Course: LIME IN HISTORICAL BUILDINGS. 5th Edition.

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES

Lime is a building material used since ancient times by different cultures and civilizations. The wide range of uses for lime ranges from fresh paint, through its function as a binder in building structures, to coatings, sgraffito and its use in the subtle art of stucco. All these applications are justified by the versatility of lime and its physical-chemical and textural properties. In addition, lime is a compatible, reversible, and sustainable material, all of which are essential requirements for restoration work.

The knowledge of the processes involved in the manufacture of lime, the types of products that originate, the factors that condition its carbonation kinetics is essential, since they decisively influence its behaviour in a building. The cycle of lime, which includes from the calcination of the calcareous rock that constitutes its raw material to the completion of its slow setting, is, in I. Gárate’s words,”a strategy of death and resurrection”.

On the other hand, lime mortars, in their constructive functionality, are traditional materials par excellence, which were manufactured from a careful and careful selection of the raw material, which were compatible with other traditional factory elements and had an active behaviour in the monument. Its correct knowledge as well as that of its components, together with the methodology and processes involved in its elaboration, allows us to design restoration mortars of the highest technical quality and compatibility, facilitating the work of professionals with competence in the conservation and restoration of Architectural Heritage.