Yesterday, I watched the excellent “Escape to Rural France”
where Dan Preston is rebuilding an old Chateau,( Château de Chaumont) . It was burned down in the late 1980’s and Dan is slowly rebuilding it, along with a few trades people and contractors, paid for by I suspect a really good YouTube Account documenting the progress on an almost daily basis.
The Stats are amazing
I watch simply because it’s all about construction, the materials and his choice of construction. In the short YouTube link above, he shows the Masons, who have been repairing a lot of the old stone wall to the basement, and repairing the doorway arches have used lime as the mix of choice. But it was this episode, that I took notice of, when the design of the first lower ground slab was cast, and the masons, who poured it, went for a Lime mix
This is not surprising, given all the work they did pointing up all the old walls and resetting a lot of Arch’s. But it gave me an idea for today’s article to trace back the use of Lime in Roman and Egyptian construction, comparing it with modern day use,
Vitruvius - Marcus Vitruvius Polli
If you ever need to look at Roman Construction, then “Vitruvius The Ten Books on Architecture” is the book you need. My copy is based on an early 1960 edition, but it’s still relevant.
But who was Vitruvius, well that’s a question I put to Gemini, but here I must admit, I explained why, outlining my thoughts on the use of Lime, in construction, comparing Roman Egyptian and modern day constructions I do not like diving in with such a direct question, I like to give background, I find its answer so much more useful.
So who was he? This is Gemini’s response, “To answer your question: Marcus Vitruvius Pollio (active c. 50–20 BC) was a Roman author, architect, and civil engineer. While we don’t have many surviving buildings credited to him personally, he is immortalized by his treatise, De Architectura (known today as The Ten Books on Architecture).
Why is Vitruvius so significant? Vitruvius is essentially the “Godfather of Draughtsmanship and Construction.” His work is the only major contemporary source on Roman building methods to survive into the modern era.
It seems the Romans did not invent the use of Lime, more they took its use, and developed it, trialing different mixes, and methods , they even managed to develop concrete that would set under water, and the evidence still exists.
Limestone when heated to a hight temperature, changes, and when crushed in its new state and water is added, it chemically reacts to produce line , the idea that early Babylonian, or Samomans lit a fire and the stones surrounding the fire got wet, producing the earliest lime, is probably true, more or less.
Ancient Egyptian Construction and Architecture - Somers Clarke
My next book is the next book, looking at Egyptian Construction. Their use of lime is in total contrast to the Roman, who use lime as a chemical mix, bonding items together. The Egyptians used it as a bedding material to level out the stone blocks, and we are talking huge stone blocks here. I think of this style of construction as pure gravity, the stone needs no bonding, just something to make the interface.
Mitchell’s Construction Introduction & Advanced,
both books that has lasted almost 150 years in constant updates and improvements, here Lime take centre stage, the mix, and quality, the manufacture and installation, Lime in all its uses was the main component in so many products, plaster, bedding,
Building with Lime - Stafford Holmes
This book, brings lime into the modern day.In some form Lime has been used as both a chemical binder, and as a leveling medium, I say this because the Egyptians Architecture was what’s called a gravity based design, large blocks of stone held in place by gravity, the mortar between the blocks was there to level, to fill out the irregularities, Where as The Romans and I might add the people before them used it as a structural material that got its strength from the chemical reaction between the lime and the component mixed with it. This book has it all, plus the appendix is loaded with standards, and also includes French and German standards as well.
There can be no doubt, Lime is making a come back, I for one will be researching the product, looking at current manufacture and use, specifications and detailing.
