TERRAZZO GraniTech Gaia

A brush- or trowel-applied wall finish with the look of limewash, made for water and for wear — soft mineral movement for interior and wet-area walls, showers included, and rated to carry outside.

Gaia is a brush- or trowel-applied wall finish, lime-free, crafted from natural granite and acrylic resin. The sun-washed movement of limewash, its matte mineral surface — in a body built for rooms that are lived in rather than looked at. Soft tonal variation. The brush left visible. Velvety under the hand.

Gaia reaches the rooms lime never could. Shower walls, and air thick with steam. A hotel corridor that takes shoulders, luggage and cleaning cloths. A painted wall that asks for two coats and a sealer, not a plasterer. The wall stops changing the day the applicator leaves.

The look of limewash. Made for water.

From soft and uniform with delicate clouding to bold and artistically expressive — the style is set by your brush technique, coat build and application pattern.

Bathroom-ready Walls and ceilings, shower walls and high-steam spaces included — installed as a complete system.

Brush-applied limewash movement Soft clouding and visible brush character, in a velvety matte mineral surface.

Chalk-free None of the whitening and chalking that troubles traditional limewash. Nothing transfers to a hand.

TERRAZZO GraniTech Gaia Features

Bathroom-ready

Including high-steam
spaces

Chalk-Free Finish

Designed to reduce whitening/chalking
issues common to traditional limewash

Velvety matte
mineral feel

Brush-applied limewash
movement

Finish & character

Soft clouding that shifts across a wall as the light moves through the room
The brush left legible in the surface — you can read the hand that applied it
Velvety matte by default — satin or semi-gloss where a room wants the light back
Quiet and near-uniform, or openly gestural — the technique decides, not the product

Application

Brush or trowel — the technique writes the movement
A long working time, so a wall finishes in one pass without racing the drying edge
Single-component — nothing to mix, no ratio to get wrong, no bags on site
Over a pre-painted wall in a similar color — two coats and a sealer, nothing stripped

On site

Doesn’t go off in the pail — reseal it and come back weeks later
Repairs in place, and the movement gives the repair somewhere to hide
Repeats wall to wall on a properly prepared substrate — the room matches itself

Performance

Chalk-free — nothing comes off on a hand, a shoulder or a dark jacket brushing past
Shower walls, bathroom walls and ceilings, high-steam rooms — and exterior walls, as a complete system
No carbonization — the wall stops changing when the applicator leaves, not months later
Does not darken where water sits on it
Cleans with conventional cleaners — the wall is wiped down, not dusted

Coverage

Category	Item	Value
Pail size	Pail	~33 lb (15 kg)
Coverage rate	2 coats (total)	~1.2 oz/sq ft (~375 g/m²)
Coverage per pail (~33 lb) sq ft of wall area	2 coats	≈ 431 sq ft
Coats	Complete system	2 coats, plus sealer

Measured in our workshop at ~1 mm applied thickness per coat. Actual coverage varies with substrate, brush technique and coat build — a heavier, more expressive application will not reach these figures, by design. The materials calculator applies these rates with a 10% waste allowance, or shop pails directly.

Application

Two coats by brush or trowel, finished with the sealer. Over a pre-painted wall in a similar color that is the whole build-up — and on interior drywall finished to Level 4 or higher, no primer is required. In wet areas the system runs over quartz primer and fiberglass mesh, finished with the wet-area sealer; elsewhere it will take a scratch and brown coat, drywall, plaster, cement board or masonry, correctly primed for what is underneath.

The style is set on site. Brush technique, coat build and application pattern decide whether the wall reads as soft, near-uniform clouding or as open, gestural movement. Sheen — matte, satin or semi-gloss — is set by the sealer. Full method statement in the installation instructions.

Specifications

Applied by	Brush or trowel — a wall finish
Character	Brush-applied limewash look — soft clouding, visible brush movement
Body	Natural granite and acrylic resin — cement-free
Use	Walls and ceilings — principally interior and wet-area walls; rated for interior and exterior. Not a floor finish
Substrates	Pre-painted walls in a similar color; scratch and brown coat; drywall, plaster, cement board and masonry — properly prepared
Primer	Not required over pre-painted interior drywall finished to Level 4 or higher; elsewhere matched to the substrate
System — wet areas	Over quartz primer and fiberglass mesh, finished with the wet-area sealer
Coats	2 coats, plus sealer
Applied thickness	~1 mm per coat — ~2 mm (~0.08″) for the finished two-coat system
Sheen	Matte, satin or semi-gloss — by sealer
Water	Rated for shower walls, bathroom walls and ceilings and high-steam spaces, installed as a complete system
Cleaning	Routine cleaning with pH-neutral cleaners; stronger cleaners where required, rinsed immediately
VOC	<50 g/L — EU Deco-Paint Directive 2004/42/EC, ready to use
Classification	Not classified as hazardous under CLP (EC 1272/2008) — no hazard pictogram, no signal word. Low odor
Lime	Lime-free — no carbonization, no lime cure
Breathability	Closed surface — not vapor-permeable, which is what makes it washable and shower-rated
Colors	22 Gaia pigments — a designer-curated palette. Custom tinted by us, or tinted on site with universal pigment

Specification guide sheet & TDS in Downloads →

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Gaia real limewash?

No. Gaia is lime-free. Traditional limewash is slaked lime and reaches its look through carbonization — a cure that keeps working for weeks after the applicator has gone. Gaia arrives at the same brush-washed surface from granite and acrylic resin, and arrives there the day it is applied.

