31/05/2026
I made a post last week discussing why modern materials are incompatible with traditional home.
This post managed to get over 100k views, some of which agreed with me & some of which didn’t. Now we’re all for healthy debate & part of the reason why we share these posts it to help homeowners make more pragmatic decisions about materials, hopefully empower men & women to pick up traditional crafts.
I thought it would be useful to write about WHY lime is the MOST appropriate option for traditional homes. I also thought I’d construct this post based around the majority of the comments from the previous one.
Some of which saying that waterproofing & ‘keeping water out’ of the building is the only way to keep it dry. Let me make this explicitly clear, that doesn’t exist. You cannot permanently keep water out of buildings, particularly traditional solid wall buildings. Moisture will always exist in some form whether that be driving rain, rising damp, condensation or humidity generated from modern day living. What matters is having materials that can MANAGE that moisture correctly.
Firstly, people chose to pick holes in my post but using a lack of ventilation as an excuse for houses becoming damp. It’s not secret that we now live in our traditional buildings very differently to how we once did. If anything this highlights the increased importance of ensuring we have both vapour permeable & capillary active materials on our walls. The increased humidity caused by modern day living can be solved by both breathable materials AND ventilation.
With regards to ventilation it’s also not always as simple as ‘just open a window’. For low income families & elderly people desperately trying to retain heat within their homes, permanently opening windows throughout winter is not always a viable or realistic option. This is why material compatibility matters so much.
Traditional solid wall buildings were designed to manage moisture differently to modern cavity wall construction. They were built using materials such as lime mortars, lime plasters, soft brick, stone & timber. Materials that can absorb, store & release moisture naturally.
Lime helps regulate moisture by allowing water vapour to pass through the wall rather than trapping it internally. This can help reduce condensation build up, damp patches & mould growth often associated with impermeable modern materials.
But it’s not just about ‘breathability’. Lime is also capillary active, meaning it can help disperse and redistribute moisture throughout the wall structure, allowing it to evaporate more evenly & naturally. This is incredibly important in older buildings that will always experience a degree of moisture movement.
Lime based materials can also help regulate internal humidity levels, creating a far healthier and more comfortable living environment. They can help stabilise temperature fluctuations, reduce surface condensation & improve overall air quality within the home.
Another major benefit is flexibility. Traditional buildings move. Seasonal changes, thermal movement & settlement all occur naturally over time. Lime mortars & plasters are softer and more accommodating, meaning they can absorb movement far better than rigid cement based products which are far more prone to trapping moisture & causing failures within the surrounding masonry.
Plasterers & tradespeople have the opportunity to drastically change the environment within peoples homes. It’s not just skimming walls, these are the rooms people live in every single day. The materials we use genuinely matter.
This isn’t about saying every modern material is bad. It’s about understanding compatibility. Traditional buildings require a completely different approach to modern construction.
The more we understand these buildings, the more we can preserve them correctly for future generations.
