Our team of time served, local craftspeople combine hands-on experience of conservation in Wales with teaching, consultancy and specifying traditional materials.
TLC has been part of a renaissance of traditional building knowledge which has become known as “the lime revival”. This movement is rediscovering old techniques and materials, as well as learning the lessons from the past which will help us create sustainable buildings for the future.
Our part in this movement has been both theoretical and practical. Our place of work shapes our understanding of how these theories actually perform in the real world. Our real world is West Wales, where conserving old building is all about water management. We have often heard it said that if you can make it work in Wales, you can make it work anywhere.
Working with lime successfully not only takes skill and knowledge, but also care and sensitivity. Our team is sensitive to the needs of the buildings being worked on, whether they are imposing Georgian Villas or modest vernacular cottages. In this part of Wales, methods and materials used in the construction of both are surprisingly similar.
Our aim is to conserve as much of the built heritage of Wales as we are able, whether directly through our team of craftspeople or indirectly through our courses and consultancy work, we are actively trying to reverse the effects of many years of neglect and abuse.
We are active members of The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB) and The Building Limes Forum (BLF).
We recognise that there is an environmental consequence from all building activities and day to day living. Thankfully, the environmental cost of repairing and living in an old building which already exists is less than building new. When functioning as they were designed to, the running costs of an old building can be much friendlier to the environment and the purse.
Building limes are without doubt less harmful to the environment than modern cements. For a start, in their act of curing, they absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Of course, in their production they do the opposite – carbon dioxide is driven off the burning limestone in a kiln. The extent to which this becomes an issue environmentally depends on the way in which materials are produced – the scale, the temperature of the kilns, the materials used to fire these kilns, the environmental cost of the aggregates it is mixed with and the transport of these materials. The environmental cost on site should also be taken into consideration – when compared with cement on site, lime scores highly as there is much less wastage. There is also the whole lifetime cost of the building to consider. Correctly repaired and maintained solid walled buildings can last for generations, making them truly sustainable.