Morcombe Cottage, Morcombelake, Bridport
This thatched roof, cob and stone cottage, in the rural area of Morcombelake, Bridport, is approximately 400 years old and needs to breath. During the owners restoration, they steadily removed previous cement repairs and reinstated lime plaster internally.
The exterior of the property had been painted with a brand name exterior paint, marketed as breathable, though not to the level needed for the lime render; subsequently this needed removing before applying a more suitable paint. The owners builder, Mike O’Leary of Heritage Coast Building Limited, recommended they speak with KEIM Mineral Paints.
The owner commented “Simon Round, Customer Service Manager of KEIM Mineral Paints, was very helpful and explained that KEIM could supply a product (KEIM STS 7M) that would strip the old paint off”. The owner explored various options and found a company that could use a ThermaTech superheated water cleaning system, on checking with Simon, he confirmed this was a viable approach to removing previous paint coatings.
Once the coatings were removed, they were finally ready to paint. “Simon was tremendous in his advice, support and encouragement, showing genuine interest in our steady progress. Our cottage is near the sea, we therefore took the advice to use KEIM Royalan as our top coat, the process also included applying KEIM Algicid-Plus, KEIM Fixativ and KEIM Royalan Grob – if we were going to do it, we were definitely going to do it right!”
“From an early stage in the process, we were visited by Julian Cullum, the KEIM Sales Executive; his numerous visits, to share his advice and expertise, proved invaluable as did the free sample pots, his encouragement and genuine interest in our progress.
To finally complete the job properly I dug out and repointed the non-rendered stonework in lime; the combination of KEIM painted render and lime-pointed stone complementing each other sympathetically. I have complete faith in recommending the KEIM team and their paints – they are an absolute top-quality product, lovely to use, long lasting and in our view the best possible choice for an historic building. The result, we think, is a beautifully restored cottage that breaths properly and has every chance of standing for another four hundred years…”