# Old house renovation - where to find lime for rendering?!



## Spangles 72 (Oct 30, 2013)

Hi all, we are starting to renovate our old house in the Campo near Cartama/ Almogia in the Malaga area. The walls are stone with a lime render which has been badly covered over with cement render in recent years. We are hacking off the cement render as its such a poor job and the house needs to breathe so we want to lime render it. We have done this in the UK with St Astiers natural hydraulic lime, but cant seem to find it over here.

Does anyone know a name of a good natural hydraulic lime, a brand name or a shop that might stock it? Have tried some general builders merchants in the local area and there is no lime in sight!

Any advice gratefully received...thanks


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## snikpoh (Nov 19, 2007)

Local Spanish professionals use 'yeso liso' - I don't know if this is a lime based plaster or not though.

It seems to be porous so maybe it's the stuff to use.


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## tarot650 (Sep 30, 2007)

might help

Sadly not a new problem to Spanish properties.I know when we bought our second propery in Spain we did have damp problems in our garage but I cured it by covering the walls in damn I can't think of the name but it's very similar to Unibond and using a really top quality paint which did cure the problem but sadly some of these damp problems are part and parcel of living here.Sincerely hope you get it sorted.SB.


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## olivefarmer (Oct 16, 2012)

Hi , welcome to the world of restoring the unrestorable!

You can get lime for painting (mix in a large container and stand well back) from innocous rural paint shops (usually a fereteria). We didn't go down that route but opted for render and then capa fina (also known as capa mono). Good that you are going for breathing.

There is a very good practical help forum (from people who have or are renovating old properties in Andalucia). Do a search on fincasinspain PTP.


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## Spangles 72 (Oct 30, 2013)

Thanks for all your replies, really helpful. Damp isn't really our problem, its more that because of the "rustic" way the house was built 150 years ago, it is subject to a bit of movement and with cement the cracks soon appear, we want to use lime render as its a bit more forgiving/ flexible than cement, and of course will allow the building to breathe. If anyone out there has lime rendered here and can recommend a particular supplier or product, that would be great...thank you!


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## tonymar (Jan 29, 2015)

Hi Lime render is called mortero de cal if you google that you it will find some products eg, http://www.redverde.es/productos/ve...e_de_cal_hidraulica__enfoscado__mch__palet/16


, webber has a product , you can go to the uk site to get the info in English 

Cheers Tony


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## Spangles 72 (Oct 30, 2013)

tonymar said:


> Hi Lime render is called mortero de cal if you google that you it will find some products eg, Mortero base de cal hidráulica (enfoscado) MCH (palet). Cales y morteros. Materiales Ecológicos Bioconstrucción - Red Verde
> 
> 
> , webber has a product , you can go to the uk site to get the info in English
> ...


Hi Tony, thanks for this. I did indeed find exactly what I was looking for on the website you suggested... RedVerde in Malaga. In case anyone else is reading this and is looking for this type of thing, RedVerde have a storage place in Malaga on Poligono Viso, and they do Hydraulic Lime (for rendering, pointing etc) and various other natural construction materials. I was really surprised to see its not more commonly used on the older houses here that were orginally put together with lime mortars and renders, unlike cement render they allow the building to breathe, preventing damp, and are more flexible than cement render so you dont get the cracks either. Only really useful though on stone/ slate buildings, not much good on brick/ block constructions.

Thanks for your input everyone, it has been very useful.


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## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

Spangles 72 said:


> Hi all, we are starting to renovate our old house in the Campo near Cartama/ Almogia in the Malaga area. The walls are stone with a lime render which has been badly covered over with cement render in recent years. We are hacking off the cement render as its such a poor job and the house needs to breathe so we want to lime render it. We have done this in the UK with St Astiers natural hydraulic lime, but cant seem to find it over here.
> 
> Does anyone know a name of a good natural hydraulic lime, a brand name or a shop that might stock it? Have tried some general builders merchants in the local area and there is no lime in sight!
> 
> Any advice gratefully received...thanks


I would have thought that the best people to ask would be people in the area with similar properties. Do you have any neighbours?
If not, take photos, look up a few words in the dictionary and go to a local builder's merchant and ask there. If you're doing work on the house it's a good idea to get in with a local supplier as if they know anything about their trade they'll be able to help you a lot.
PS Here's a supplier of ecological materials which although are usually much more expensive sometimes take a more traditional view of things and you'll therefore avoid chemical solutions to age old problems.
http://www.redverde.es/
OOPs!
have just read your last post. Still, at least I was proved right


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