#limewash — Public Fediverse posts

Limewash is an interesting material. It's not paint, you just throw a bunch of slaked lime into water and keep it there. The longer you keep it under water, the finer it gets.

When you need it, dredge out a quantity of the stuff with enough liquid so it's like creamy yoghurt.

Best applied with a thick brush, likes to splash everywhere and is caustic enough to etch an aluminium ladder, so protect yourself.

It goes on looking thin but hardens by absorbing atmospheric CO2 (yup, carbon capture, or recapture at least) and turns whiter as it does.

Unlike cement and many modern paints, it is moisture permeable and so lets the log "breathe" and not rot underneath.

It's also antibacterial, so used to be applied regularly in animal barns.

#LogHouse #Lime #Limewash #DIY #Calcium #CarbonCapture

Too hot outside, so tackled some work in the kitchen.

The wall where we tore out a rotten old shelf looked ugly. The logs are in reasonable shape for their age but the limewash was due for renewal about half a century ago, mostly flaked off and mixed with a few spills.

There were also gaps where the logs had shrunken from drying.

Last winter we gathered some sphagnum moss in the forest and dried it in the sauna.

Great material, as evidenced by the original moss still being intact after 90 years. Nature's spray foam, minus the cancer.

I used a piece of scrap metal to push it in, which worked well, bit like caulking a wooden boat, although it took the entire bag of moss as it compresses a lot.

#Homestead #DIY #Renovation #LogHouse #Moss #Repair #Limewash