Apart form the concrete pour, another task we are trying to get done before it gets too cold is to apply a parge coat/plastering of lime mortar to our outside walls, reason being we are fed up of the huge trenches and not being able to walk around our house. The old mortar has flaked off and as we had new footings added to the rear walls it meant that the normally sub-terrain walls were fully exposed. Alas we were busy doing other tasks so over the last year or so three foot of sandy sold has been washed back against the back wall.
This weekend we started to dig out the sediment. It’s too steep to wheel barrow so it was shoveling into buckets. We did hire a friend of ours to help us out but he bailed after about 1 & 1/2 hours, shame. We have, however, enlisted the help of some other friends Cari and George.
As we dig, more soil collapses back into the trench. It’s annoying as you think you have finished and then bam, another couple of wheel barrows needs to be removed, but I hoping that once the soil reaches an angle of 60 – 70° it will become stable.
We don’t have any video of Georges work but he’s made good progress, again more land slides after he left but we’ll remove them.
After some research it looks like we may need three coats of lime mortar, a first or bonding coat which is usually thrown on, then a scratch coat (called a scratch coat as it’s usually scratched or scored with a comb to give it a rough texture). followed by a finish coat, with each coat getting progressively thinner. Unfortunately each coat takes about a week to partially cure before the next coat can be applied, so it looks like we won’t have enough time this year. Bit of a shame as we really wanted to fill in these damn trenches around the house.
We will complete the digging out this year and then and add tarps so the bank doesn’t get washed down again and then wait for spring, which here is April/May.