House+Earth, a green build home store an Austin, Texas, will now be carrying a full line of Stucco Italiano materials. From their website: House+Earth is a place where Central Texas homeowners, architects, interior designers, and professional tradesmen will find an extensive range of environmentally friendly alternatives for the things that make a home… a home. House+Earth is proud to supply the most extensive selection of truly green building materials and healthy home products in Texas.
We’re thrilled to have another green building store as part of our dealer network. More and more environmentally conscious homeowners and businesses are seeing that our beautiful, zero-VOC, natural lime materials, are the way to go for interior and exterior spaces.
House+Earth employees are currently working on a Tadelakt shower display for their showroom. We’ll post some photos when they are done.…
We get lots of phone calls here at Stucco Italiano, and over the past year or so the volume of calls about Tadelakt have become greater to the point where I think at least half of our first-time inquiries are made regarding Tadelakt. We have had dozens of successful projects completed by applicators all over the country this year alone.
We’re introducing a one-day seminar on our Tadelakt which will be held twice this year. Class dates are September 20 and December 6th. Hope to see you there. Details below:
One day Tadelakt Workshop
This one-day class will introduce you to the basics for applying our Italian manufactured Moroccan-style Tadelakt product.
You will also learn about substrates and sealing Tadelakt, how to apply in showers and wet areas, and how to create high polished Tadelakt.
Our one-day Tadelakt workshop is held on day 2 as part of our 3-day Stucco Italiano Certification class. The Tadelakt class may be taken as part of our certification course for $795, or it can be taken separately for $300. Class dates September 20 and December 6th. Call 206.838.5888 for more info.
About our Tadelakt:
Stucco Italiano Tadelakt is manufactured in Italy by Goivanni Polistena. Giovanni’s intentions in developing this Moroccan-style Tadelakt were to remain entirely faithful to the look, feel, and chemical makeup of the original Morroccan Tadelakt, while creating a more sophisticated, user-friendly product. Enlisting the help and guidance of Moroccan Tadelakt installers, Giovanni spent many months formulating the perfect blend of natural limes, clays, and sands. Stucco Italiano Tadelakt is now preferred by many installers of Moroccan Tadelakt for it’s beauty, ease of installation, and to resist delaminating/detaching from the surface as Moroccan Tadelakt often does in the hands of anyone but the most expert installers.
The results speak for themselves – Stucco Italiano Tadelakt is the equal to Moroccan Tadelakt in it’s look and durability, and superior for ease of application, price, and availability.
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I’ll be co-hosting a Twitter chat for decorative artisans tomorrow, July 28, between 5-6 PM Pacific time. The focus will be on social media with guest host Lisa League.
For more information check out this post on Regina Garay’s Fauxology blog.
If you don’t know what a Tweetchat is, Regina does a pretty good job describing it here.
Hope to see you there!…
As promised, here are a few more photos of that gorgeous Marmorino Classic map of the world created by Tina Randolph at Sun Liquor Distillery in Seattle:
One of the more interesting things about the project from a technical point of view: The substrate walls were pretty rough. Rather than do the standard prep of smoothing the surface out prior to polished plaster, Tina and the crew went directly over the rough substrate which ended up looking wonderful and giving the feel of those ridges under the ocean and the waves on top. I could look at that blue wall all day.
Here’s a not very well kept secret – these guys serve some of the best cocktails in Seattle
Tina Randolph just started using Stucco Italiano plasters which she says she now loves. She’s been doing awesome decorative work all over Seattle for many years, including some great stuff in Top Pot Doughnuts which is owned by the same folks who brought us the new Sun Liquor. I’m hoping to interview Tina next week for the blog and post some more jobs that she’s done.…
We get so many requests from contractors and homeowners asking for information on how to do showers these days. Probably our single-most requested technical info item. My answer is always a resounding “don’t ask me”. But seriously, tackling a shower surround is a whole different animal than just putting up a nice finish over drywall, so this is no job for amateurs.
Fortunately there are now full start-to-finish systems available that seem to be working great as a substrate for Tadelakt or even Marmorino Carrara or Intonachino. Our applicators have had excellent success over the past 4-5 years with the Wedi board system which is a lightweight alternative to cement board and include a special panel fastener that seems much more reliable than simple screws, as well as a paintable urethane caulking system to ensure cracking does not occur at the joints.
Click here to get to the Wedi site.
During last week’s decorative cement class one of our students gave me a brochure from Schluter, another leader in the wet area substrate industry(thanks Tamara!). They now have a relatively new system similar to Wedi called Kerdi-board. And they have seminars around the country for interested contractors. In our area there is one coming up in Lynwood, WA May 17th, Tacoma on May 18th, and Portland on May 19th. I’ll be at either the Lynwood or Tacoma one for sure. Here’s a link to the page listing Schluter seminars.
These seminars are free. So you want to install an incredibly beautiful Tadelakt or other lime-plaster finish in a shower and not sure how to do the substrate? Maybe quit calling me and go learn how to do it right from a professional.
AARON…
Stucco Italiano is a member of the US Green Building Council. Naturally high in pH, lime finishes act as an anti-bacterial surface, neutralizing the development of organic substances such as mold and fungus.
Non-toxic and green, our lime plasters are ideal for interiors or exteriors. A breathable system, our lime plasters allow water vapor to permeate freely so moisture evaporates quickly, unlike acrylic finishes which can trap moisture inside the wall.
