Hi out there, I haven’t posted for a while – I’m being a bad blogger. I’ll do better this year.
Check out this cool stop-motion video of our friend Lynn Kriley applying Marmorino Carrara to a wall up in Anchorage Alaska, He says it’s something like 35 below there at night – yikes.
Stop Motion movie of me applying Stucco Italiano Marmorino Plaster from Lynn Kriley on Vimeo.
If only we could work that fast, right?…
Just got back from a nice weekend in Mosier, Oregon, helping my friend Paul install his Tadelakt shower. Mosier is a tiny little town next to Hood River along the beautiful Columbia Gorge region. So I worked Friday and Saturday and got a day off Sunday to do a little hiking.
Here’s me and the shower, no good pictures yet but Paul will send me some after he gets the bathroom cleaned up and I’ll post them.
Paul is also going to finish off the floor in the bathroom and the countertops, so it will be one of those nice seamless Tadelakt bathrooms.
For substrate we used a new product I have become very interested in. It’s called Rubberize It and it’s a Zero VOC paint on rubber coating that seems to waterproof any surface it coats. On their website they do a demonstration on the inside of a cardboard box which they completely waterproof with the rubberizer and then fill with water. Pretty impressive. Here’s a link to their website. What surprised me when I ran some tests in the studio a couple of months ago was how well all of our material bonded to it. I applied the Tadelakt directly over the coats of Rubberize It and our material bonds very strongly to it. So theoretically, in a shower one could build the substrate out of almost anything (for example, plywood) and coat with Rubberize It and end up with a waterproof surface the Tadelakt will bond great to. Seems like it should work. Paul is one of the principals in the company so he gets to be guinea pig for a few months and then I am going to use it in my house for a Tadelakt shower as well. I’ll keep you posted.
You can also use the material on exteriors, which is very interesting, and they seem to be doing a brisk business selling the coating for roofs, as well as koi ponds and other water garden features.
The Columbia gorge is such a beautiful area, go there if you can. Here’s a couple of shots I took during our hike:
Nice, right? We have a couple of spots left in our certification class next week, and there is also room in the one-day Tadelakt class. I’ll be using my new find Rubberize It to prep all the Tadelakt boards. I’ll post photos of that finished bathroom as soon as I get some.
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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…
Here are the 5 biggest issues I see out there concerning prep work:
1 - Stop the cracks – Can you do an exterior? Sure! Can you do a shower? Sure! But you gotta stop the cracks. So you have to know what you are doing. Or hire someone that does. And a very important point to bear in mind – lime does not crack by itself. But it cannot bridge cracks. It adheres to whatever substrate it attaches to. So when the substrate cracks the lime plaster cracks with it. And never promise a crack free finish because if you do not actually do the substrate construction and preparation how can you guarantee the thin veneer of decorative plaster we apply will hold? This often falls outside of our area of expertise and responsibility.
That being said, EIFS mesh and primer systems usually work pretty darn well, in my experience.
2 – Penny wise pound foolish (AKA prep with the good stuff, you’re worth it!) – So you gotta fill a wall that has orange peel texture because you want to run a nice shiny plaster over it. So you get out the joint compound because it’s cheap. You skim. Then you sand. Then you prime. Twice. Then you can apply your lime plaster. Hey but wait a minute, why didn’t you just skim with our Marmorino Classic and then do your finish right over it? Because it’s so damn expensive you say? But think about it - if you skim with the good stuff you’ll already have your first coat of lime plaster on. You’ll have the proper suction and you can do your final coats the next day. The money you spend on materials (joint compound vs lime plaster) should be more than offset by the money you save on labor, no?
3 – Scrape don’t sand – Got some excess gunk on the walls before you start? Or did you get some trowel lines from your first coat? Before you throw up the giant cloud of dust with that sandpaper try breaking out a putty knife and scraping. Less work, less dust, more better.
4 – Taping – it’s not paint – Yes it’s not paint so don’t tape right up to inside edge of where your wall meets your baseboard or crown molding or whatever you are protecting. Otherwise you’ll bury your tape underneath your plaster and it will chip or crumble off when you remove your tape. Allow for the thickness of the plaster material you will be using and tape away from the wall by 1/16″ or more depending on what material you are using.
5 – Do not assume the people doing your prep are going to do it properly. Unless they work for you. And then only if you know what you’re doing. Which is debatable.…
So you created a beautiful distressed finish sample board. Your client loves it. But a sample board is not a wall, not even close. What should you consider when transitioning to larger surfaces?
Here’s some advice on how to take your distressed finishes from the sample board to the wall:
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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.
