Author: Matt and Claire Lakin
We live in a 1768 brick windmill and spent last year lime re-repointing outside and lime plastering inside. Over the last couple of months however large areas of damp have appeared on the inside of the walls.
This sounds like a common problem in windmills – especially with the weather this year.
Has anyone found a reliable way of stopping the damp? Lime render? Pitch tar? Special breathable coatings? Non-breathable render??
We really appreciate all the help we have had, having spoken to Vincent Pargeter and a couple of other people as well as reading the info on the SPAB Mills website – however, as the introduction to Vincent’s leaflet available to members says, there doesn’t appear to be any standard solution.
“Damp problems in brick windmill towers: There is no easy answer to the question of leaky windmill towers. Some towers leak and some don’t, and the problem is caused by variations in the quality and porosity of the bricks and mortar used, as well as the mode of building.”
We have been advised variously to lime render, pitch tar or paint with Keim paint or a breathable membrane – all of which sound like they sometimes work and sometimes don’t.
We therefore thought that we would try to get feedback from as many different windmill owners as possible – to see what in practice seems to work most often – and also on windmills most similar to ours.
Any advice much appreciated.
Matt and Claire