Best stucco coat with material available in Australia

[NateQLDer]

Writing to the brains trust for ideas. I built my oven awhile ago and am building another but can’t for the life of me remember a good stucco recipe. Would prefer commercially available product that has some flexibility so I don’t get cracks in the outer shell. Will be laid over the final vermiculite layer on the dome now.

thanks in advance!

Nate

[david s]

If you have the materials at hand a 4:1:1 sand, lime, cement makes a pretty workable mix. The high lime content imparts some flexibility and self healing qualities to cracks. Unlike commercial renders this brew contains not waterproofing compound, but you can always coat over it with something else. The strength of this layer can be improved enormously with chicken wire mesh or random mixed reinforcing fibres. You should do the drying fires, usually 7 fires in 7 days, before applying the render layer.

[NateQLDer]

Hi David, I was hoping you would reply. Thanks for the advice, I will make the mix as you say and add a bit of bondall for waterproofing. I think I might lay a bit of chicken wire around the gallery area too. Thanks again for the advice