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| An Introduction To
Lime |
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Before the invention of Portland cement lime was the most widely used building
material in Britain and beyond for many centuries. As a component of mortars,
plasters, renders, floor screeds and paints, lime provided a versatile and reliable
ingredient for most aspects of construction.
Most people think of buildings as solid, immoveable objects. This isn't strictly
true, particularly in the case of older buildings. Houses and other structures
are moving all the time as they adjust to ground conditions, extremes of temperature,
humidity and many other factors. Lime allows these small movements to occur, it's
properties absorb these adjustments without causing cracking of brick or stonework
Older buildings were also designed to breathe. Builders didn't have the means
to completely exclude condensation and damp from their properties and so they
needed a material that would allow moisture to escape naturally. Lime turns the
walls of a structure into its lungs, letting it breathe. Cement on the other hand
has the opposite effect. When an older property has, for example, been re-pointed,
plastered or rendered in cement based materials, it's capacity to breathe has
been removed. If moisture gets in (and it often does), it can cause real problems
which may only reveal themselves after serious and costly damage has occurred.
Cement has its place but its place is in newer buildings that are constructed
with different materials and in different ways to older buildings. An older structure
that has been built in lime but later maintained using cement will at some point
develop problems because of this. Many modern builders have caused great damage
to historic properties without malice but because of a lack of knowledge or understanding
of the properties of lime.
Lime not only maintains the historical and structural integrity of an older property
but nothing else can rival the visual impact it provides. |
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