#Tadelakt plaster bathroom how to

If this is your first attempt at applying Tadelakt as a complete novice or skilled plasterer, we strongly recommend you start with a small area (such as a splashback) or practice on sample boards before committing to larger projects.

#Tadelakt plaster bathroom how to

We show you how to apply Kreidezeit Tadelaktand talk you through the methods and key stages to obtain your own tactile, colourful, traditional Moroccan finishes. Our Tadelakt application videos and information on this page will help to guide you through all you need to know for a successful project (with a bit of practice and patience!). The Tadelakt will gain its bonding strength within the first ten days and be fully set after approximately thirty days. This soaping provides the Tadelakt with its waterproof qualities. While the Tadelakt still contains moisture an olive soap or a black olive soap (savon noir) is applied and stoned into the surface. In the preferred two coat method, the first coat is left until almost dry, then a second coat applied.Īny trowel marks are removed as the plaster starts to set and then the surface is flattened with a river stone which compresses the aggregate and closes the pores. The application of Tadelakt varies slightly in Morocco, sometimes it is applied in one thick coat and sometimes in two coats. Natural Tadelakt is light in colour so pigments are added to create a range of colours. This is then mixed with a fine sand made from marble or limestone. Berber artisans produced this binder by burning limestone found 1.5 m below ground in the Marrakech region of Morocco.The limestone is burnt in kilns fired by olive tree and palm wood, this makes the natural hydraulic lime.

They discovered that the main base of the plaster is lime, specifically an eminently strong hydraulic lime. The architecture is characterised by manually shaped surfaces, organic forms and rounded corners.Ī group from Kreidezeit, a German firm specialising in natural paints and plasters, went to Morocco to investigate this fascinating material and wrote up their experiences in a book “Tadelakt” Gert Ziesemann and Martin Krampfer. Tadelakt has been used externally in Morocco for 1000 years and survives today on some historic buildings. The extraordinary impermeability characteristics of Tadelakt are comparable if not superior to the cocciopesto mortars used by the Romans for the construction of aqueducts and baths.