We provide conservation-grade lime plastering across Norwich, Norfolk. Whether you are repairing damp internal walls in a soft red brick property, stripping failed cement render, or repointing stonework, our craftsmen work only in lime — the material Norwich's period buildings were originally constructed with.
Exposure matters as much as material. Norwich sits in the dry, cold easterly exposure of the eastern counties, which means external work has to shed water and then dry out again quickly. That is exactly what a correctly built lime render does, and exactly what a sealed cement skin prevents.
Around Norwich you will find timber-framed and pargetted cottages alongside later Georgian merchant 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.
Lime is flexible, breathable and self-healing. On Norwich properties built from soft red brick, it moves with the building instead of cracking away from it, and it protects the masonry rather than the other way round.
Every Norwich job begins with diagnosis: identifying where moisture is entering before any plaster goes on. We then remove failed material, prepare the soft red brick, and build the lime up in coats, allowing each one to cure before the next.
Because clay lump, flint and timber frame are common and intolerant of cement, Norwich throws up a particular set of problems. These are representative examples of how we resolve them in lime.
estate farmworker's cottage — Blown gypsum plaster and tide marks on the ground floor of an estate farmworker's cottage in Norfolk. 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.
Georgian merchant's house — Sagging original ceilings in a Georgian merchant's house near the centre of Norwich. 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.
clay lump cottage — Owners of a clay lump cottage in Norfolk 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. We take samples of the surviving mortar or plaster from the clay lump and cob first, then match aggregate, colour and texture so the repair blends into the original rather than patching over it.
Where damp is caused by trapped moisture in a solid wall — very common in older Norwich 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.
Yes. We regularly work on listed and conservation-area properties across Norfolk and can supply mix specifications and sample panels for Norwich conservation officers where consent is required.
It depends on the wall and its exposure. For most Norfolk work we use lime putty with local pit sand, often finished with traditional pargetting, stepping up to a more hydraulic lime only where exposure or the substrate genuinely demands it.
We do. Lime repointing is a large part of our Norwich workload — raking out hard cement pointing and replacing it with a softer, sacrificial lime mortar that protects the masonry face instead of eroding it.
Our lime plastering, render and pointing teams also cover these towns and cities close to Norwich in Norfolk and the wider East of England area.
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