We provide conservation-grade lime plastering across Peterborough, Cambridgeshire. Whether you are repairing damp internal walls in a clay lump and cob property, stripping failed cement render, or repointing stonework, our craftsmen work only in lime — the material Peterborough's period buildings were originally constructed with.
Damp in Peterborough homes is usually caused by the wrong material rather than a faulty building. Where cement render has been applied over clay lump and cob, stripping it back and re-rendering in lime normally resolves the damp within a single drying season.
Around Peterborough 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.
In the dry, cold easterly exposure of the eastern counties, an impermeable render is a liability: water gets in at cracks and reveals and then cannot leave. Lime render on a Peterborough wall handles that water, releasing it back out through the surface instead of pushing it deeper into the structure.
Every Peterborough job begins with diagnosis: identifying where moisture is entering before any plaster goes on. We then remove failed material, prepare the clay lump and cob, 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, Peterborough 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 Cambridgeshire. 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 Peterborough. 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.
flint barn conversion — Consented repairs to a listed flint barn conversion in Cambridgeshire. Sample panels were prepared for the conservation officer, mortar analysis informed the mix, and the historic surface was conserved and patched rather than replaced wholesale.
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 Peterborough 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 — stripping failed cement render and replacing it with a breathable lime render is one of the most common jobs we carry out in Peterborough. It is usually the fastest way to resolve persistent damp in a solid-wall building.
Lime cures slowly by carbonation. Allow roughly a week per coat as a guide, and longer in the dry, cold easterly exposure of the eastern counties. We protect the work and control drying so the finish cures evenly rather than cracking or dusting.
Our lime plastering, render and pointing teams also cover these towns and cities close to Peterborough in Cambridgeshire and the wider East of England area.
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