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Where Artistry Begins
The roman clay look, made in fine Italian lime that breathes. Laid by our own applicators in Glasgow bedrooms, alcoves and period rooms, or supplied for your own decorator.
If you have searched for clay plaster in Glasgow, you almost certainly want a soft, matt, faintly mottled wall with colour drifting gently across it, the look sold in America as roman clay. Zavoré installs that look and supplies the materials for it. We are based in Birmingham and our own applicators travel to Glasgow to lay it. One honest point first. We do not sell clay. We use fine Italian lime plasters that give the same look and suit British walls better. A sample board in the colour you keep coming back to is the place to start.
Glasgow is a long way from Birmingham, so a clay look job here is planned in blocks of days.
Roman clay is a shelf name more than a material. It covers everything from genuine clay plasters to thickened paint in a tub. Real clay stays water soluble, and unstabilised clay softens under a wet cloth, which is a poor bargain in a wet west coast city. Lime hardens as it carbonates, takes a wipe and can be patched.
What we supply are intonachino and stucco suede. Intonachino is a fine lime with a light grain, laid in two thin coats and left matt, and it is the closest to most roman clay photographs. Stucco suede is smoother and softer, with a longer, quieter mottle, like brushed fabric. Both are mineral, tinted through, and breathable, which matters on the solid sandstone walls of a tenement that need to let moisture move.
One condition applies. Do not lay a lime plaster over a damp wall until the damp itself is dealt with, because the wall will tell on you within a year. Glasgow's wet climate makes that a fair thing to check at the survey.
Our clay plaster finishes earn their place where a quiet wall is the point.
The colour sits inside the plaster, so a wall gives you two or three shades of the same colour depending on where you stand and where the lamp is. A flat emulsion matched to the same reference always looks dead beside it. Earth colours, bone, clay pink, olive and warm stone do the most. Colours are those listed on each product, so you choose from what is real.
The finish is not for a shower, a bath splashback or the wall directly behind a hob, where grease finds the texture and stays in it. A hallway with a dog and a pushchair can take it, but we would seal the lower part and tell you beforehand that the sheen will be slightly different there.
We survey first. We look at what the walls are made of, flatness, cracks, damp, movement, how the room is used, and access and protection. In a tenement that includes the common stair. A wall that needs skimming, stripping or a damp fix is flagged before any price is given.
The plaster goes over a primed wall in two thin coats with a stainless trowel, the second worked while it is still open so each pass softens into the last. The skill is mostly in leaving it alone, because fussing burnishes patches and leaves shiny islands in a matt wall. Corners and the line at the ceiling need a steady hand, which matters in rooms with cornice. Colour is agreed on a sample and tinted before it leaves Birmingham. Cold, damp rooms slow drying, so keep gentle heating on. Our clay plaster installation page has the details.
Of all our finishes this is the kindest to learn. There is no burnishing to get wrong, and the material is patient, so a bad patch can be worked back over. What catches people out is scale and edges, keeping the mottle consistent across a big wall and cutting a clean line at the ceiling. Our shop sells intonachino, stucco suede, lime paint and primer with tracked delivery to Glasgow, and decorators can ask about a trade account. If your reference is really a chalky, colour washed wall with brush movement, lime paint is the right answer and far less work. Send us the picture and we will tell you which of the three it is.
Neighbouring finishes include limewash in Glasgow for brushed chalky walls, marmorino in Glasgow for grain and a satin sheen, and polished plaster in Glasgow for a burnished shine. Bathrooms call for tadelakt in Glasgow or microcement in Glasgow. Cool grey walls are covered under concrete effect plaster in Glasgow, and metallic ones under liquid metal in Glasgow. Everything is gathered under decorative specialists in Glasgow, and the Venetian range is covered in Venetian plastering in Glasgow.
Roughly, but neither term is precise. Roman clay is an American product name covering everything from real clay to thickened paint. What both usually mean to the eye is a soft matt mineral wall, and in Italy that is made with lime, which is what we supply.
No. We supply Italian lime plasters, intonachino and stucco suede, because they give the same look and live better in a British house. Unstabilised clay softens with water, which rules it out of hallways, kitchens and anywhere near a bathroom.
Not until the damp is dealt with. A lime wall finish shows damp within a year if the cause is still there. Once the wall is sound and dry, a breathable lime plaster is a good partner for solid sandstone.
On general bathroom walls a sealed lime finish copes with steam and the odd splash. In the shower itself, or behind a basin tap, we use tadelakt instead, which is made to live under water.
Tell us about your room on 07592 929191 (Monday to Saturday, 9am to 6pm) or email sales@zavore.co.uk with photos, rough measurements and the postcode. Order a sample board, live with it on the wall for a week, then decide on the room.
Order a sample board tinted to your colour, or send photos and rough measurements of the walls in Glasgow and we will come back to you with the right finish and a clear quote.
For a quote, email photos and measurements of your walls to sales@zavore.co.uk or call 07592 929191, Monday to Saturday, 9am to 6pm.
See every area we cover.
We also supply the trade by post, wherever you are. The shop ships tracked across the UK, and the Academy teaches the finishes in Birmingham.
Providing luxury finishes for the most prestigious addresses in the world
Venetian plaster, limewash, microcement, tadelakt, metallics, sculptural plaster and gold leaf, supplied and installed by our own team, with Venetian plaster taught at our Birmingham studio.
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