[Cob] more on lime wash

[Tys Sniffen]

Monica asked why one would do lime wash on earthen plaster instead of only
lime plaster:

 

Our situation actually has some good answers to this.  We did both - lime
plaster in kitchen and bathroom, earthen plaster with lime wash (whitewash)
in living rooms and bedroom.  

 

Some reasons did that include:

-          Lime plaster is more expensive, as one needs to buy the lime,
slack it, etc, where lime wash uses much much less lime.

-          Lime plaster is harder to work with - more caustic to your skin,
a bit trickier in terms of setting time

-          Lime plaster (I know now) actually doesn't really dry up bright
white (which is what we wanted) check out the photo of the dried lime
plaster on our blog here:
http://journeyinthewoods.blogspot.com/2011/04/lime-plaster-weve-gotten-going
-on.html  

 

You can see the white we ended up with in the bathroom here:
http://journeyinthewoods.blogspot.com/2011/10/curtain-and-fire-melissa-has-s
ewn.html

 

Some other photos of the testing we did are:
http://journeyinthewoods.blogspot.com/2010/09/more-plaster-tests-heres-insid
e-of-main.html

 

 

 

Also, some have given me the simple, good, answer of simply doing another
limewash coat on our walls rather than trying to paint them.  That's a good
solution.except for the fact that it's the whole dang house, and I live here
now!  I was hoping to be able to find a solution that would allow me to do
some simple cleaning rather than repainting the interior of my whole house..


 

I have yet to try the simple dish soap solution. I think part of my problem
might be I need really clean, really soft clothes to work with. 

 

Tys