Tadelakt: lime plaster polished with a stone

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.

Indicative band: 62 – 140 thousand MAD, supplied and installed in Morocco.

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Tadelakt: lime plaster polished with a stone

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.

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.

Also in Morocco

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