Just learned adobe bricks need to breathe and I've been sealing mine wrong for years

Was watching a YouTube video about historic preservation in the North Valley last night and found out that painting old adobe walls with modern latex paint traps moisture and causes them to crumble from the inside. I sealed my whole front wall back in 2021 and now I'm wondering if I messed it up bad. The guy in the video said you need a breathable lime-based render instead. Has anyone else dealt with fixing this kind of moisture damage on their old adobe?

2 comments

2 Comments

robert2757d ago

Doubt it's crumbling yet. Probably just a little surface moisture.

oscarwright7d ago

Learned that lesson the hard way myself a few years back when my whole front wall started looking like a giant peeled sunburn. Pretty sure I single handedly kept the local adobe repair business afloat with how fast I made things worse. Good news is you can probably fix it with enough lime render and elbow grease, bad news is it's gonna be a messy weekend project.