Natural wall finishes in Boise

A good share of Boise's older housing, especially in the North End, Hyde Park, and along Warm Springs and Harrison Boulevard, predates 1940, and those walls are lath and plaster with no vapor barrier behind them. They were built to let moisture pass through and dry out. Seal that kind of wall with a modern impermeable coating and you trap moisture inside the assembly, where the damage lands in the framing rather than on the surface. Boise's climate adds its own twist: high desert humidity is low most of the year, which is generally kind to old plaster, but winter freeze-thaw cycling and strong, direct summer sun on south and west walls both take a toll differently than a wetter coastal climate would. In those older houses, lime is not a style preference. It is the technically correct material.