Lime Plastering is a specialist lime plastering contractor working throughout Salford and the wider Greater Manchester area. As one of the larger towns in Greater Manchester, Salford has a large stock of pre-1919 property built from red sandstone — 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 stone farmhouses and barns on the edge of Salford, a terrace near the centre, or a farm building out in Greater Manchester, each project starts with a survey of the substrate so the lime mix, aggregate and coat build-up are right for that specific wall.
Salford and the villages around it retain a good deal of red sandstone. Where that material is soft — as most traditional Greater Manchester 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.
Softness is the point. Traditional Greater Manchester walling of red sandstone is weaker than modern cement, so a hard mortar concentrates stress and moisture into the masonry face. Lime is deliberately the weaker material, and that is what makes it correct for Salford's older homes.
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 high rainfall and constant damp of the North West 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 Salford property — the building types and problems vary, but the answer is always breathable lime rather than cement.
millworkers' terrace — A commercial millworkers' terrace on a Salford high street within a conservation area. Decayed render and mouldings were reinstated in lime, run in situ to the original profiles, and finished to match neighbouring frontages.
Lakeland stone farmhouse — Persistent ground-floor damp in a Lakeland stone farmhouse in Salford previously treated with injected DPC and waterproof render. Once the real moisture path was identified, the walls were replastered in lime and the damp resolved without chemical treatment.
slate-rubble barn conversion — A slate-rubble barn conversion being brought back into use outside Salford. Because high exposure means walls must shed water and dry quickly, we plastered internally in lime over a breathable insulating background and left the external stonework repointed rather than sealed.
We do. Lime repointing is a large part of our Salford workload — raking out hard cement pointing and replacing it with a softer, sacrificial lime mortar that protects the masonry face instead of eroding it.
We do. Salford is one of our core areas and we travel throughout Greater Manchester and the surrounding parts of North West England for lime plastering, lime render, lime pointing and heritage repair.
Yes. We regularly work on listed and conservation-area properties across Greater Manchester and can supply mix specifications and sample panels for Salford conservation officers where consent is required.
Our lime plastering, render and pointing teams also cover these towns and cities close to Salford in Greater Manchester and the wider North West England area.
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