Outram Building & Restoration

Outram Building & Restoration Lancashire based 🌹Specialising in lime mortar and traditional building.
(3)

01/09/2026

Cream

31/08/2026

Bitta Sunday slaking

Recently I’ve thought it would be good to show a bit more of our personal lives on here.Because despite what people migh...
30/08/2026

Recently I’ve thought it would be good to show a bit more of our personal lives on here.

Because despite what people might think, we’re not just lime robots. We’re people, with families, hobbies, interests & plenty going on outside of work. And I’ll be honest, I’ve hit complete burnout recently.

Those who own their own business will understand the pressure that comes with it. Timescales, quotes, invoices, wages, problems, solutions, phone calls, messages & constantly trying to keep things moving.
I’ve worked so much that I’ve made myself physically ill for the second time this year.

But we’re on a journey. I’m incredibly proud of what we’re building & I’ll keep pushing until we’re in a position where we can look back & say it was all worth it.

What drives me is these two. & my boy Walt.

Because while I’m out working, Abs is holding down the fort at home. Nap schedules, appointments, tablets, meals, cleaning, looking after & training Walt, and about a thousand other things I probably don’t even notice. All of that on broken sleep for the last 18 months.

The truth is, I couldn’t do what I do without her.

There’s a lot of sacrifice involved in trying to build a business, but that sacrifice isn’t just mine. While people see me & the lads out working, there’s a whole other side of our life being held together behind the scenes.

We carry different parts of the load & without Abs carrying hers, there’s absolutely no way I could carry mine.

We’re a team.

Life is chaotic, running a business is chaotic, raising a family is chaotic. Half the time we haven’t got a clue what we’re doing.

But there’s absolutely nobody else I’d rather share this journey with.

30/08/2026

Haired lime.

LANCASHIRE’S ASH MORTARS AND WHAT THEY MEAN TO US. 🌹It’s only become apparent to me recently just how regional these mor...
29/08/2026

LANCASHIRE’S ASH MORTARS AND WHAT THEY MEAN TO US. 🌹

It’s only become apparent to me recently just how regional these mortars are.

Lancashire sat at the heart of one of Britain’s great coalfields, producing tens of millions of tonnes of coal annually at its peak. Coal powered our mills, foundries, railways, farms & homes, while Lancashire’s cotton industry became one of the most important manufacturing centres on earth.

That industry left its mark on our buildings.

One of those marks is ash mortar.

We absolutely adore these mortars. They’re a physical record of the place that produced them.

Coal & furnace ash were abundant and found their way into lime mortars. Certain ashes contain reactive silica & alumina which react with calcium hydroxide from the lime in the presence of water. This pozzolanic reaction can give the mortar an additional hydraulic set, altering its strength and durability.

Not every ash behaves this way, and historic ash mortars vary enormously depending on their source and how they were burnt.

Across Lancashire we regularly find relatively soft lime bedding mortars later over pointed with darker, harder ash rich mortars. Elsewhere, buildings were constructed with ash mortar throughout.

A dark joint is not automatically cement.

To some, the black and grey material within an old wall might look like industrial waste.

To us, it is archaeology.

Coal dug from beneath Lancashire soil. Furnaces burning. Mill engines turning. Generations of families working in industries that shaped this county & influenced the world.

It represents ingenuity too, taking an abundant by product of industry and turning it into a useful building material, much of which remains between our bricks & stones more than a century later.

These mortars are a poignant reminder of the sacrifice, graft, resilience & grit that shaped Lancashire.

A county that not only shaped Britain, but shaped the world.

God’s country. 🌹

29/08/2026

Hot mixed lime, s**t coats

28/08/2026

Pointing / sticking off tutorial in Cheadle a few months back. Part 1/2

28/08/2026

Bitta slakin

27/08/2026

Throwing down some muck.

26/08/2026

Call it what you want.

Baggin

Address

Coppull
Chorley
PR75BZ

Telephone

+447510499964

Website

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