We do carry lime products, as a matter of fact we offer 3 types.

MIZAAR smooth grasello type.
Classic Marmorino
Pitture alla Calce....lime paint.

Our sales in these products are starting to catch up with our synthetic's.

The market in ITALY is somewhat strange at times. Lime plasters are used approx 80% of the time. Synthetic's are still very common and used in different types of application.

I prefer the lime myself and have always beleived in them. The US market is growing very quickly in these types of Lime plasters. There are so many compaines that have products in USA from Italy or france. Do your research and price compare. The true importers have there products priced all in range with each other. The trend for traditional material is exploding and more and more applicators prefer the lime.

Hope that gives you an idea of what I mean by modern and old world plasters.

dolomitic lime putty is upto 45%+ magnesuum at the expence of calcium

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I just wanted to add that I have been experimenting with magnesium cements - and they much harder than even 100 year old lime. The only problem with the magnesium content is that it can create hard patches in lime plaster - which ONLY creates a problem when the wall is shrinking and contracting (frost and water) and only when magnesium levels are high enough to create this problem (I think 15% has been suggested somewhere). The magnesium is a non-issue - you would have difficulty finding a lime with high magnesium, maybe some agricultural blend (magnesium is wonderful for soil, especially grazing pastures). Efflorescence is not caused by magnesium.

So we are dealing with Calcium Hydroxide - and how, and where, and for what purpose it was calcined becomes the only issue. I was suprised the Graylime was sandy - they add the sand for you?

Check out some of old plaster books at donhead.com if you really want to learn about lime, and lime mortars.

Try kremer-pigmente.com. They have a list of known stable with lime pigments. There are others I have discovered - some pretty exotic - like ground up holographic film, and a beautiful, glow in the dark, swimming pool blue.

White pozzolan sound interesting. Lots of Flyash here - cheap, industrial byproduct, less than portland cement. A light brown color.

It is important to emphasise that you are recovering the breathability of the wall. There is an inexpensive ($400?) sandblaster which blasts and vacuums at the same time. Not industrial quality, but enough to remove layers of latex, wallpaper, alkyds. The number one household insurance claim in the USA is over mold, water vapor must be able to flow. An annual lime wash kills molds, bacterias, and probably viruses too - and the whole room smells fresh and clean (unlike other paints)

The second, especially on outside work, is to emphasise that lime finish 'patinates' rather than completely fails. The latexes and alkyds look new - and then fail spectacularly. The lime finishes wear in like an old pair of blue jeans - and some people actually prefer that look

Lime finishes are for those with distinguished tastes, but a good pool of clients should keep you, and your kids, busy for a long time.

I'm new to this group, and totally fascinated by the posts I've read. I am a professional plasterer with a strong background in earthen materials and I have recently absolutely fallen in love with lime. I am a tech geek with a good understanding of different types of limes, pozzolans and pigments.

But recently I felt very much in over my head. I am doing an interior application of a polished lime finish on a two coat application. First coat 1 : 2.5 lime to plaster sand, second coat 1 : 1 lime to marbledust. I get wonderful color saturations and a readily sealed polished surface. I won't call it tadelakt because it's not made with Morrocan lime, but that is the type of finish for which I am aiming.

Here's the problem: the base coat is spalling off the walls. I was advised