Week Nine: Natural Plasters & Finishes

Plastering is finally upon us! First is the rough coat. Rough coat goes with the rough framing. Finish plaster is the last thing to go on so if we get to it it will be in the last week of classes.

We used a big gas mixer to mix our plaster: sand, water, clay, lime and chopped straw


We spent all this time keeping the strawbales dry and the first thing you do when you are applying plaster is wet the walls!


Ace is showing us how to do it before letting us loose on the walls


Dan is getting up next to the knee braces (which were difficult to plaster). Everything had to be covered because the clay will absorb into the wood and the only way it will come out is sanding. Our wood is all unfinished so a sanded spot would stick out against all the unfinished timbers.