Lime has been used as a plaster material for thousands of years. It is a durable, permeable cladding with some unique properties. Depending on the quarry where the lime originated, it can have different properties such as strength and set time. As of May 2005, Odisea has completed one lime plaster project and is currently applying lime plaster on another project. Both projects have used St. Astier lime, or a form of Natural Hydraulic Lime (NHL) from France. Hydraulic lime is the type of lime that is used in portland cement, or hydraulic cement. The cement production industry owns all of the hydraulic lime quarries in the U.S. and does not distribute this material outside of it's inclusion in cement products. Therefore we are forced to import this precious material.

Hydraulic lime, by definition, is a lime that sets within one day and also in wet conditions. It has a workability very similar to cement-based plaster, and a finish durability also on par with cement. It also has all of the other great characteristics of lime such as it's ability to swell upon wetting, whereby restricting further moisture transport through the plaster. It is re-workable, but to a lesser degree than hydrated lime. Hydrated lime, in contrast, may take days to achieve its initial set, and is more re-workable. Both types of lime hold color very well and to a richer extent than cement-based plaster. They are also capable of being finished in a wide variety of ways from a glassy marmalino (venetian type plaster finish using marble dust) to rough sponge finishes typical of modern day plaster applications.

The pictures below are the extent of our experience with this wonderful material to date. The first pictures are of the Drinker-Durrance Residence near Carbondale, Colorado. Odisea applied all three coats on both the interior and exterior. The exterior was one color while the interior incorporates seven different colors to match the paint on the adjacent drywall in each room. The second project is also near Carbondale and is currently underway. The pictures below are a couple shots of the interior and exterior. This project is roughly three and a half time the size of the Drinker-Durrance Residence. It will incorporate three exterior colors and 32 interior colors with varying textures.

Drinker-Durrance Residence
Kitchen view: notice the color change at the right from yellow to green at the corner.

 

Drinker-Durrance Residence
Bathroom view: we cut niches out of the bale wall to accommodate the placement of oval mirrors.

 

Drinker-Durrance Residence
South wall view: this is a slightly rounded bale wall.

 

Drinker-Durrance Residence
Living room window sill: we take great care to achieve uniform radii at all the openings on a project.

 

Mountain Residence
Living room/hallway view: this is a view of the 3-story earth-plastered interior wall through a lime-plastered arch.

 

Mountain Residence
South elevation view: The house is composed of two main areas connected by a one-story breezeway. The garage, which is framed construction with lime plaster, is to the far right at the bottom of the slope.

 

Mountain Residence
It is mid-June and the color coat on the exterior is completed. The color was applied in a three-step process by first applying a base finish coat with a small amount of pigment added. We then sponged pigment on the wall fresco-style and finally painted the wall with pigment the following day. The final step was applying a clear siloxane sealer to preserve the color and keep it from washing off the walls during recent rains. There are three different colors - two on the house and one on the garage.

 

Mountain Residence
This color is difficult to get a good picture of. All of the colors have darkened and become richer over the past week or so. This color is an avacado green. It is on the main body of the house. It is not sealed with siloxane in this picture.

 

Mountain Residence
This is the garage/yoga studio with the siloxane sealer applied. It has darkened a small amount since this picture was taken.