# What material is being used here ??



## philthompson23

Hi all,
We have purchased an old 1750s cottage with big stone walls. Internally it seems to be coated in something. Trying to work out if it’s lime render or something like else as it has small holes in it. It’s a bit dirty but obviously I don’t want to just paint on lime or it will seal it!!
See pic below. Any advice ????









texture


Image texture hosted in ImgBB




ibb.co


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## 1790260

Is it artex? Or crepi perhaps. I'd guess artex since it looks a neater finish.

Edit: those tiles, that fireplace... looks identical to what our place looked like a few years ago!


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## philthompson23

did you get rid of the fireplace? I’m not a massive fan but would rather not spend thousands to change it


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## 1790260

philthompson23 said:


> did you get rid of the fireplace?


Yes. Ripped it out and put an insert in the space, with a simple metal stud and (fire resistant) plasterboard surround. The insert and inox chimney tube weren't cheap but the job itself was simple enough. But if you're not going to retain it as a fireplace then, yes, I reckon it'd would be an inexpensive job; more about destruction than creation. 

Edit: we gained a bit of space as we were able to move the insert back into the old fireplace space, and narrow/square up the chimney bit.


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## rynd2it

philthompson23 said:


> Hi all,
> We have purchased an old 1750s cottage with big stone walls. Internally it seems to be coated in something. Trying to work out if it’s lime render or something like else as it has small holes in it. It’s a bit dirty but obviously I don’t want to just paint on lime or it will seal it!!
> See pic below. Any advice ????
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> texture
> 
> 
> Image texture hosted in ImgBB
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ibb.co


Looks like crepi to me so it can be painted or removed. Might be worth remove a bit to see what's underneath, could even be nice stonework which some Philistine has covered  Crepi is easily repaired


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## 1790260

I really don't like crépi. It was rough applied here, you'd catch yourself on it if brushing past. Dirty stuff too; held the dust and impossible to clean. I took great delight in ripping it off walls, sometimes in big sheets. I'm sure it has it's uses, covering a multitude of sins no doubt, but I can live without it.


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## Nomoss

Some nitwit had coated some walls in our house with exterior crépi which was so rough it would easily cut your skin.
We managed to remove it on a small area but it was very hard work and resulted in the plaster underneath coming away in patches, also damaging the brick wall, so I covered it with placo in two rooms. This lost a small amount of floor area, but the rooms are large, and I used insulated placo on the exterior walls.
As most of the kitchen walls are covered in storage units, tiles, or insulated placo, there is only a small area of crépi exposed, which I smoothed down with an angle grinder to give an acceptable texture.

We have had two of those monstrous fireplaces in different houses. Both were promptly removed and disposed of as I could find no-one who wanted them even as a gift.
The space gained partly compensated for the few square metres lost by fixing placo on the walls


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## 1790260

Nomoss said:


> Some nitwit had coated some walls in our house with exterior crépi which was so rough it would easily cut your skin.


Ah, maybe that was the case in our place too. It was evil, skin ripping stuff. I didn't know there was an exterior version.


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## Nomoss

appunti said:


> Ah, maybe that was the case in our place too. It was evil, skin ripping stuff. I didn't know there was an exterior version.


I believe that exterieor crépi is cement mortar and interior crepi is lime or acrylic plastic based.
There is an article on removing it HERE Quite drastic measures are suggested. I think my decision to grind down what was reasonable and cover the rest was the best in the circumstances.


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## eairicbloodaxe

We had ours rendered flat... external crepi had been used inside and was horrible.

Much better now!

Kind regards

Ian


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## Nomoss

eairicbloodaxe said:


> We had ours rendered flat... external crepi had been used inside and was horrible.
> 
> Much better now!
> 
> Kind regards
> 
> Ian


That would have been a better solution for me if the area had not been so large and the cost so high. I didn't try myself as I had tried doing plastering before with abysmal results.
Since then I found an English plasterer who had trained a French guy in the art. They finished off a large amount of plasterboard and old walls by skimming the entire walls, a lot faster then the French taping, repeatedly applying enduit and sanding down method, although this is great for inflating the final facture.
Unfortunately they have both now found more lucrative employment. Probably because the local people are suspicious of anything new, especially from furriners.


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## philthompson23

Behind the crap in my photo are ancient stones. Just praying it’s not been applied directly to the stone and has some plasterboard behind it or something. If it’s just been slapped on stone I’m scared it’ll be a horrific nightmare to remove


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## eairicbloodaxe

philthompson23 said:


> Behind the crap in my photo are ancient stones. Just praying it’s not been applied directly to the stone and has some plasterboard behind it or something. If it’s just been slapped on stone I’m scared it’ll be a horrific nightmare to remove


Ours had been applied straight onto the stone. Sadly, it's the best/fastest way to put exterior crepi on an interior wall.

It WILL be a horrific nightmare to remove. You'll have to chip it all off then redress the stone to clean it. This will fill your entire house with dust. For months.

Kind regards



Ian


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## philthompson23

eairicbloodaxe said:


> Ours had been applied straight onto the stone. Sadly, it's the best/fastest way to put exterior crepi on an interior wall.
> 
> It WILL be a horrific nightmare to remove. You'll have to chip it all off then redress the stone to clean it. This will fill your entire house with dust. For months.
> 
> Kind regards
> 
> 
> 
> Ian


Can I paint on it ? Might be easier


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## BackinFrance

It doesn't look like external crépi to me, in which case you can either try to remove a small patch to try to see what might be underneath it, or just paint over it, if you can't see signs of moisture penetration (as opposed to dirt) i wouldn't worry too much..

Fireplaces like this once allowed an entire family to get close to the heat from the fire.


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## BackinFrance

Also, yuk would be surprised how helpful your local Brico outlet can be when you have issues like this. A good place to start or to check answers you get here.


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## eairicbloodaxe

philthompson23 said:


> Can I paint on it ? Might be easier


Yes, you need to use a long pile roller though, because you need to get paint in all the little gaps. (We did it on the bits which were impossible to replaster)

Looking more closely at your pic (on a bigger screen), it looks like interior version of crepi to me, which is designed to be painted over.

Kind regards



Ian


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## effendi

philthompson23 said:


> did you get rid of the fireplace? I’m not a massive fan but would rather not spend thousands to change it


If you do rip it out to replace with an insert make sure it is a good one as they can be very efficient at throwing heat into a property. Old style fireplaces tend to send a lot of heat up the chimney, as do cheap inserts, a well designed insert will be worth its weight if you have a supply of decent wood.


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