Gypsum in old houses

I called LaFarge a couple of weeks ago to see if they had a product that might solve an issue I had some with very old lime plaster / render in my home. This was the response from their Technical Helpdesk.

‘Sorry Sir, (with regard to internal plastering) we only make gypsum based products and so none of these would be suitable for use over lime.’

So straight from the horse’s mouth. Builders should not be using gypsum over lime, yet this happens every day in every corner of Wales. Why is this happening?

One section (the manufacturing element) of the construction industry says do one thing, yet another (the installation element) does the complete opposite. A certain blindness has appeared from both sides of the industry, both of whom are content to get paid for the wrong products to be used in our homes.

The right products to use are:
Lime plaster
Clay plaster

Guess that there are some people laughing all the way to the bank at our homes’ expense!

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