Lime harling and limewash:

Celtic Cross House

Banchory · 2012

Our role: Main contractor
Client: Private client
Value: Under £0.5m
Programme: February 2012 to April 2012
Scope: Removal of defective cement harling, lime harling to the north gable and small east gable, chimney head repairs, four coats of pigmented limewash

Celtic Cross House is an established house on Station Road in Banchory, its walls harled and patched over many years. The owner asked us to assess and replace the failing harling on the rear north gable. We worked directly for the private client, erecting scaffold, taking off the defective harling, re-harling the gable and the small east gable in lime, and finishing the wall in limewash colour matched to the rest of the house.

Celtic Cross House: aerial survey views

Celtic Cross House, Station Road, Banchory — photograph 1

Celtic Cross House, Station Road, Banchory — photograph 2

Celtic Cross House, Station Road, Banchory — photograph 3

Celtic Cross House, Station Road, Banchory — photograph 4

Celtic Cross House, Station Road, Banchory — photograph 5

Celtic Cross House, Station Road, Banchory — photograph 6

The challenge

The north gable had been patched repeatedly over the years, and much of the repair was in hard cement that no longer bonded to the wall behind. Stripping it back revealed a rubble stone gable, and the brick chimney head above it needed attention at the same time. The house was occupied, with a conservatory, windows and services close to the work, so openings had to be protected, debris contained on each scaffold lift and an overhead electric cable on the gable insulated at the scaffold. The new finish also had to sit acceptably beside a cement and masonry paint wall elsewhere on the house.

Our solution

We removed the defective cement harling by hand, working top down on each elevation and cutting back until sound lime mortar was reached. Windows were protected with plywood and debris was brushed down and taken to a skip daily. The exposed rubble wall was then flushed out with lime mortar and the harling applied in three coats: a thin pricking up coat, a straightening coat and a cast finish coat. The mortar throughout was Roundtower NHL 3.5 natural hydraulic lime with Park Quarry sand, with a fine 5mm down aggregate added to the finish coat. Each coat was kept damp and protected from sun and weather with hessian and tarpaulin so that the lime cured properly. The wall was finished in four coats of lime wash, damped down and burnished between coats. The first two were plain white, and the last two were pigmented and colour matched to the existing walls. The chimney head masonry was repaired from the scaffold during the same visit.