Home-Made Hydraulic Lime

We like to share this is the type of information because the context of lime plaster is so broad and interesting.  It is important to keep in mind your goals when choosing materials.  The information below creates a connection between two areas of lime plaster that are very important to understand before choosing a material for your project.

Lime Plaster (Courtesy of Endeavour Centre)

The Endeavour Centre has shared their process for making artificial hydraulic lime using locally available materials.   The fact that they are able to source the materials close to home and create a consistent material using a simple process is what makes this tid-bit stand out.

In Issue #62 Michel Couvreux from Transmineral explained the various types of hydraulic lime and how to choose one that is appropriate for your project based on specifications.  Natural hydraulic lime (NHL) is a naturally occurring material of high consistency that is very durable and easy to work with. In contrast, an artificial hydraulic lime (AHL) is created by blending materials to create similar set times and durability performance as a NHL.  As Michel points out in his article, the consistency of AHL’s cannot be guaranteed and therefore quality control may suffer.  However, if experimentation is possible and a level of risk can be tolerated, following a similar to process to what the Endeavour Centre has done can be useful and beneficial.

The point here is that you must educate yourself and experiment before committing to a new mixture of materials.  Most importantly, you want your building to perform as expected.

Let us know how your experiments go by sending us an article so we can share it with everyone.

Good luck!