mclean's Profile

"Does that mean that all those houses with painted brick exteriors are going to start falling down? Every 100 year old house on Capitol Hill in DC is painted brick."

Er, actually, yes!

We live in a Tudor farm house that's over 500 years old, and the main problem during restoration has been to remove modern paints and cement render. Everything we use is now lime-based.

Recent heaving flooding in nearby Gloucestershire (UK) has thrown up some interesting 'new' knowledge for the building industry involved in the repair operation: the houses that are 150 years old or more, that have lime-based limewash, mortar and render, are drying out much faster than any of the modern homes.

In some parts of the UK, new-build is going back to these old materials with a recognition that hermetically sealing houses isn't good for houses, or the people that live in them!

www.churchfarm.info to see our re-thatching work...