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Where Artistry Begins
Tadelakt is Moroccan lime plaster, burnished with a stone and then soaped, which makes it water resistant without any film or sealer on top. It is the traditional surface of the hammam, and it is why a tadelakt bathroom has no tile joints, no silicone lines and a soft, slightly undulating shine. We supply it in 16kg tubs, tinted to your colour, with the dark or light soap that finishes it, and we install it across the UK.
Tadelakt is a lime plaster with a high proportion of fine limestone in it, applied in two thin coats and then compressed. The compression is the material. You go over the surface repeatedly with a smooth stone while it is still setting, closing the pores and drawing a polish out of the lime itself rather than adding a shine on top. Then olive oil soap is worked in, and the soap reacts with the lime to leave a water repellent skin. Nothing is sealed, nothing is filmed, and the wall stays breathable. It is one of the oldest waterproofing methods still in use, and it is entirely done by hand.
Two things separate tadelakt from every other lime finish. The first is burnishing: a smooth river stone worked over the surface, again and again, at the moment the plaster is firm but not hard. Too early and you drag it, too late and nothing closes. That window is the skill, and it is why tadelakt is priced as labour rather than material. The second is the soap. Marseille or a dedicated tadelakt soap is rubbed in and polished off, and the reaction between the soap and the free lime forms the water repellent surface. Miss either step and you have an ordinary lime wall that will wet through.
This is what most people come for, and it is the right use. A tadelakt shower has no grout to go black, no silicone to peel and no tile edge to trim around a curve. It runs into a niche, over a bench and around a reveal as one surface, and curves are easier for it than flat runs. The wall behind still has to be tanked and the substrate still has to be right, because tadelakt is a finish and not a waterproofing system on its own. Done properly it lives with daily water for many years. The surface is wiped dry rather than scrubbed, and re soaped occasionally.
Tadelakt is not flat and not glassy. The stone leaves a soft, low sheen with faint mottling and slight undulation, so the wall catches light in a way tile never does, and it changes through the day. Colour comes from lime fast pigments, which means deep clay reds, ochres, olive greens, plaster pinks, off whites and charcoals rather than anything vivid. Expect variation. Two panels burnished on different days will not match exactly, and the joins in a wall are part of the character rather than a defect. If that idea worries you, tadelakt is probably the wrong finish, and we would rather say so now.
Tadelakt wants a mineral, absorbent, stable base. A sand and cement render or a lime render is ideal. Plasterboard on its own is not: in a wet area it needs tanking and a suitable rendered base built up over it before any lime goes on. Gypsum skim is a poor bed for it and we would not work over one in a shower. Corners are formed radiused rather than sharp, because a stone cannot burnish into a right angle, and that rounded detail is part of why the finish looks the way it does. Get the render flat and true first — tadelakt follows whatever is under it.
Tadelakt is maintained with soap, not with chemicals. A mild soap wash keeps feeding the surface and the shine improves with use. What kills it is anything acidic or abrasive: limescale removers, bleach, bathroom sprays and scouring pads all attack lime. Wipe the shower down after use, squeegee the worst of the water off, and it will stay well. If a patch dulls or gets marked, it is re soaped and re polished in place rather than cut out, which is the advantage over a sealed surface. Every few years a wall benefits from a fresh soaping, and that is a job you can do yourself.
Tadelakt is the wrong choice on a floor that takes heavy traffic, on plasterboard left untanked, and anywhere sharp arrises and machine straight lines are the point. It does not like acids, so a bathroom cleaned with limescale spray will suffer. And it is not a cheap finish: the material is only part of it and the burnishing takes the time it takes. If budget is the driver, look at intonachino or a lime paint.
Tadelakt 16kg
The plaster itself, tinted to your colour, for walls, showers, niches and basins.£134.00
Soap for Tadelakt Light
Finishing soap for pale colours, worked in and polished off to close the surface.£10.00
Soap for Tadelakt Dark
The same soap for deep colours, so the finish does not lighten as it cures.£10.00
Marseille Soap 2kg
Traditional olive oil soap for ongoing maintenance and for re soaping a dulled wall.£22.00
Sample Board
A burnished board in your colour, the only honest way to judge the sheen.£8.00Every tub is machine-tinted to your colour before it ships. Not sure of the colour? The colour library holds forty-eight house tints and we match any NCS or RAL reference.
We will sell you tadelakt, but we will also tell you it is the hardest finish we stock. The burnishing window is short, the stone work is physical, and a shower that has not been closed properly will wet through and you will only find out later. If you are a plasterer wanting to add it, come and learn it hands on at the Academy in Birmingham rather than from a video. For a bathroom you use daily, call 07592 929191.
Learn it, or have it done
Our Academy in Birmingham teaches these finishes at the bench, beginner through advanced. Or our own applicators install across the UK from the same materials.
See the workYes, when it is burnished and soaped properly. The polishing closes the surface and the soap reacts with the lime to repel water, which is how hammams have worked for centuries. It still sits on a tanked, correctly rendered wall, exactly as tile would. The waterproofing is a system, and tadelakt is the visible part of it.
With a mild soap and water, and nothing else. Avoid bleach, limescale removers, bathroom sprays and anything abrasive, because they are acidic or harsh and lime tolerates neither. Wipe or squeegee the shower down after use. Every so often give the wall a fresh soaping, which restores the sheen and feeds the surface again.
Not directly, and not in a wet area without more work. Tadelakt needs an absorbent mineral base, so a shower wall is tanked and then rendered before the lime goes near it. In a dry room a suitable rendered or lime base over board can work. A bare gypsum skim is not a bed we would use.
The material is straightforward — a 16kg tub is £134, plus the soap at £10 — but tadelakt is mostly labour. Burnishing cannot be rushed, and the preparation behind it is a rendering job before it is a decorating one. We price the base build up and the finish separately so you can see where the money goes.
Tadelakt has to be seen in the light it will live in. Order a burnished sample board in your colour, hold it in the bathroom, and then call 07592 929191 and tell us what the walls are.
Authentic Venetian plaster, machine-tinted to your colour and made for each order. Materials, installation and master-led training, since 2021.
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