Tadelakt hammams and wet rooms in Morocco

Tadelakt is the cheapest beautiful way to build a wet room in Morocco and the easiest to do badly. It is lime plaster, compressed and burnished with a stone until it closes, then sealed with black olive-oil soap.

Typical project in Morocco: MAD 62k – 140k, supplied and installed · six to ten weeks per room after the drawing is approved, plus shipping.

Across the continent: Steam rooms & hammams in all eight countries →

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Tadelakt hammams and wet rooms in Morocco

Why it is waterproof at all

Nothing is added to make tadelakt waterproof. It works because the surface is compressed until the pores close, and because the soap reacts with the lime to form a water-repellent layer. That means the whole performance of the wall is in the hands of the person holding the stone — which is why we do not subcontract it to whoever is cheapest that month.

A wall takes several passes over several days. Rushing it produces a surface that looks right for a season and then crazes, darkens at the splash line and starts letting water into the substrate.

Colour and what it does over time

Pigment goes in with the lime, so the colour is the material rather than a coat on top of it. Ochres, rose, deep grey-green and off-white are the range that behaves; strong blues and blacks are possible but show every mark.

It will change. Tadelakt develops a patina, darkens slightly where water runs and takes on a soft irregularity that is the point of it. If you want a surface that looks identical in five years, use tile and we will tell you so.

Maintenance, honestly

Re-soaping once or twice a year keeps it sealed. It is a half-day job with soft soap and a cloth, and we show your household or your housekeeping team how to do it at handover. Skip it for three years and the surface starts absorbing — which is repairable, but no longer free.

The engineering behind the plaster

Tadelakt is the finish, not the waterproofing of the room. Behind it we tank the walls and floor, fall the floor to the drain, and fit a steam generator and controls that are built and bench-tested in our Istanbul factory, sized on the room volume and the thermal weight of the plaster.

The generator sits outside the room where it can be descaled, because Moroccan mains water is hard. Indicative band for a tadelakt hammam: 62 to 140 thousand MAD installed; send us the room dimensions for an itemised figure.

In short

Waterproof by compression and soap, not by an additive
Applied by hand over several days — the pace is the specification
Pigment in the lime, so colour is the material and not a coating
Re-soaped once or twice a year; we train your team at handover

Questions

Tadelakt hammams in Morocco

Can tadelakt be used on the floor?

On a hammam floor, yes, honed and well falled. In a heavily used shower we often prefer stone or bejmat underfoot and tadelakt on the walls — floors take abrasion that walls do not.

Is it more expensive than tile?

Per square metre it sits between good tile and zellige. What makes it worth it is that there are no grout lines to go black, and a continuous surface in a small wet room reads as far more expensive than it is.

Can you repair damaged tadelakt?

Yes, though a patch never disappears entirely — it blends over a year or two as the patina evens out. Large areas are better re-skimmed than spot-repaired.

Your project

Want it priced for your site?

Send us a photo of the spot and the rough size. Within one business day you get photos of comparable rooms we have finished and an itemised, position-by-position quote.

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