[Cob] lime plaster question

[Shannon Dealy]

On Tue, 7 Oct 2008, Carrie wrote:

> I was just about to mix up some lime for a lime plaster, and I discovered
> that my lime is dry.  It has been sitting in a covered 5 gallon bucket for
> some months; I guess I should have checked it sooner, alas.  I have added
> more water to it but I have a couple of questions:
[snip]

Once the lime has been wet and allowed to dry it is useless for plasters 
(particularly if it has been drying for any significant amount of time).
What you have now is essentially a very expensive form of agricultural 
lime (suitable as a soil additive if your soil happens to need it).  You 
can keep lime pretty much indefinitely so long as there is a layer of 
standing water covering the top of it, but once the water drops below the 
surface of the lime (allowing contact with the air), the reaction will 
begin with that top layer and as the water level continues to drop, air 
(specifically carbon dioxide) will eventually react with the rest of it.


Shannon C. Dealy      |               DeaTech Research Inc.
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