The walls in the cellar were really bad. As I said earlier some parts were just the natural soft rock that the house is built on. Some were mended with cement and one wall was just a thin brick wall covered with patches of plaster or cement. The old wall between our cellar and the neighbours’ cellar were of really bad quality and the masonry of old natural stone had such soft joints that it partly fell out like sand. I have already told you what we did with the rock parts where water came through. It was not less work with the rest.

There are several ways of dealing with such an old wall. In the attic we picked the wall so all old plaster and cement was gone and the joints between the stones were opened. In such case we could use a hard cement based plasterthat would stick on the old stones and fill the joints. This is the best way to do it as the quite hard surface actually works as a supporting skin over the old wall. To do this in the cellar would be very difficult as all old plaster and cement had to be taken away. The cement based coating does not stick on old plaster.

We made the choice to coat the wall with plaster as it sticks to both old plaster and to cement based coatings. It is not as durable and strong as the other, but we did not need the supporting skin here as we needed in the attic.

The very soft parts had to be picked down until we found good quality stones. Not even plaster will stick on thin air or sand. I am happy the walls are about 60 cm wide so it is not dangerous to pick a few holes here and there. After the stones were treated with a product that works as glue, we applied the first layer of quite wet plaster. Where the whole were deepest we filled it with these very thin blocks of bricks that was fastened in a layer of plaster.

Those parts of the wall that were of natural rock but dry we picket so the soft surface disappeared and we had a solid hard rock left.

When the whole wall was mended and everything loose was picked down we started to plaster the whole wall. We had decided it should be very rustic so we did not make any efforts to even the wall. On the contrary the more brute it became; the better we liked it. The trick is to water the wall thoroughly before applying the quite soft plaster. You apply it with a masonry trowel, let it dry for a few minutes, spray it with water and slightly even it out with your hand, a brush or any tool you think makes the best texture. After a few weeks it will turn white in a very nice way.

Next time I will tell you about the ceiling.