We have a bare brick pantry in our house, the mortar is a bit dusty. Is it possible to white wash the wall, would this seal in the mortar? And where exactly do you get hold of whitewash these days?
- posted
16 years ago
White wash old brick wall
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- posted
16 years ago
Whitewash /would/ seal in the mortar - but it would leave dusty whitewash on top of the mortar and the bricks too! Personally, I would use something like Farrow and Ball casein distemper which is reasonably dust-free, and water permeable.
If you don't need the paint to let out moisture trapped in the wall, then a bucket of the cheapest emulsion you can find in the sheds will do fine.
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- posted
16 years ago
I suggest a good method would be to: A. Dust down with a soft brush B. Vacuum with an attachment C. Paint on a coat of PVA adhesive diluted 1 part pva to 3 or 4 parts water D. Let it dry...only a few minutes probable E. Paint it with a Sandtex or other breathable..ie emulsion based paint of your choice. F. then let the kids paint a lovely leafy mural on it for fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!
David G
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- posted
16 years ago
Hi, isn't painting it with PVA going to seal it all? and stop it from breathing? It's an old house with lime mortar and really needs to breathe.
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16 years ago
snipped-for-privacy@localhost.com formulated on Tuesday :
I had success using a very thin mix of plaster. The actual brickwork was perfectly dry, but the mortar was very crumbly. Any attempt to emulsion it would result in the mortar surface crumbling as you applied the brush.
I simply used a whitewash brush to paint on a well watered down plaster mix, allowed it to dry out then emulsioned it. That was ten years ago and it remains perfectly sound today.
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- posted
16 years ago
Whitewash is a bit of a catch all phrase, could mean soft distemper which I dont recommend here as it tends to dust, it could mean limewash, could be casein paint (i've no experience of using this), could be oil based distemper. None of them is as washdown-able as modern paint
I'd go for limewash if the mortar is lime because as its the same material it will chemically bond to stop the dusting Limewash is 1:1 lime putty : water. My local Jewsons sells putty (rather expensively) and there are several independent suppliers. If you want to use limewash then tell me where you are and I may be able to point you in the direction of a local supplier
Anna
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- posted
16 years ago
Either as he suggests but one expensive and the other too cheap! Why avoid the obvious:
Masonry needs painting. Buy Dulux masonry paint. Brush wall. Paint wall. Bish bosh, job done.
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16 years ago
Yes. Not a good idea if you really need the wall to breathe.
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16 years ago
A dilute coat of pva isn't going to stop it breathing. It might just reduce its drinking though
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16 years ago
I'm not sure that arguing with Anna about lime is a good idea, but ... I'm sure that when I prepared limewash for the outside of our previous house, it was more like 1:4 lime putty to water. I did then need about four coats of the stuff, but my reading of the SPAB booklets was that one needed to apply lots of coats of limewash.
I would also comment that the limewash on the outside of our house was fairly dusty (which is why I advised against it).
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16 years ago
The consistency to aim for is single cream
The dustiness will be because it dried before it had a chance to set and there are various reasons why that might be - south facing wall in summer - wall not dampened enough beforehand - fairies at the end of the garden are on strike ...
Before beginning limewashing find some good instructions on the net. In a pantry the limewash will not dry too quickly but lack of airflow will be a problem so run a fan in the room for a couple of days
Anna