Essential Natural Plasters

A veritable cookbook of natural plaster recipes and techniques for beautiful, durable finishes

Natural plasters made of clay, lime, and other materials mixed with sand are beautiful building finishes. Fun to work with, low-impact, and allowing infinite creativity, they are high performance and provide proven, centuries-long durability.

Yet until now there's been no resource that has pulled together the best North American plaster recipes and how-to into one place. Essential Natural Plasters covers it all:

• Sourcing and selecting materials, including site-soils
• Clay, lime, and gypsum plasters as well as fibers and amendments
• Interior and exterior use and specialty plasters such as tadelakt for bathrooms
• Preparing substrates, from straw bales and cob to lath and Sheetrock
• How to set up a safe, efficient worksite
• Mixing, testing, tinting, repairing, and applying plasters
• Coveted recipes from leading plasterers in Ontario, Vermont, New Mexico, France, and New Zealand.

Richly illustrated and deeply researched, Essential Natural Plasters is the must-have resource for owner-builders and professionals alike.

Essential Natural Plasters is the most comprehensive guide to making and using natural plasters for all types of buildings. It covers clay, lime, and gypsum plasters; waterproof tadelakt plaster; fibers and additives; interior and exterior use; substrate preparation; mixing, testing, and tinting; and practical application tips.

Michael Henry has researched plasters and plastered his way across Ontario for the past decade, plastering for Camel's Back Construction and Straworks. Michael he lives in Peterborough, Ontario.
Tina Therrien started plastering in 1997 as part of Camel's Back Construction, the first straw bale building company in Ontario. Tina lives in a modest timber frame home with her spouse, daughter, their flock of chickens, and their slowly expanding gardens. She lives in Low, Quebec.