I am stripping the wallpaper with vinyl/acrylic paint finish from my lime plaster walls and scrubbing off the paste residue to leave a clean finish.

The two bedrooms and bathroom suffer from condensation on the walls. I'm hoping with the 'plastic' paint finish removed the lime plaster walls will be able to buffer moisture enough to help remedy this problem (though I know the best solution is to make the walls warmer, but EWI or IWI is not currently on the cards).

So two questions:

1) Am I correct in my thinking? I suppose the result can't be any worse!

2) I dislike wallpaper so my first thought was to paint directly on to the walls with clay paint which has some hygroscopic quality. I have some Auro 331. Then I revisited Simon James Lewis's Bristol Hemp & Lime website and he recommends using lining paper then clay paint. Obviously this means you could in the future take the wall back to the untreated lime finish, but is there any particular reason that I shouldn't paint directly on to the plaster with this type of paint? The wall would still be vapour permeable.

Thanks.

We had a very bad condensation problem with a chapel wall. The chapel was built in the 1840's, so solid walls and very cold to the touch. Most of the year was ok but in winter the condensation was bad as there was no ventilation and about 100 folk breathing (very inconsiderate of them!) in a small space.

The problem was cured using Thermilate additive in the emulsion paint. The theory behind it sounds quite rational, however we were very sceptical, but it worked! I see they now market it as Thermalmix but they now also do an anti-condensation paint which I presume contains the additive. It is quite expensive so the additive plus ordinary emulsion would be a more economical route.

You can certainly use clay paint straight on to lime, and it should improve the humidity buffering. Wheter it eliminates condensation depends on a whole load of factors, as others have said.

Draughtiness which depends on windiness, wind direction and speed will most likely be the overriding factor unless you are very airtight ( below one)

Posted By: WeeBeastieThere is a vent in a corner of the living room floor, central to the building. Why would this be there?

Is it near a fireplace or a gas fire, or where one was? It might be a fresh air supply for combustion.

WeeBeastie - did you take a look at the Thermilate product after? Worth considering! (Note: I have no connection with the firm. Just a user of the product which worked well in our application).