Archive for Downsizer For an ethical approach to consumption
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Jenna
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Lime and tarOK, repointing (and in some places rebuilding) a rubble stone chimney breast, originally built with clay. There has been a pretty heavy build up of 'combustion goo' up the chimney over the years, which leaks through the clay joints when it rains. So am replacing with lime mortar up the damaged section. Am I right in thinking that my lovely black goo, when it gets wet, is going to be pretty acidic? Is this going to be damaging enough to the lime that it is going to last no time at all before it's eaten away? Not bothered about smoke tightness as the whole thing will be lined when it's solid again, which should also prevent most of the water coming down too. Please don't tell me I have to use clay again 
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vegplot
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I think this is where cow dung in the mix plays when used in the lining Gervase will advise I'm sure.
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Mary-Jane
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On his way...
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Gervase
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The goo is acidic, but it shouldn't do too much damage to your repointing. It does leach through, though, and unless you take action it will discolour any plaster you eventually apply to the front of the chimney breast.
Which is where the poo comes in...
Get a bucket of fresh cow dung - scraped off the floor of your nearest milking parlous is the easiest way.
Add some water and whisk to make a slurry the consistency of melted ice-cream.
Apply a couple of coats of the slurry with a brush, with the surface allowed to dry between each coat, and then a coat of parging mix made from a 1:2 lime:sharp sand mix, with dung added instead of water to make a sloppy mix.
Plaster on top of that and you won't get stains leeching through.
Exactly why cow dung is so effective for parging chimneys would be a good subject for a dissertation. We know it works, but not how it works - is it down to the cellular material that has passed through the cow's stomachs, or is it the mucus and other fluids that the cow has added to the mixture, as it were? As far as I know, no-one has yet studied this (perhaps understandably - two years immersed in cow crap isn't most academics' idea of a good time).
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Jenna
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Hehehe, remember seeing someone on the telly doing the cow dung thing (wasn't Gervase, was it?  ), there is a faint odour reminiscent of ammonia up the lum that suggests this might have been done once or twice in 'ancestral times', but as I can only fit up about 8' of the hole, I'll either have to go on a very crash diet, hire a small child, or go with the stainless steel approach  The first time we lit a fire up it, we managed to fill the room with smoke in about two minutes flat! (note to self, evict jackdaws (and several generations of their ancestors), and fill in the holes in the wall, BEFORE attempting to light a fire!). I have a competent man on standby to do the lining and fit a stove at the bottom, but I don't want the whole thing to fall on him when he pokes it because my lime mortar is going rotten!
ETA: oops, sorry slow typing! Thanks for that Gervase, can get hold of the necessary from next door neighbour (though would probably struggle to find a milking parlour in these parts), and I guess if I can get up to 8' high, that'll take me to ceiling height in the room.
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Mary-Jane
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| Jenna wrote: | | Hehehe, remember seeing someone on the telly doing the cow dung thing (wasn't Gervase, was it? )... |
Errr...probably. Did it also involve the presenter throwing up outside the room?
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colour it green
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| Mary-Jane wrote: | | Jenna wrote: | | Hehehe, remember seeing someone on the telly doing the cow dung thing (wasn't Gervase, was it? )... |
Errr...probably. Did it also involve the presenter throwing up outside the room? |
i dont remember that one.. i remember Gervaise and the ceiling that didn't quite work... that was a while back now though...
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Jenna
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Oh, hang on, I won't have to fit up the hole, will I  ? Since there will be no 'new' goo to soak through the chimney from the inside, I can paint the poo on the actual wall to stop what's already there from coming through to the surface. (It'd probably help if I read all of the actual words in the actual posts, wouldn't it  ). Thanks again, I am paying attention, honest 
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vegplot
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| Jenna wrote: | | Oh, hang on, I won't have to fit up the hole, will I ? Since there will be no 'new' goo to soak through the chimney from the inside, I can paint the poo on the actual wall to stop what's already there from coming through to the surface. (It'd probably help if I read all of the actual words in the actual posts, wouldn't it ). Thanks again, I am paying attention, honest |
Rack out the old lime pointing on the breast and then follow Gervase's instructions.
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Jenna
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It's the manny on the telly causing all this confusion in my poor ole head, he was doing up the inside of the hole! Don't remember the presenter, but it was a cracking big fireplace. Good few years ago now mind 
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Gervase
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Yeah, that was me, I'm afraid. I was doing up the inside because it's such a huge chimney - or 'simne fawr' as they say in these parts - and the stone corbelling on the inside is visible...
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