Building limes

Grade Technical, chemical lime (insoluble matter less than 2%, magnesium less than 3%), building lime, USP, CP, FCC. 

EN 459 Building lime — Part 2 Test methods , 1994 (being revised). 

ENV 459-1 Building lime — Definitions, specifications and conformity criteria", 1995. 

The quality of building limes is specified in [22.6]. It requires minimum values for standard mortars produced from lime putties — namely penetration and air content — and lists water demand and water retention as parameters that customers may request. It also specifies a minimum volume yield of putty per kg of quicklime. Building limes must also be sound (i.e., pass the popping, pitting and expansion tests). A workability test, based on the spread of a standard mortar on a jolting table, was specified in the 1972 edition of BS 890 [22.11], but is no longer included. 

Category 1 building lime — hydrated 2 building lime — putty 3 hydraulic building lime 4 high calcium quicklime — hydrated lime 5 high calcium quicklime — milk of lime 6 hydrated lime... 

A wide variety of lime products have been used in lime treatment. In general, however, calcium limes are recommended [26.4, 26.5], which meet the requirements for building lime [26.18]. Dolomitic and hydraulic lime products are less suitable, as indicated below. 

Quicklimes used for lime treatment should (provisionally) meet the requirements of Types CL 70, CL 80, or CL 90 as specified in ENV 459-1 [26.18] and summarised in Table 26.2. It requires that the MgO content in building limes used for soil stabilisation should not exceed 5 % in CL 70, and 10 % in CL 80 and CL 90. In the long-term, however, [26.17] will specify the characteristics for limes used in road construction. A high reactivity, as defined in section 13.2, is an advantage when quicklime is used for drying a site. 

Table 26S. Summary of chemical and physical tests for building limes ...

EN 459 Building lime . Part 1 Definitions, specifications and conformity criteria , DD ENV 459-1,1995 (being revised) Part 2 Test methods , BS EN 459-2,1995 (being revised) Part 3 Conformity evaluation , prEN 459-3, in preparation. 

Building limes are limes used in building and construction, the main constituents of which, on chemical analysis, are the oxides and hydroxides of calcium, with lesser amounts of magnesium (MgO, Mg(OH)2), silicon (Si02), aluminium (AI2O3) and iron (Fc203). They include calcium limes, dolomitic limes and hydraulic limes (see EN 459). 

CEN EN 459-2. 2011. Building lime - Part - 2 Test methods. Brussels CEN. 

British Standards Institution (BSI). BS EN 459-1 Building lime. Definitions, specifications and conformity criteria. BSI, London, 2001. 

---