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Resources for Clay plastering

https://www.floweringelbow.org: This blog! If you have any questions or comments please please ask below or on the relevant pages. As well as this set of pages (which you can download as a printer friendly pdf here – right click, ‘save file as’…), we made number of blog posts dealing with different clay plastering issues as we went along. The latest one deals with the fire resistance testing of the straw bale, clay plaster combo, but there are others too…

http://www.buildnaturally.com/EDucate/Articles/ClayPlaster.htm: Good low down with background of properties, application, and breakdown of each coat.  Within the same website, there is some stuff on soil testing.

http://www.buildnaturally.com/EDucate/Articles/Cob.htm#soiltesting and some detailed blog posts of each coat of plaster, including a soil testing video.

http://buildnaturally.blogspot.co.uk/ Nice details on the different coats of plaster.

http://www.greenspec.co.uk/plaster-and-render.php Green Spec pros and cons of different plastering systems

Borax concerns, someone who has looked into it fairly thoroughly. http://www.crunchybetty.com/getting-to-the-bottom-of-borax-is-it-safe-or-not

Videos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-SX3lm6gu8 – A good one to demonstrate mixing and talking through some additives.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=8RlAHPKKf5Y&feature=endscreen&noredirect=1 – Part 2, application.

Courses for clay plastering (UK)
Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT) www.cat.org.uk/shortcourses
Clay Works http://www.clay-works.com/blog/clay-plaster-training/

Books

Jones, B (2009) Building with Straw Bales: A practical guide for the UK and Ireland 2nd ed, Green Books: The first edition of this book is very handy generally if straw bale building and has a chapter on plastering and rendering which is a good foundation. The second edition is a little more detailed and more up to date.

Guelberth, CR and Chiras, D (2003) The Natural Plaster Book: Earth, Lime and Gypsum Plasters for Natural Homes, New Society Publishers. Not used this book, but comes recommended if you aren’t so keen on internet resources.