Lime Plastering is a specialist lime plastering contractor working throughout Kidderminster and the wider Worcestershire area. As an established Worcestershire town, Kidderminster has a large stock of pre-1919 property built from oak timber frame with wattle panels — walls that were designed to breathe. We restore them using traditional lime plaster, lime render and lime mortar, never cement or gypsum.
Whether it is black-and-white timber-framed houses on the edge of Kidderminster, a terrace near the centre, or a farm building out in Worcestershire, each project starts with a survey of the substrate so the lime mix, aggregate and coat build-up are right for that specific wall.
Kidderminster and the villages around it retain a good deal of oak timber frame with wattle panels. Where that material is soft — as most traditional Worcestershire walling is — the mortar and plaster must always be softer than the masonry, so it wears sacrificially instead of eroding the stone or brick face.
Lime is flexible, breathable and self-healing. On Kidderminster properties built from oak timber frame with wattle panels, it moves with the building instead of cracking away from it, and it protects the masonry rather than the other way round.
Once the survey is agreed, we protect the site, strip back the failed finish, and apply lime in successive coats with proper curing between each. In the damp, sheltered inland Midlands climate we control drying with damp hessian or sheeting so the work carbonates evenly rather than cracking.
The jobs below are typical of the work we carry out on Kidderminster property — the building types and problems vary, but the answer is always breathable lime rather than cement.
red sandstone cottage — A red sandstone cottage in Kidderminster where hard cement render had trapped moisture against oak timber frame with wattle panels. We stripped the render back to bare wall, allowed the masonry to dry, then rebuilt the finish in three coats of lime and limewashed it.
Victorian villa — Blown gypsum plaster and tide marks on the ground floor of a Victorian villa in Worcestershire. We hacked off the gypsum, applied a haired lime base coat and a lime putty finish, and specified clay paint so the wall could keep drying.
canal-side warehouse conversion — Sagging original ceilings in a canal-side warehouse conversion near the centre of Kidderminster. Sound laths were retained and re-keyed, missing sections re-lathed in riven timber, and the ceiling made good with haired lime plaster to match the surviving profile.
Every property is different, so we do not publish fixed prices. Cost depends on the substrate, the number of coats, access and whether failed cement has to be removed first. We survey the property in Kidderminster and provide a written, no-obligation quote.
External lime work is best carried out between spring and early autumn so it can carbonate before the first frosts. Internal lime plastering in Kidderminster can be done year-round with adequate heating and ventilation.
Lime cures slowly by carbonation. Allow roughly a week per coat as a guide, and longer in the damp, sheltered inland Midlands climate. We protect the work and control drying so the finish cures evenly rather than cracking or dusting.
We do. Kidderminster is one of our core areas and we travel throughout Worcestershire and the surrounding parts of West Midlands for lime plastering, lime render, lime pointing and heritage repair.
Our lime plastering, render and pointing teams also cover these towns and cities close to Kidderminster in Worcestershire and the wider West Midlands area.
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