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All too often we see stone work repointed using hard cement mortar, covered in gypsum plaster and cement render.

This suffocates the fabric of the building and eventually destroys it rotting the timbers, potentially leading to major structural failures causing collapse.

By using hard cement mortar, render and gypsum plaster, wall paper on a historic structure, the process of breathing no longer works, the moisture gets trapped in the fabric of the building it rises upwards and causes damp, condensation, mould, the damp gets into the timber work, floor joists and lintels causing decay and rot. Any original lime/mud mortar in the walls can become unstable causing voids within the walls and destabilising the masonry in worst case scenarios even collapsing. The hard mortars cause the face of the stone to crumble and blow apart.

Stone is hard but also porous.

So, to make it easy wrap yourself in plastic and you sweat, the sweat cannot escape. Imagine this with your stone wall of the structure, using traditional lime mortars whether it be for pointing, plastering or rendering these allow the stonework to breath so in the winter if rain penetrates the stonework these mortars allow the walls to breath the moisture out. The fabric of the structure absorbs the ambient atmosphere of the season. Warm and damper in winter cool and drier in the summer. Remember that some walls can be over a meter thick.

We understand the problems these bad practices from past works can cause. We can show you this problem first hand at our ongoing works at Ridge Cottage HQ.

With close consultation with our client and unpicking the past we are able to come up with the solution that befits your structure to help conserve it for the next few hundred years. Lime mortars set but not too hard still offering strength. They do not wear away the surrounding masonry, drawing the moisture out of the stonework, allowing for movement and thermal expansion.