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lime plaster

 
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I build an passive solar greenhouse using strawbale and clay plaster. I was told to use a lime plaster on the outside, but I am having difficulties with getting to look right and in some places it is not adhering to the clay plaster coat.  I have seen different recipes for the lime plaster, some with clay, some with out.

Is there anyone in the midwest (Central IL to be specific) that could help me get the last coat applied?
 
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Location: Sierra Nevada foothills, 350 m, USDA 8b, sunset zone 7
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Mixing plasters may work or not, it depends on the composition of the medium below the lime plaster.
Does your clay plaster have any fibers in it?
Have you tried to whitewash the clay plaster first? Use a thin whitewash, thinner than consistency of the regular latex paint. After painting the clay, protect it from sun and too much heat. Check the next day if the whitewash is stuck well to the clay. If it does - it will create an interface layer for your lime plaster. If it does not then you will have to create an intermediate clay plaster layer that will be compatible with lime products.
I have plastered three rooms in my house with a bad plaster mix. It was soft, weak and dusty and I could not even whitewash it. I had to chip it off.
 
master pollinator
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I've done lime plaster over cob several times and I got the best results doing what Cristobal recommends: prime the earth layer with a coat of limewash before plastering. You can do this all at once and apply the plaster while the limewash is still a bit damp.
 
Jan Turner
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I was told to pput the lime plaster on after the second coat of clay.  So I already have a lime coat on it. Did I really F*** up?
 
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Location: Egnar, CO -- zone 5ish, semi-arid, high elevation
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I doubt you f-ed it up. In my (admittedly somewhat limited) experience, both clay and lime are quite forgiving materials to work with. If you put a coat of 100% lime on a base of bone dry cob, it's gonna flake off horribly. But you can still brush off the flaky bits and then try again. A good rule of thumb is that like sticks to like. So you may have better luck trying a clay/lime mix as a scratch coat, then pure lime as a finish coat. Or maybe even two intermediate layers with 1:2 and 2:1 ratios.

The other thing I've learned about both of these materials is that slow drying is always better than fast drying. Drying happens by water moving towards the surface (or towards a dry material you slapped it onto that's now sucking up the moisture), and that creates an uneven drying (and therefore uneven shrinking) situation, which leads to cracking and flaking. In the heat of summer, working on an exterior wall, achieving that slow, even drying is easier said than done. Thoroughly wetting the dry surface (like, enough for it to really soak in, not just create a thin layer of dripping water) also helps keep the next layer from flaking off, but either way your life will be easier if you wait for an overcast/humid day.
 
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