Systems & Finishes - Wet-room lime
Tadelakt.
Lime and marble, laid two millimetres thick, compressed until the lime itself rises to close the surface, then polished with a stone and finished with olive-oil soap. The wet-room plaster of the Moroccan hammam, made in our studio for bathrooms in London and the South East.
Most lime finishes keep water off by being waxed. Tadelakt keeps it off by how it is made. The plaster goes on thicker than any other lime we install and as it dries it is pressed, again and again, with a trowel and then a smooth stone. The pressure brings a fine lime cream up through the surface and that cream fills the pores that open as the plaster dries. What is left is dense, faintly undulating and softly shining, with no coating on it at all. The soap applied the day after reacts with the lime to make the surface water-repellent. That is the whole system: lime, pressure, soap.
What it feels like
Warmer and softer than microcement, with movement in the surface that comes from the hand and the stone rather than from the trowel pattern. The sheen is low and a little wavy, closer to a river pebble than to a polished tile. Because the pigment is in the lime rather than on it, the colour has depth and a wet wall darkens slightly and dries back, which people either love or do not. We show it on a sample panel and let you decide.
Where it belongs
Bathroom walls, above all. Around a bath, behind a basin, as the walls of a shower with good ventilation and in a steam room, which is where it came from. It is also one of the best materials we have for a kitchen splashback away from direct flame and for any wall where a hand touches it on the way past. It can go outside on a sheltered wall. It is for walls: not shower floors, not trays, not anywhere water stands. For those we pair it with a microcement floor, which is the combination we install most often in a bathroom.
How it is built
The plaster is a dry lime and marble powder, mixed with water in the studio and rested before use. Over a primed and sound substrate the first coat goes on at close to a kilo a square metre to level the wall. The second, thicker coat carries the finish and is the one that gets worked. As it firms the surface is compressed with a trowel until the cream rises, then polished in circles with a rounded stone while it is still damp enough to answer. Pressing too early traps bubbles; pressing too late does nothing, so the timing is the trade. The next day the wall is soaped, left for a few hours and wiped. Where the room asks for more, a penetrating mineral water-repellent goes on before the soap and a mineral wax after it. Around two kilos of plaster a square metre, about two millimetres thick, three days before it can see water.
Water: what it does and does not do
Tadelakt is water-repellent rather than waterproof and we would rather say that plainly. The soaped lime sheds water that runs down it and it has lined hammams for centuries on that basis, but it depends on the surface staying intact and on the room being ventilated. It does not like standing water, strong detergents or anything acidic. Inside a shower enclosure where water is driven at the wall every day we add a breathable mineral water-repellent as standard and, where a client wants the full belt and braces, a clear polyurethane film over a pre-sealer, accepting that the wall no longer breathes where the film sits. Beneath it all the room is tanked in the usual way. The plaster is the finish, not the waterproofing.
Living with it
Rinse soap and shampoo off the wall rather than leaving them to dry, use a soft cloth and a mild soap, nothing acidic and nothing abrasive. Once a year or so the wall is re-soaped, which takes an afternoon and brings the sheen back. Scratches and marks can usually be worked out locally with soap and a stone. A wall that has been let go can be brought back; it is lime, so it forgives.
Colour
The powder is white and takes lime-compatible pigment, so any colour we mix for the lime range is available here. Pale colours show the stone polishing least and read as calm; deeper colours show the movement and the characteristic soft marbling the stone leaves behind. Dark tadelakt is one of the best things we do and also the one that most needs a sample in the room before anyone commits.
Sample panels
Photographed in the studio.
Chosen in your light.
A hand-made board from our studio library, photographed close in daylight. Your own colour is confirmed on a panel like it before work starts.
Screen colours are indicative. Every finish is confirmed on a physical panel in your own light before work starts.
Questions we get asked.
Is tadelakt waterproof?
Water-repellent. The compressed, soaped lime sheds water that runs down it and has done so in steam baths for a very long time, but it is not a membrane and it does not like water that stands. We tank the room beneath it, keep it off shower floors and add a breathable mineral water-repellent inside a shower enclosure. Where a client wants a sealed film as well, that is available, at the cost of the wall breathing where the film sits.
Can tadelakt go in a shower?
On the walls, yes, with good ventilation and the extra water-repellent we specify there. Not on the floor or the tray and not in a niche where water collects. The pairing we install most is tadelakt walls with a microcement floor, which gives you the warmth of the lime where you see and touch it and an engineered wet-area system where the water goes.
How is it different from Marmorino?
Same family of lime and marble, different method. Marmorino is applied thinly in three coats and gets its character from the trowel; it is waxed and it stays out of the wet zone. Tadelakt goes on twice as thick, is compressed until the lime closes its own surface and is polished with a stone and soaped, which is what lets it live in a shower. Tadelakt has a softer, wavier sheen; Marmorino a crisper, more stone-like one.
How do you look after it?
Rinse the wall after showering rather than leaving soap to dry on it, clean with a soft cloth and a mild soap and keep acids and abrasives away from it. Re-soap once a year or so, which is an afternoon's work and restores the sheen. Marks and light scratches can usually be worked out locally. We issue a written care sheet at handover.
Is it a real Moroccan material?
It is the Moroccan method. The traditional material is a lime from the Marrakech region; what we install is an aged lime and marble plaster made for the technique, with the same stone polishing and the same olive-oil soap. We say tadelakt-style where the distinction matters, because the lime is not from Morocco and we would rather you knew that.