Limewash with real depth, on a wall that can hold it.
A soft, mottled, chalk-matte wall made from slaked lime and mineral pigment, brushed on thin and left to harden into the surface, on plaster, brick or stone that can actually carry it.
- Free site inspection
- Written, itemised quote
- 1-year workmanship warranty
- Same-day callback
At a glance
What's limewash painting?
Limewash is slaked lime thinned with water and coloured with mineral pigment, brushed on in thin translucent coats. It hardens by reacting with the air, so it bonds into porous mineral surfaces like plaster, brick and stone, and dries to a mottled, chalk-matte finish. It won't hold on POP, gypsum or acrylic wall putty, so what's already on your wall decides everything.
When this is the answer, and when it is not.
Sending you to the wrong service wastes your money and our time. This is how to tell.
This is likely right if
- The wall is bare cement plaster, lime plaster, brick or stone, or already carries a mineral coating
- You want soft, cloudy movement across the wall rather than flat uniform colour
- An older solid wall you want left open rather than sealed, limewash stays porous instead of forming a film, so moisture in the wall evaporates out through the coat instead of collecting behind it and pushing the surface off
- A compound wall, porch or courtyard elevation you are content to refresh by recoating rather than stripping
Something else comes first if
- The walls are finished in POP punning, gypsum plaster or acrylic putty, acrylic putty is a film and lime can't carbonate into a film, POP punning is polished to a closed low-suction face that gives the wash nothing to key into, and gypsum is a sulphate plaster that stays soft and holds damp against the lime, so either that finish is stripped back to plaster first, or a limewash-look decorative finish is used instead
- You need a wipe-clean surface, a kitchen splashback, a shower wall, a child's play wall, because limewash chalks and can't be scrubbed
- Damp is active or salts are pushing through the plaster; the source has to be traced and stopped and the wall allowed to dry out before any lime goes on
What the service includes.
Substrate and suction test
We splash water on the wall and watch it. If it soaks in and darkens the surface, lime can key into it. If it beads or simply sits there, a film coating is in the way and that has to be dealt with before anything else.
Taking the wall back to a mineral surface
Emulsion, distemper and acrylic putty are films. Lime can't carbonate into a film, so it powders and sheets off. Where a coating has to come off, we scrape, sand and wash back to sound plaster, brick or stone.
Protection against alkali splash
Wet lime is caustic. Glass, anodised window frames, glazed tile, polished granite and floors are sheeted and taped, because splashes etch and are very hard to lift once they have set.
Colour trials mixed in lime
Only lime-fast mineral pigments survive the alkalinity, and every wash dries far lighter than it looks wet. We brush candidate strengths on your own wall and you judge them dry, in your own light.
Damped-down, hand-brushed coats
The wall is misted first so the wash doesn't dry before it can carbonate, then laid on thin in cross-hatched strokes with a block brush, one batch mixed for the whole wall and worked corner to corner while the edge is still live, so no join line is left in the middle.
Curing conditions and aftercare
Lime hardens by taking carbon dioxide out of the air, so we keep air moving and keep the wall out of hard sun and driving rain while it sets. We then show you how the surface behaves and how a mark is touched in later.
Not included, or quoted separately
- Tracing and treating a damp source, and any waterproofing, quoted separately, and it has to be finished and the wall dry before lime goes on
- Replastering, or building up a new lime or cement-lime base where the wall has none
- Limewash over POP punning, gypsum plaster or acrylic putty, we won't apply it, because it won't bond
- Clear sealers, varnishes or waxes over the finish, which block the wall and flatten the chalk-matte surface
- Matching a limewash exactly to an emulsion shade card, the pigment range and the surface don't behave that way
The sequence.
Survey and substrate test
We test suction wall by wall, check for damp and salting, and establish what's already on the surface. Limewash stands or falls on this, so it is the first thing we do, and sometimes the honest answer is that lime is the wrong finish for that wall.
Agreeing the base
Either the existing coating comes off, or the wall takes a mineral base such as a lime or cement-lime skim. Which of the two it is decides most of the quotation, so it is settled in writing before any work starts.
Colour trials on the wall
Earth pigments mixed into the wash and brushed on in candidate strengths, then judged after a full dry, in morning and evening light, because lime keeps shifting as it carbonates.
Protect and mask
Floors, joinery, glass, metal frames and stone sheeted and taped before a brush is loaded, alkali splash is far easier to prevent than to remove.
Damp down and brush the coats
Each wall wetted, then coated thin and cross-hatched, every coat left to set before the next goes on. The coat count follows the colour and the suction, and it is stated in your quotation rather than decided on site.
Cure and hand back
Once it has dried through we walk the wall with you, touch in what needs it from the same batch, and tell you plainly how the finish will age and how it is refreshed.
What moves the price on this job.
We do not publish a rate, because it would change once someone measured your property. These are the variables that decide it.
- Measured wall area, including reveals, returns and soffits, which take a disproportionate amount of brush time
- What's on the wall now and how much of it has to come off, usually the largest single variable
- Whether the wall needs a mineral base coat or a lime skim before any wash can go on
- Coat count, which both a pale colour over a dark wall and a deep earth tone will push up
- Which lime-fast pigments the colour calls for, and how heavily they have to load the mix
- Access and protection, height on exterior elevations, and masking glass, anodised frames and polished stone against splash
Traditional Limewash Painting — your questions.
Can limewash go straight over our existing emulsion?
No. Emulsion is a plastic film, and limewash has to key into a porous mineral surface, it hardens by carbonating into the wall, not by sticking to what's on it. Over emulsion it powders and lifts in sheets. Either the coating comes off back to plaster, or the wall takes a mineral base coat first. If neither suits, a limewash-look decorative finish over your existing putty is the sensible alternative.
Will the colour be even across the wall?
No, and that's the finish rather than a fault. Each coat is translucent, so brush direction, coat build and the wall's own suction all read through as cloudy movement. It dries much lighter than it looks wet and keeps shifting while it carbonates. If you want flat, edge-to-edge colour, emulsion will give you that and limewash won't.
Does limewash rub off on clothes?
Some chalking is normal, most of all early on and in stronger earth colours. Damping the wall down properly and building thin coats rather than thick ones reduces it considerably. Even then it isn't a scrubbable surface, so we wouldn't put it on a stair wall you brush past daily, a kitchen splashback or a shower wall. Marks are touched in with the same wash rather than washed off.
Does limewash work outside in Bengaluru?
On bare plaster, brick or stone, yes, compound walls, porches and older facades take it well. The constraint is weather. Rain on a coat that hasn't yet carbonated washes it straight back off the wall, and hard afternoon sun dries it before it can carbonate, which leaves it dusty and weak. We work early and late, damp the wall down, and plan each elevation around a settled dry spell.
What colours can we actually have?
Fresh lime is strongly alkaline, so only lime-fast mineral pigments hold: earths, ochres, umbers, raw and burnt sienna, greys, muted greens and blues, and the full range of off-whites. Bright or deeply saturated shades either burn out in the alkali or need so much pigment that the coat turns chalky. We mix and brush trials on your wall instead of working from a shade card.
Let us look at your walls first.
Tell us about the property and we will set up a free colour and wall inspection. You get a written, itemised quotation afterwards, with no obligation to go ahead.
- We call you back the same day to get a picture of the property and the surfaces.
- We agree a time and come out for the free inspection.
- You get the written scope and itemised quotation.
- Nothing starts until you approve it.