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This talk looks at the vast panoply of traditional plain and solid internal plasters and external renders, roughcasts, harls & stuccoes that cover so many of our historic buildings. It covers ground more likely to be encountered in the real world of pragmatic everyday repair. It deals with the humbler plasters & renders, discusses specification and shows many different approaches to conservation, repair & replacement.

This seminar argues that the very variety of these traditional materials makes the richness of our heritage and makes a strong case for never using standard recipes or mixes. It asks for our regional traditions to be respected in an age when the blandness of universal solutions is increasingly applied to all.

Mortars, plasters and renders and all lime-based mixes are discussed in some detail, as well as the more rarefied mixes of Victorian times such as Oil Mastics & Roman, Parian & Keenes Cements.

This talk destroys certain myths and preconceptions and questions why so many specify "self coloured renders" which have no place in traditional lime rendering. It introduces briefly the problems and the principles of conservation and discusses mortars, plasters, renders and mixes suitable for repair, renewal or replacement.

 

Speaker
Ian Constantinides, formerly of St Blaise