We provide conservation-grade lime plastering across Newtownards, County Down. Whether you are repairing damp internal walls in a soft brick property, stripping failed cement render, or repointing stonework, our craftsmen work only in lime — the material Newtownards's period buildings were originally constructed with.
Damp in Newtownards homes is usually caused by the wrong material rather than a faulty building. Where cement render has been applied over soft brick, stripping it back and re-rendering in lime normally resolves the damp within a single drying season.
Around Newtownards you will find rubble-stone farmhouses alongside later Georgian market-town houses. Both were built with lime, and both suffer when a modern impermeable finish is applied over the top — the moisture has to go somewhere, and it goes into the masonry and the timbers.
In persistently wet, mild Atlantic weather, an impermeable render is a liability: water gets in at cracks and reveals and then cannot leave. Lime render on a Newtownards wall handles that water, releasing it back out through the surface instead of pushing it deeper into the structure.
Every Newtownards job begins with diagnosis: identifying where moisture is entering before any plaster goes on. We then remove failed material, prepare the soft brick, and build the lime up in coats, allowing each one to cure before the next.
Because rubble walls with clay-bound cores fail quickly when sealed with cement, Newtownards throws up a particular set of problems. These are representative examples of how we resolve them in lime.
rubble-stone farmhouse — Blown gypsum plaster and tide marks on the ground floor of a rubble-stone farmhouse in County Down. 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.
whitewashed country cottage — Salt-contaminated plaster around a reopened fireplace in a whitewashed country cottage in Newtownards. We removed the affected plaster, applied a salt-tolerant lime build-up and finished flush with the surrounding original work.
Georgian market-town house — Owners of a Georgian market-town house in County Down wanted warmer rooms without sealing the walls. We installed a woodfibre or cork-lime background and finished in lime plaster, improving comfort while keeping the wall vapour-open.
Yes — stripping failed cement render and replacing it with a breathable lime render is one of the most common jobs we carry out in Newtownards. It is usually the fastest way to resolve persistent damp in a solid-wall building.
It depends on the wall and its exposure. For most County Down work we use hot-mixed lime with local aggregate, wet-dashed or limewashed externally, stepping up to a more hydraulic lime only where exposure or the substrate genuinely demands it.
Yes. We regularly work on listed and conservation-area properties across County Down and can supply mix specifications and sample panels for Newtownards conservation officers where consent is required.
Where damp is caused by trapped moisture in a solid wall — very common in older Newtownards properties — replacing cement or gypsum with lime allows the wall to dry out. We always identify the source of moisture during the survey before recommending work.
Our lime plastering, render and pointing teams also cover these towns and cities close to Newtownards in County Down and the wider Northern Ireland area.
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