper repair rather than using plasterboard and gypsum; the man of the house is very practical and wanted the repair work done as a tuition exercise so that he could do other lime plaster repairs in the house himself.

Here any damaged lath has been replaced and the first coat of plaster applied.

The lime plastering was done in the traditional three coats and would later be lime washed.

There was no original wall here so new sawn oak laths were fixed to the wooden frame and then plastered.