Crepi...what is it good for?

Evenin all, just found Crepi at the Brico depot looks like it could be quite good but…

Is it a decorative coat or an actual plaster type material, can it be used instead of plaster? As yet I haven’t done a cost per sq metre comparison but i guess that crepi is more.

Also has anyone mixed a lime plaster, how succesful is/was it? We have a couple of walls that I need re-plaster but they need to be able to breath.

Mnay thanks.

I would mix up a render something like this;

2 parts lime
1 part white cement
9 parts sharp sand

The colour will depend primarily on your locally available sand. You could lose the white cement if you want a more environmentally friendly mix in which case 1 part lime 3 parts sharp sand. It will take longer to go off and look a bit greenish for a while. When it’s gone off a bit you can use a taloche on it for a roughcast finish.

Brilliant, thanks James. The walls are stone with a mud/clay type mortar that will also need re-pointing in places, (they are interior walls)

It’s quite easy to mix up a lime and sand render that will be much cheaper than the ready mixed crepi type stuff. If you tell me what your wall is made of I’ll give you a recipe :slight_smile: It will look better too. The ready mixed up products have coarse aggregates in them to make them easy to apply but the finish is poor IMO

Hi James, I know this was a long time ago but we are about to re-do the crepis on our house but are now considering lime plaster. What are the shortfalls of using lime? we want a yellow tint. Our wall is about 150 years old made of river stones and bits of terracotta tiles, i.e. rubble. What kind of lime mixture should we be using? Thanks, Sarah