Lime Plastering is a specialist lime plastering contractor working throughout Sittingbourne and the wider Kent area. As an established Kent town, Sittingbourne has a large stock of pre-1919 property built from clay tile-hung and timber frame — 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 timber-framed hall houses on the edge of Sittingbourne, a terrace near the centre, or a farm building out in Kent, each project starts with a survey of the substrate so the lime mix, aggregate and coat build-up are right for that specific wall.
Sittingbourne and the villages around it retain a good deal of clay tile-hung and timber frame. Where that material is soft — as most traditional Kent 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.
In the drier but wind-driven weather of the South East coast and Downs, an impermeable render is a liability: water gets in at cracks and reveals and then cannot leave. Lime render on a Sittingbourne wall handles that water, releasing it back out through the surface instead of pushing it deeper into the structure.
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 drier but wind-driven weather of the South East coast and Downs 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 Sittingbourne property — the building types and problems vary, but the answer is always breathable lime rather than cement.
Regency seafront villa — A Regency seafront villa in Sittingbourne where hard cement render had trapped moisture against soft red brick. 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.
tile-hung Wealden farmhouse — Peeling modern masonry paint on a tile-hung Wealden farmhouse in Kent. The impermeable coating was removed, minor render defects were patched in lime, and the elevations were finished in several thin coats of limewash.
timber-framed hall house — Weather-facing walls of a timber-framed hall house taking the full force of the drier but wind-driven weather of the South East coast and Downs. We specified hot-mixed lime or NHL 2 with hair reinforcement for lath and frame, built the render up in generous coats and protected the work while it carbonated to avoid shrinkage cracking.
Yes, but it must be finished with a breathable product such as limewash, clay paint or mineral silicate paint. We advise on suitable finishes for each Sittingbourne project so breathability is not lost at the final coat.
We do. Lime repointing is a large part of our Sittingbourne workload — raking out hard cement pointing and replacing it with a softer, sacrificial lime mortar that protects the masonry face instead of eroding it.
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 Sittingbourne and provide a written, no-obligation quote.
Our lime plastering, render and pointing teams also cover these towns and cities close to Sittingbourne in Kent and the wider South East England area.
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