Venetian plaster · Tadelakt
Tadelakt
One continuous surface, made for water
Tadelakt is finished differently from any other plaster. After the final coats are trowelled on, the surface is compressed with a smooth stone and treated with a natural olive-oil soap; the soap and the lime react to close the surface, leaving it dense, tactile and water-resistant. The result is a bathroom wall with no tile, no grout and no joint — a single warm, hand-burnished skin that curves around niches and shelves.
Applications
Walk-in showers
Seamless shower walls with no grout to scrub, finished as one continuous surface.
Bathrooms & wet rooms
Whole bathrooms wrapped in a single warm plaster, from wall to niche.
Basins & vanities
Sculpted, integrated basins and vanity surrounds formed in the same finish.
Feature walls
A burnished tadelakt wall used dry, for its depth and hand-made character.
Venetian plaster · Tadelakt
Lime and black-soap, burnished with a stone until the wall turns water at the surface.
The Benefits
- A seamless surface with no grout lines to clean or re-seal
- Water-resistant when applied and maintained as intended
- Hand-burnished for a soft, tactile, stone-like sheen
- A mineral, lime-based finish — breathable and tinted through the body
- Shaped around niches, shelves and curves in one continuous skin
- Repairable and re-waxable in place rather than ripped out
Where It Works
- Walk-in shower walls and enclosures
- Full bathrooms and wet rooms
- Sculpted basins, tub surrounds and vanities
- Steam rooms and hammams
- Feature walls where a hand-burnished surface is wanted
Where It Doesn't
- Shower and wet-room floors, where slip and drainage call for a different surface
- Submerged surfaces such as pool and spa interiors
- Full exteriors exposed to driving rain and sun
- High-traffic floors and worktops that take daily abrasion
Our Process
Waterproof the substrate
In wet areas we build a waterproofed, tanked substrate first — tadelakt is the finish on top of a sound waterproofing system, not a substitute for it.
Trowel the coats
Lime plaster is applied in successive coats and worked into every niche and curve as one surface.
Burnish with stone
The surface is compressed and polished by hand with a smooth stone until it tightens and sheens.
Cure with soap
A natural black-soap treatment reacts with the lime to close the surface and make it water-resistant.
Installing in South Florida
Tadelakt was born in the steam and heat of the Moroccan hammam, so a humid Miami bathroom suits it well. As a breathable lime finish it handles moisture and steam without trapping it behind a film. In every wet installation the water-resistance comes from the whole build — a waterproofed substrate under a correctly burnished, soap-cured surface — working together, not from the plaster alone.
Cost
$28–$45
per sq ft