Lime Paint and Plastering System for Interior Application, FAQ Friday

Building on last week’s FAQ Friday, the use of lime paints doesn’t have to stop with use on the exterior of a building. Lime paints are great for use on interior walls by themselves or used as a pre-hydrated and dispersed pigmenting agent that can be mixed with Ecologic^® Mortar, NHL or a combination of the two when formulating your own colored plasters.

There are many benefits of using lime paint on internal walls but there sometimes needs to be some preparation involved to make sure that the lime paint or plaster will adhere to the substrate. Often times I hear that someone will want a colored plaster finish on their interior walls but they do not know if lime paint will adhere. The simplest way to check is to spritz some water on the wall. If there is no absorption of the water, the wall is either too smooth or not porous enough. We need some suction. One way to achieve this is to apply a base coat of Takcoat™.

Takcoat™.  was discussed in detail in a previous FAQ Friday. So to keep it short I will just say that it is a VOC free, transitional lime and sand prepared plaster material that can be applied to smooth painted or unpainted surfaces. Once Takcoat™. is cured then adequate suction and mechanical key is provided for Lime Paint and lime plaster to adhere to the wall surface. There are ranges of different lime finishes that can be applied to the wall ranging from a rough open pore surface texture to an incredibly smooth polished Venetian or Tadelakt finishing style. The finish is dependent on the client’s wishes and the skill level of the craftsperson.

In my opinion, craft skill level is fundamentally dependent on the tools a craftsperson has at their disposal. One important tool to have when formulating different plasters is pigmentation. The lime paints we sell at LimeWorks.us come in a variety of colors that can be used as integral pigments mixed into plaster formulations or on their own as a decorating top coat. Having a good pigmentation methodology gives a craftsperson more options during the planning stages of a project. A good pigmentation methodology also makes reproduction of the mockups on to the entire application easier once a decision has been made on a certain color since the consistency of our products makes this a smooth process.

Lime paint comes as a dry powder consisting of a high calcium lime paint base and dispersed pigments if the paint is a colored one. Dilution of the lime paint with water to make a quart, gallon or 5-gallon unit will further breakdown the pigment and further slake the hi-cal lime. When a known volume of paint has been made it can be used in Ecologic^® Mortar formulations or gauged into lime plaster for color. Here are a few examples…

Sample 1- lime paint lp-347 over Takcoat™

Sample 2- 1/2 bag NHL 2, 4.3 gallons LP-347, 1.09 gallons water over Takcoat™

Sample 3- one bag Ecologic® Mortar Fine with 1gallon LP-347 over Takcoat™

Sample 4- one bag Ecologic® Mortar with 1quart LP-347 over Takcoat™

When a specific color is desired but not represented by our stock lime paint color options then we can provide custom colored blends for all sorts of various applications. Seen in the photos below Thuillier Plastering of New Hampshire used a custom Ecologic^® Mortar Fine that incorporated additional NHL 2 and pigments to achieve a Tadelakt finish. The authentic formulation was then polished with rubbing stones and the olive oil soap we sell, following an ancient Moroccan tradition.

So whether you know what style of plaster finish you want to achieve or you would rather let your imagination run wild and experiment, just contact us and we will be able to help you develop your plaster system to ensure a successful project.

-LimeWorks.us (Linked-in : Blog : Facebook : Twitter)

Techniques for Plastering a Wall, FAQ Friday with Randy Ruth

Q: I have painted drywall in my home and would like a lime plaster finish. How can I achieve this?

A: There are many ways to achieve a lime plaster finish over painted drywall. The first issue to address is who is going to do the work? If you hire a good plasterer then they should know how to approach this issue.  Even still, you could enlighten them with new products that they may not know about, that you have discovered in your research.  If you are a more do it yourself kind of person with some trowel experience than you might be surprised what kinds of finishes you can achieve with a little bit of practice on some 12” x 12” sample boards.

How you ultimately approach, this task is dependent on three major factors… budget, authenticity and texture. Depending on the budget allocated toward a lime plaster finish, a person can achieve a wide range of finishes. The polished mirror finishes often-associated Venetian plaster can but not always be associated with higher costs. This is due typically to higher materials cost and higher wage costs because of the skills required to achieve that level of finish. Speaking of wage costs it should be noted that ceiling applications are much more labor intensive, rightfully so and should probably left to a professional plasterer. A rougher coarser finish can hide slight imperfections in artisanship, thus it typically costs less than other finishes. Since we have now linked the relationship between budget and texture to how you can achieve a lime plaster finish over drywall, it is time to move on to authenticity.

Authenticity refers to the quality of the product. Is it lime, acrylic, or a blend? Sometimes authenticity does not matter however; with the ever-increasing customer demand for low or no VOC products, it may play a role in your decision-making. There are flexible “lime” plasters that have chemical additions as well as many acrylic based bonding agents available on the market. If you want a more real lime plaster system on your painted drywall, than LimeWorks.us has a solution for you.

You should begin with a clean sound surface, free of any soaps or detergents and of course with no pealing or flaking paint. A quality finish is only as good as the quality of what is beneath it. Then simply trowel apply Takcoat^TM evenly over the entire wall 1/16^th to 1/8^th inch thick. This will act as a transition coat from paint to plaster. Takcoat^TM uses hydraulic lime and natural additives to achieve a bond that can stick to glass, ensuring a good bond to the painted wall. Once the transition coat of Takcoat^TM has cured for a about 3 days, a second coat of lime can be applied to achieve the finish. Depending on the what the kind of finish is desired another coat of lime can be applied, or even three, four or five. It all depends on what you or the client wants.

If a rough finish or soft-sanded finish is desired than Ecologic® Mortar in either coarse or fine sand can be applied. If a fine polished, finish is desired than NHL 2 can be applied paper-thin in multiple coats to create depth to the finish, which is polished with black soap diluted with water.  all of the products mentioned  can be blended together to make the right finish for you or the client. Custom colors can be matched for you, or you can add your own iron oxide or natural lime proof pigments.

Because of all the case specific challenges, answers to this FAQ are just a basic overview. If you plan to tackle this issue head on, give a call or shoot an email to randy@LimeWorks.us. We can help you with choosing the proper products and application techniques.

-LimeWorks.us (Linked-in : Blog : Facebook : Twitter)