Cob: RE: Lime wash

[Carl Bauer]

Thanks Mike. I appreciate that certain things are not ideal but I am 
looking for alternatives to commercial paint for a normal cement plastered 
wall. I live in Botswana and lime putty is not available as far as I know. 
If using lime powder, should I mix it to a paste some time before painting 
or use it immediately? But as you say perhaps I am barking up the wrong 
tree anyway using lime wash on a cement plaster. Maybe a pigmented cement 
wash would be more appropriate. However to get a light colour now I would 
have to use white cement.

Of course ideally I would have done the whole thing in clay and then 
plastered it in the beautifully coloured clays of traditional houses but 
regulations do not permit. If you thought it was difficult to get approval 
for cob construction in the developed world then you should see the system 
in urban areas here. Traditional construction is seen as totally backward 
and impossible to get approval for in towns. So I am trying to use 
materials which are the least strain on the environment within the confines 
of rigidly applied regulations.

Carl Bauer
e-mail carl.bauer at info.bw
web site www.bauerconsultbotswana.com