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The Natural Plaster Book: Earth, Lime, and Gypsum Plasters for Natural Homes (Natural Building Series)

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For builders of natural homes (straw bale, cob, adobe, rammed earth, and other natural materials), this unique step-by-step guide takes the confusion out of choosing, mixing, and applying natural plasters.

From principles to practicalities, and with every stage of the process illustrated, The Natural Plasters Book details the entire process of plastering with earth, lime, and gypsum for a long-lasting and durable finish. Starting with an overview and history of the natural building movement, the book handles a wide variety of topics including earthen plaster versus cement stucco, tools and techniques of the trade, plaster recipes, and pigmenting plaster or painting walls with natural paints. First-time builders will appreciate tips on common mistakes (and how to avoid them) discussed at each stage of the plastering process. Special focus is paid to the importance of planning and designing for earthen plasters-before building begins.

The only comprehensive guide available on natural plasters, this book is written for the growing number of people who have decided to build their own natural homes as well as for professionals. Heavily illustrated with practical drawings and photographs, it also includes an extensive resource guide listing books, magazines, videos, builders, and suppliers.

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National print review campaign to natural building, self-sufficiency, and environmental magazines, newsletters, websites.

Cedar Rose Guelberth has been working with natural home construction and plaster techniques for 25 years and is a nationally recognized natural building educator and consultant. Dan Chiras is the author of fifteen books including The Natural House: A Guide to Healthy, Energy-Efficient, Environmental Homes (ISBN: 1-890132578, Chelsea Green, 2000). Both authors live in Colorado.

Also Available
The Art of Natural Building: Design, Construction, Resources
TP $26.95, 0-86571-433-9 USA
Straw Bale Building: How to Plan, Design, and Build with Straw

TP $24.95, 0-86571-403-7 USA

Plaster Master -
I just finished building my strawbale home -- and am very grateful for this book. I have nothing but great things to say about it. This book picks up where others leave off. An absolute must if you plan on using natural materials on your home. One must understand that working with natural materials is hardly a science-- and a fair amount of experementing must be done to get satisfactory results. But the effort will be worth it! Get this book-- you won't be sorry. FYI-- I used an earthen plaster (clay,manure,sand) on the interior and exterior, and finished the interior with an alis and the exterior with a lime plaster and lime wash-- beautiful results!

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Good starter book, not enough detail for a really good how to guide -
In reading this book you'll find descriptions of the various types of building materials, not just straw bales, these plasters are used on (it is not really a build yourself a house book) and a pretty good overview of the types of plasters themselves.
I'm not done reading it but don't find enough information to consider it a complete how to guide, more of a starter book. You get some recipes for pigments/ plasters but not much detail about applying the stuff. I've found nothing about measuring the walls to determine just how much material you'll need and I don't think it really tells thickness, just how many coats to apply (not really detailed about that).
There's an extensive resource guide at the end of the book, you'll need it if you're actually going to build a house of some sort. If you are collecting a set of books on building and finishing a home this one is all right as a starter book. You'll learn just enough to know whether or not this is something you want to be getting yourself into.

high on hyperbole - short on details -
Not worth the money as a technical reference or how-to book. Otherwise a pleasant read with some inpired pics and a very general overview of the process. Speaks, for the most part, to strawbale contruction as if strawbales are some naturally occurring thing harvested from the wild when are in fact a product of energy intensive industrial agriculture. Fails to provide important technical details such as estimating for coverage, application on masonry, frame and other 'natural' structures, guidelines for plaster preparation. If you already have building experience and skills there are far better reference books available to actually base work upon.

Provide copies to your crew -
Is 'natural plaster home' a euphemism for 'mud hut'?

The following gives a sense of the mood conveyed by the authors:

"Mud Plasters are fun to work with!

Earthen plasters are easy to work with and fun to mix and apply. 'Once you've put your hands in that mud mix you don't feel like doing any other type of plaster'... For adults, working with earthen plaster seems like kid's play, for children it is play!"

At one point, we are advised that 'natural plasters' are low energy building material. The energy required can be measured in terms of granola bars.

I'm sorry: work is work. But, this curious enthusiasm for returning to nature is just a frill. The book has a lot of useful details on foundations, walls, and finish materials. It never gets past the introductory level, but all the key points are covered. Additionally, there is good coverage of design issues, with particular emphasis on avoiding water damage. Finishing walls is given 3 chapters: natural finishes, lime finishes, and gypsum finishes.

I was a bit disappointed in the lack of interest in power-tools, but getting one's hands muddy seems like too much fun to the authors. Additionally, more details on chemistry would have been helpful. At a certain level, I suspect this book is a good introductory lesson for volunteers assembling at a worksite with at least one master builder on hand. Working with mud may be fun, but it takes a large crew to get the whole house, barn or commune done in a single building season.

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The Bible on Natural Plasters -
This book was late in coming, but the wait was well worth it! There's nothing like this book on the market today...not even close!

I especially like how thorough this book is. I really appreciated the clear and detailed explanations of all aspects of plastering -- from the design of homes (so they will be suitable for natural plasters) to wall preparation to testing, mixing, and applying plasters.

The authors skillfully walk the reader through all of the steps required to plaster a natural home, anticipating mistakes you might make -- and telling you how to avoid them. Although the book focuses on plastering strawbale buildings, there's lots of good advice for plastering numerous other natural homes.

This book attempts to develop a deep understanding of plasters. To do so, the authors begin by describing the components of plasters -- and what each one does. Knowing that subsoils are different at each building site, the authors give general guidelines for making plasters. They tell you how to test your soils and potential plaster mixes. No, you won't find recipes for plasters...that would be fruitless due to the variability of subsoils. But you will find some examples you can start with and good, solid explanations of the steps you have to take to make plasters using the dirt you have at your site!

I was also very impressed by the extensive coverage of finish plasters and alises as well as the detailed resource guide and the excellent photos and drawings, although some were a bit small. Sometimes the text seemed a bit repetitive, but in retrospect that helped me memorize the details.