The Traditional Lime Company is Ireland’s original supplier of pure natural hydraulic limes and mortars, natural paints and washes as well as all traditional building materials.
Based outside Tullow in Co. Carlow, the company is also the sole Irish importer of St Astier and Otterbein Natural Hydraulic Limes. This is complemented by its Beeck & Aglaia natural paint range. In addition, The Traditional Lime Company stock a full range of associated products, including hair and fibres, pozzolans, ochres, pigments, lime washes, riven & sawn, and lath & wattle.
The traditional building specialist also provides a full technical back-up service for its products along with consultancy on all aspects of building conservation and restoration. Furthermore, the company stocks a wide variety of reclaimed and traditional materials for use in conservation and restoration projects.
Edward Byrne’s love for old buildings led to him setting up an architectural salvage and traditional building supplies business almost half a century ago. It was from this The Traditional Lime Company was born. It became the first company in Ireland to sell natural hydraulic limes commercially in 1997, and has supplied traditional lime / paint to many iconic Irish buildings, including Kylemore Abbey, Aras an Uachtarain and Leinster House.
The Traditional Lime Company is synonymous with St Astier Natural Hydraulic Limes and derivative products, which have been produced by the same French families since 1851. Imparting plasticity, elasticity, strength, low shrinkage and early frost resistance to a mortar, St Astier products are derivatives of pure limestone / silica deposits which are unique to Western France. The degree to which St Astier products enable mortar to be customised for each job makes them excellent for all types of work, including new build, restoration and conservation projects all over the world.
St Astier products simplify mortar specification as, assuming the colour and qualities of the sand used are known, no other additives are required. The properties and colour of the finished mortar is thus assured. Lime mortars are highly flexible and have excellent vapour exchange properties. These factors are necessities for the long-term survival of restored buildings. The Traditional Lime Company offers a range of limes, including those made with Carlow or imported limestone.
The family business is also proud to fly the flag for Otterbein Natural Hydraulic Limes in Ireland. Founded in 1889 by Georg Otterbein, Otterbein produces a comprehensive, high-quality product range from the natural raw material limestone at its Großenlüder-Müs location in accordance with the motto ‘we bring stones to life’. The range includes over 100 different products in the areas of cement, lime, plaster and mortar as well as mineral coatings for customers in different areas of application.
Lime washes and paints are ideally suited for use in conservation and restoration projects. To this end, The Traditional Lime Company provides breathable paints in lime and other natural materials. It supplies coloured washes made up in batches to customers’ requirements in a selection of traditional colours. Alternatively, they can provide pigments and ochres for addition to mortars and renders.
In addition to lime washes, The Traditional Lime Company stocks the St Astier range of lime paints and the Beeck & Aglaia range of mineral and natural paints. It also stocks a wide range of sands and aggregates for use with its lime products. In order to produce a mortar of a specific colour and texture, the correct NHL (Natural Hydraulic Lime) must be selected. To this end, Edward and his team can provide advice with regard to the various options available.
Products are supplied by pallet or by the bag. Each pallet weighs one tonne, with 25kg bags, either pure lime for site mixes or premixed mortars for smaller patching work.
Another string to The Traditional Lime Company’s bow is that it supplies a wide range of traditional materials and tools for use with its lime products along with providing a variety of general-purpose traditional building materials.
The Traditional Lime Company has supplied natural hydraulic limes to many restoration and conservation projects across Ireland, including Kilcoe Castle in West Cork, which is owned by the famous actor Jeremy Irons, and took 27 tonnes of lime. The restoration sector is the company’s ‘bread and butter’, and a more recent example of this can be found at Market House in Portarlington, Co. Laois which was brought back to life following a meticulous €2 million State-funded renovation.
“With every project, we’re involved from beginning to end with either the customer, contractor or engineer. We’re always available to provide back-up and advice,” general manager Vincent Coller says.
Like all businesses involved in construction, The Traditional Lime Company faces many challenges, not least energy rating and insulation issues relating to the Vacant Property Refurbishment Grant, and the availability of substandard lime mortars.
“In theory, the Vacant Property Refurbishment Grant should be good for business, but the criteria used to measure the thermal performance of traditional buildings is very arbitrary and can be difficult to accurately assess. It’s far easier to assess a new build than a 200-year-old masonry wall,” Vincent explains.
“To qualify for a SEAI grant, the BER rating has to reach a certain level and that’s not always possible with older buildings. St Astier has a high-performance insulating undercoat and fully-breathable product called Novaskin Thermo Plus, but qualifying for a SEAI grant can still be tricky.”
Vincent continues: “There are a number of premix lime and lime mortars coming on the market for heritage and conservation work, but the producers aren’t obliged to disclose the ingredients due to lax EU standards. So you don’t know their basic strength, whether they’re breathable or how much cement they contain.
“These products are made by cement companies. The cement content can be very high for conservation work, but there’s no way of telling when you buy them.”
Originally a marine engineer, it wasn’t long before Edward Byrne’s passion for traditional buildings took over.
“I worked in the North Sea doing hydrographic and seismic surveys. I also resurveyed the ports for the Nigerian Port Authority after the Nigerian-Biafran War,” he recalls.
“One of the advantages of being a marine engineer at that time was that I was involved in, for want of a better word, the periphery of the oil industry. I had very long lead times before going back to sea. I love old buildings and if I was anywhere there was a big old house or an old ruin to visit, I would.
“A lot of my friends then were doing up old houses, but they were complaining they couldn’t get traditional materials for them. That led to me salvaging old building materials with a view to either buying and restoring a house myself or building a traditional house using these materials. I started off selling off the stuff that I didn’t need.
“Then I met my wife Marion and we had a son. I gave up going back to sea, which wasn’t a deliberate thing, it just evolved into that and the business became full-time. We’ve been selling lime since 1984 as part of our traditional building materials range.”
Edward and Marion renovated their own house about 40 years ago using a modified type of lime and cement plaster on the inside. It was only in recent years that they plastered the outside.
“You couldn’t get the proper lime plaster at that time in Ireland. But thankfully that all changed when we started importing it.”
As well as providing a full technical back-up service for their lime products, Edward, Marian, Vincent and the rest of the team provide a consultancy service on all aspects of building conservation and restoration. This consultancy service covers materials, methods and historic design, and includes training both on-site and at its purpose-built training centre in Tullow.
The wealth of knowledge that Edward has acquired down through the years means his advice is much sought-after from all corners of the country, and beyond when it comes to conservation, restoration and environmental building and repair. As the NSAI (National Standard Authority of Ireland) representative on the Revision of Building Lime Standards Europe, the affable managing director has given advice on the subject all over Europe.
Edward is also a founder member of the Building Limes Forum Ireland which promotes the use and understanding of lime-based mortars in conservation, restoration and new build. Furthermore, he’s a founder member of INTBAU which is the Irish chapter of The International Network for Traditional Building, Architecture and Urbanism.
The Carlow man, who grew up on a stud farm, holds the distinction of being the first person of any nationality to complete a Building Conservation Masterclass in lime mortars with English Heritage under John Ashurst at West Dean College, Sussex. As someone who is passionate about the use of the correct materials and methods in the conservation and restoration building markets, Edward is the expert in his field.
The Traditional Lime Company
Rath,
Shillelagh Road,
Tullow,
Co. Carlow.
Telephone: 059 9151750
Email: [email protected]
This article was published in Building Ireland Magazine, September 2026, Vol 12 No 9
featured, The Traditional Lime Company