Is Gaia breathable?

No, and in the rooms Gaia is made for that is the advantage. Breathability is lime’s virtue in an old solid wall that has to dry outward. It is also what makes limewash porous — the same openness that passes vapor lets in coffee, grease and fingerprints, and is the reason the wall cannot be washed. Gaia is a closed surface, which is precisely what makes it washable, stain-resistant and rated for a shower. Restoring a historic solid wall that genuinely needs to breathe? Lime is the right material and Gaia is not. We would rather say so.

Is Gaia safe to apply in an occupied space?

Gaia carries under 50 g/L of VOC ready to use, and is not classified as hazardous under CLP — no hazard pictogram, no signal word. It is low odor. That matters more on a commercial job than it first sounds: a finish that closes a dining room or a floor of guest rooms for the duration costs more than the material ever will. Gaia goes on quietly, in rooms people are still using. Applicators should still work in a well-ventilated space and follow the safety data sheet, as with any professional material.

Can Gaia go over painted walls?

Over a pre-painted wall in a similar color, two coats and the sealer. On interior drywall finished to Level 4 or higher, no primer is required at all. Nothing stripped, no skim coat, no plasterer. On an occupied building that is most of what makes Gaia practical — the existing wall is the substrate, not the obstacle in front of it.

Can Gaia be specified in high-traffic areas such as restaurants, hospitality, hotels and retail stores?

These are the rooms it was built for. A hospitality wall takes shoulders, chair backs, luggage and cleaning cloths, and lime surrenders to all four — it dusts onto clothing, it cannot be scrubbed, and a touch-up reads from across the room. Gaia carries the same hand-washed movement, cleans with conventional cleaners, and repairs in place. Lobbies, corridors, dining rooms, bars, spas, guest bathrooms.

How is Gaia installed?

Two coats by brush or trowel, finished with the sealer. What sits beneath them depends on the wall.

Pre-painted walls — two coats and the sealer over a pre-painted wall in a similar color. Nothing stripped, no skim coat, and no primer required on interior drywall finished to Level 4 or higher.
Wet-area walls — over quartz primer and fiberglass mesh, finished with the wet-area sealer.
Other substrates — any properly prepared wall: over a scratch and brown coat, or otherwise made smooth and sound.

Does Gaia chalk or rub off the way limewash does?

No. Powdering is limewash’s most familiar complaint — a hand leaves the wall pale, a dark sleeve carries it down the corridor. That is lime that never fully bound at the surface. Gaia holds its pigment in a resin-mineral backbone. Nothing transfers.

Can Gaia walls be washed and wiped down?

They can, and it is the largest practical difference between Gaia and lime. Limewash asks to be dusted and nothing firmer, which rules it out of any room that gets wiped. Gaia cleans like a hard surface — pH-neutral cleaners routinely, stronger ones where a room demands them, rinsed immediately. A finish that lives in the room rather than being protected from it.

Will the color shift over time?

Limewash keeps moving after installation — lightening, whitening, hazing where it carbonizes unevenly. A wall signed off in the afternoon can read differently a month later. Gaia does not carbonize. What you approve is what stays.

Can Gaia be used in a shower?

On shower walls, yes — the line lime cannot cross. Lime belongs away from splash zones and out of the enclosure entirely. Gaia is rated for shower walls, bathroom walls and high-steam rooms, installed over quartz primer and fiberglass mesh and finished with the wet-area sealer. A hand-washed wall, in the room where every surface is usually tile.

What surfaces can Gaia go over?

Any wall that is properly prepared. A pre-painted wall in a similar color takes two coats and the sealer — and on interior drywall at Level 4 or higher, no primer. Wet areas run over quartz primer and fiberglass mesh. Elsewhere: a scratch and brown coat, or drywall, plaster, cement board or masonry, primed for what is underneath. Preparation is the whole condition — ghosting and patchiness in a hand-applied wall are almost always a primer that did not suit the surface below.

Do touch-ups and repairs show?

On limewash, almost always — which is why a limewash repair so often becomes a repainted wall. Gaia repairs in place, and the movement gives the repair somewhere to hide. The more gestural the wall, the less a touch-up reads.

How much of the look is down to the applicator?

Most of it, by design. Brush technique, coat build and pattern decide whether a wall reads as quiet clouding or open gesture. Two walls in the same pigment, finished by two hands, will not match — which is what is being bought when someone asks for a hand-applied finish.

Can Gaia be installed on floors?

No — Gaia is a wall finish, and only a wall finish. For floors the answer sits elsewhere in the range, and every one of these is built for what a floor is asked to take.

TERRAZZO GraniTech Medium — a coarse grain with visible mineral texture, on walls and floors alike.
TERRAZZO GraniTech Fine — a velvety fine grain, at home on floors, countertops and vanities.
TERRAZZO GraniTech Microterrazzo — embedded stone, a terrazzo speckle through one seamless plane.
Micromosaic — a resurfacing terrazzo build, hand-sanded back until the stone breaks through.
Monolith — a 100% water permeable resin-bound surfacing system, outside on terraces and pool decks.

Can Gaia be used outside?

Yes — over a scratch and brown coat, or any otherwise properly prepared smooth wall, as the final decorative finish. Courtyards, loggias, garden walls, façades. Interior and wet-area walls are where Gaia is most often specified, but the exterior rating lets one finish carry through a doorway without a change of material at the threshold.