Advice for a chalkstone wall....

[Loki7430]

Hi,

I've been meaning to ask this question for a while but following a particularly bad hail storm yesterday now seems a good time.

I have a house built in about the 1850's but one wall of the house was actually from a much older building. A section of this is built in quite a soft chalk stone - it is popular in this area of South Oxfordshire. The outer surface has some very crumbly sections but mostly it holds together.

So my question really is, should there be anything done to stabilise this? I'd rather not render over it, but perhaps a lime wash to bind and weather protect it? The third picture is the aftermath of the hailstorm - not good.

Thanks in advance...

Wall

• Loki7430
• 4 Jan 2014
• 1

Chalkstone

• Loki7430
• 4 Jan 2014
• 1

Aftermath of hail storm

• Loki7430
• 4 Jan 2014
• 1

[/img]

 

[munchingB]

how is the internal surface covered? traditional or modern materials?

 

[chucka]

unibond or similar diluted 5/1. three coats.

 

[Loki7430]

Internal materials is a bit of a patchwork, some very old plaster (I assume lime based) but there is certainly a large patch (about a third of the chalk sction I'd say) that is modern 'pink' plaster. Do you think this is causing a problem trapping too much moisture?

 

[munchingB]

i was wondering because i have a few clunch walls-chalkstone and lime, that have modern plasters on the interior faces and we are experiencing some damp inside and the chalk on the outside must have gone soft in a few places as some of the stones have been replaced with flint.

 

[Loki7430]

That makes sense to me - certainly it doesn't help.... but also it might just weather poorly (mind you hail stones the size of small marbles didn't help!).

There is a place not too far from me that specialises in lime plasters (Old House Store I think). I might pop by this weekend and see if they have any advice. Will update....

Thanks for the help.