In fine structural shape – better than any stone house unfortunate enough to be rendered with cement – this Lime rendered cottage is one of my favourite.
A perfectly loved cottage
Unshaven cottage
Cottage full of children
yet many more without
Jaunty town cottage
With chestnut colts cottage
Tiny cottages
Still-going-strong cottage
Forgotten mountain cottage
Island cottage
Railway cottage
Daffodil cottage
limewindow 
Thank you for sharing the rebuild of your cottage as well as these wonderful cottage images. I have enjoyed watching the progress on the cottage and the process involved is not something I have ever seen before.
Thanks Holly 🙂
lovely photos
Interested to see your blog. We have just bought a cottage in the west. It was a DIY project for the previous owner, and there are number of peculiarities. Walls were badly rendered outside in wide sweeps. Internally they are an unsatisfactory mix of bare stone (apparently varnished) and modern render. To address this we’re thinking of re rendering the outside ( will be cement on cement I think) and giving the interior a skim of lime render and then lime washing. What do you think?
I’m also fascinated by your floor. We also have a ruin, and I’d like to use your technique on that, so thanks for the info.
Hello Peter and congratulations on acquiring a stone cottage.
We get a lot of queries about lime and cement being used in combination – either mixed directly together – or used on various parts of cottage walls. The straightforward answer is that Lime and cement are not compatible materials. This is because of their very different qualities. Lime breathes, while cement does not. So when you suggest, for example, to encase outside cottage walls with cement, and then to use Lime on the inside – this defeats the purpose of using Lime at all. When moisture gets trapped behind/inside cement render – (cement inevitably forms hairline cracks but also there will inevitably be some rising damp common to all old buildings without DP membrane in situ) – when moisture trapped inside walls is unable to evaporate outwards, it is forced to take a course through the interior of the wall, destroying mortar and making rooms damp.
Unquestionably the best course is to remove as much cement as possible from the outside walls, and simply repoint and render with Lime.
Then, each time you heat or air the house, evaporate can escape and the house will be as dry as it is possible to be.
Obviously a good drainage system etc is essential too.
There are a few products that look like varnish which are made to ‘seal’ stone, some breathable and some not.
Good luck with the project!
Louise
Thanks for your helpful answer Louise. I can see that I might be forced to make some compromises with our cottage, which is already encased in render. That’s a big job to remove and the building is basically sound and dry, so mostly we’re doing cosmetic work. More interesting might be our ruin, which, from its period, probably has an earth floor (it’s full of rubble and weeds). If there are any enthusiasts who’d like to help us do this as a restoration project, please let me know! I’m planning to tackle that one next year. We’re near lough corrib.
Glad to hear you’ve got a dry house when so many that are restored with cememnt are clammy .Indeed for aesthics alone Lime is wonderful choice.No more beautiful spot than Lough Corrib too!