CANTERBURY

Fyffe House in Kaikoūra.

Mike Jackson working with damaged lathe and plaster at Fyffe House. Fyffe House open after extensive ‘horsehair’ repairs

A plastering repair job has revealed new secrets about the lime plaster at Fyffe House.

WORDS: Rosemary Baird

In recent years, the lathe and plaster walls in the upstairs rooms of Fyffe House have been peeling and breaking down. The damage was not, as you might suspect, earthquake related. Rather, a 1980s repair job using modern paint trapped moisture in the plaster. The paint peeled and sections of the plaster detached from the wooden lathes.

In May 2021, Mike Jackson was brought in for exploratory investigation. Mike has over 30 years’ experience in the United Kingdom and New Zealand in restoring historic plaster and sod. He is an expert in understanding how historic walls need moisture to survive. Non-hydraulic limebased materials must be used so that the walls can breathe naturally. Mike has used traditional methods of lime plastering to repair Fyffe House. He manually removed the paint from the walls using a scraper and removed ‘blown’ sections of plaster which had detached from the lathe. Traditional plaster has been reapplied, reset, and painted with a traditional limewash.

Sourcing the ingredients for the plaster has required some ingenuity from property lead, Ann McCaw. “Mike was short on horsehair, so I had to cut two inches off each of my horses’ tails and scrape out body hair from their covers.” Ann also had to find a small dollop of fresh organic cow manure for Mike to make a tincture. “Mike used this tincture to inhibit a yellow stain that kept appearing through the lime by the window in the middle bedroom. He thought it was likely a tobacco stain from past inhabitants standing by the window to smoke their pipes,” says Ann. During the repairs other secrets were discovered. Mike uncovered graffiti of a mystery diagram, complete with letters and numbers, incised into one of the earliest layers of plaster. For Ann, it’s been an invaluable chance to learn from Mike’s vast experience of lime plastering. “I have actually recorded Mike to capture his knowledge. He’s shown us that the plaster is a living entity, which will naturally crack as the foundations move.” Going forward, the Fyffe maintenance plan will provide for more regular limewashing. The limewash will move into the micro cracks through capillary action and repair them. “Unlike modern paints which typically seal the substrate, plaster and limewash continue to react to the changing conditions,” says Ann. “The early inhabitants of Fyffe knew to renew these materials; we need to remember that all buildings are organic entities that need regular, responsive care.” n