The application of the tadelakt to the walls of the L’Amandier villas is secretly what I have been looking forward to most. To me, this signifies the transformation of the grey plastered shell into beautifully polished natural finished rooms. Not quite finished, but certainly almost there.

You may be wondering what on earth tadelakt is – exactly as I did before coming to Morocco. So l’ll go back a step.  It is a method of finishing to the walls, as an alternative to plaster and paint. Due to its waterproof properties, it is traditionally used in Morocco in the bathrooms and hammams of the Riads, but also in other areas of the house. All the walls of the L’Amandier Villas will be finished with natural tadelakt.

It is essentially a waterproof lime plaster which contains no artificial ingredients. In dry form it has a chalky consistency and is generally made up of natural lime, marble powder, quartz sands, clay, ashes, cellulose and possibly other elements which I wasn’t able to figure out in translation!

Tadelakt in raw form…

I consulted Shérif (our mustachioed builder) about the process as, whilst standing in one of the bedrooms of villa 5, I was surrounded by guys trowelling, scraping, water flicking, mixing, and polishing. I needed to understand the order…

The tadelakt powder is mixed with water and left to ‘ferment’ . This used to be necessary for 2 or 3 days, but the mixture now requires less time. It is mixed well and when ‘fermented’ it is at this stage that natural pigmentation is added if the finished tadelakt is to be coloured.  We are using natural throughout, however.

Fermenting…

The walls are smoothed and prepared and then doused in water before 2 layers of tadelakt are then applied using small trowels.  The walls are then scraped firmly to flatten and smooth the surfaces and eliminate any rough grains.

The first layer goes on…

The scraping …

A polished river stone with a flat side (usually basalt or similar) is then used to painstakingly polish every inch of the walls to further compress the plaster and extract the moisture.

Tools of the tadelakt trade…

It is then left to dry for a couple of days and you’re left with a gorgeous, slightly mottled and undulating, polished walls that are dirt and water resistant and look fabulous. It is labour intensive, but definitely worth it.

Related posts:

1. Starting the villa finishings
2. Site visit (May 09)
3. Experience the riches of the Ouirgane Valley