The Ancient Science That Keeps Old Buildings Standing

Rich finds a lime kiln. Stephen nerds out on chemistry. Somehow, it all makes sense.

In this episode of Talking Conservation, we walk through the full lime cycle — from burnt limestone to breathable lime mortar — and explain why it still matters today.

Packed with practical knowledge, dry humour, and the occasional chemistry flashback, this is your crash course in the building material that’s been quietly doing the heavy lifting for centuries.

Rich comes across an old disused lime kiln and this leads us to discuss the Lime Cycle. Stephen talks about how a source of Calcium Carbonate (e.g. Limestone) is taken through various processes that each change the nature of the material, but that at the end it reverts to a form of Calcium Carbonate again - hence the term Lime Cycle. Rich reflects on this at the end and mentions that we will look at various forms of lime (as used in building works) in a future video.

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