For those of you who haven’t used local horse fibre before, I thought it would be interesting to show you how it differs from the Chinese fibres. In the video below you can see an image of Chinese fibres. Most suppliers send them in small bundles which you can then cut to the desired size. It reminds me of synthetic dolls hair – quite soft and swishy.   If we compare this to the locally source horse tail – its very different. The local fibre is noticeable thicker, courser – almost wire like. When we try to cut them – the difference is clear. The Chinese fibres are very easy to cut comp ..read more

Experienced Lime Plasterers – I need your help. Fibres are one of the most important materials we use. There are currently two main options – animal fibres or plastic fibres.   Goat – the fibre of choice for many because of the perception that it is very traditional.  This fibre is sourced from the fur industry in China. Then there’s Horse hair – also seen as very traditional. It comes in these easy to use round bundles. This is sourced from the Chinese Meat industry. And then there’s the poly propylene fibres – plastic fibres. Easy to use, easy to source. We moved away from u ..read more

Ben, along with fellow plasterers Andrew Doyle, Ricardo Gooden, James Larcombe, Trevor Shemsin and Glynn Tebbutt, had the honour of receiving their Master Plasterer awards on Monday 11th March. Part of the role as Master is to act as ambassadors and mentors to those who are committed to pursuing a career in our profession in order that they may benefit from the experience and example of our achievements. This sentiment resinates strongly with us as its at the centre of everything we do at carringtonLIME. Well done to everyone who was presented with an award today. Very well deserved ..read more

We had the pleasure of being invited to visit Gunns Mills, in Littledean, Forest of Dean a few weeks ago. Its a place that we have walked past so many times and longed to take a sneaky peak inside. It did not disappoint. The site is currently owned by The Forest of Dean Buildings Preservation Trust, who are undertaking the daunting task of restoring this impressive scheduled monument. The building has been under wraps for 20 years whilst structural work is undertaken and funds are acquired to complete the rest of the work. Work is currently taking place on an external wall. We are very much l ..read more

After years of talking about it, and months of planning, our Professional Heritage Plastering Students started their 5 month plastering journey this week. Over the next 5 months, our students will be learning the fundamentals of traditional building construction theory, learning the practical skills of lime plastering and getting help with business skills. We will be tracking their journeys and keeping you all updated so watch this space ..read more

Tesco Community Grants is run in partnership with community focused environmental charity Groundwork, who has awarded grants to thousands of local community projects every year. Tesco’s Community Grants scheme – previously Tesco Bags of Help - has already provided over £90 million to more than 40,000 projects across Britain. CarringtonLIME run a range of Traditional Building Skills courses such as Lime Plastering and Pointing from their training site in Mitchledean. The Tesco Grant will allow them to offer subsidised places on their courses to those on low incomes, students or Sole Traders wi ..read more

What a week. Our hard work is starting to pay off as this week we found out we have been awarded 3 grants - The National Benevolent Charity, Forest of Dean Council and The Langtree Trust have all given us a donation towards the set up of our new training centre. These generous donations will allow us to get the centre up set up far quicker that we had originally planned which means more courses and more subsidised places. Gloucestershire has a wealth of heritage buildings - over 15,000 listed properties in Gloucestershire. Unfortunately the pool of people with the appropriate skills and experi ..read more

We love talking about damp and lime, so when we got the opportunity to talk to Jeffrey Hart from The Building Sustainability podcast, we jumped at it . Check out our chat here. https://www.buildingsustainabilitypodcast.com/treating-damp-with-lime-plaster-ben-kerslake-bs042 ..read more

Ben's 25 years of dedicated work in the Heritage Industry was acknowledge today when he found out that The Worshipful Company of Plaisterers had awarded him Master Plasterer status. This prestigious award is given to those with at least 25 years in their trade and to those who have demonstrated their extensive knowledge with work on a range of significant projects. As a trades person there are very few ways of being formally recognized so this is a massive achievement for Ben. Well done Ben ..read more

2020 hit us all hard. Many lost their jobs and students struggled to know where to go next. In all of this chaos the building industry was one of the few that was able to sustain business and for many building firms, even grow. The Heritage building sector is one that is continuing to grow as people become more aware of the fact that older properties need to be maintained differently. Gloucestershire is lucky enough to have some of the most beautiful and historically significant buildings in the country yet the number of building professionals with Heritage skills is lacking and construction s ..read more