Plastering in Boscombe

Lath and plaster ceilings. The villas and terraces built before the First World War have lime plaster on timber laths, and the ceilings are high, often with a cornice and a ceiling rose.

Lime plaster holds on by the nibs pushed through the laths, and when those snap after a leak or years of footsteps above, the ceiling sags. A sound ceiling with a crack can be screwed back to the joists and skimmed. One that moves under your hand comes down and goes back in plasterboard, taped and jointed, then skimmed. Where there is a cornice worth keeping, we work round it rather than through it.

Walls that sound hollow. On solid brick the walls were plastered in lime, and later patches in gypsum bonding or hardwall sit next to it. Tap along a wall and the hollow areas show where the backing coat has come away. We take off what is loose, and on an old solid wall that needs to stay breathable we patch in lime rather than gypsum, which traps damp and blows again. Elsewhere it is a bonding or browning backing coat, PVA or a primer where the suction is high, and a two coat skim finished off the trowel.

After a leak. In a Boscombe building full of flats, water coming through from above is a common cause of ruined plaster. Plaster that has been soaked stays damp for weeks, and skimming over it too soon brings the stain back. We let the drying run its course, cut out what has lost its key, seal the stain, and leave it ready to decorate. If the leak came from outside, the written report is often what gets the freeholder to fix the cause.

Dry lining and partitions. Many flats in Boscombe were made by dividing up big rooms, and the stud partitions and plasterboard from those conversions are a job of their own. Dot and dab on an outside wall hides damp behind it, so we check before boarding over. New stud walls, boarding and tape and joint are quick; the angle bead and stop bead on every corner and reveal are what keep the edges from breaking up.

Artex and old finishes. Textured ceilings from later decades can be skimmed once sealed or overboarded where the texture is deep. We do not sand it, because anything put up before 2000 may contain asbestos.

One person to ring from the first visit to the last. The quote is itemised, not a figure on the back of a card: protection and prep, how many coats, the area of each wall and ceiling, beads and stop ends, and disposal on separate lines, so you can compare it properly against anyone else's.

Nothing is left open or unusable overnight. The site is swept at the end of each day rather than the end of the job, and what comes out leaves with us. If something turns up once we start that nobody could have seen, you get a photograph and a price before we carry on.

Plastering inside a house or flat needs no planning permission, even in one of Boscombe's five conservation areas, where the council keeps the list. On a listed building, stripping original lime plaster or a cornice can need consent, and we check first. A ceiling between two flats is a fire separating floor, and replacing it is building control work, which we arrange.

Ring rather than use the form. A ceiling that is sagging, cracked in a line or dropping dust is the one thing here that will not wait, and nobody should be under it.

The first visit is about getting what is loose down safely and the room usable, and we quote the making good once we can see how far the failure goes. If the water came from a flat above or from the roof of a converted house, tell the managing agent as well, so the cause is fixed before we make good. Scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm. For anything urgent, ring rather than use the form, and if we cannot pick up we ring you back as soon as we can.

Call now: 07435 839745

Most homes in Boscombe are flats, and a large share of them are in the big Victorian and Edwardian houses that were divided into flats, bedsits and houses in multiple occupation during the last century. That changes one part of a plastering job completely.

In a single house, a ceiling is a ceiling. In a converted house, the ceiling of your flat is usually the floor of the one above, and it has to hold back fire and sound between two separate homes.

So when a ceiling between flats comes down, it does not go back as one sheet of plasterboard and a skim. It goes back as a proper fire rated build-up, often two layers of fire board with staggered joints, with any gaps round pipes sealed, and BCP building control sees it. The same applies to a partition between a flat and a shared stairwell. It costs more than a plain ceiling and takes an extra day, and it is not optional. If you are a landlord with an HMO licence, the council may ask to see that the work was done properly, so we put the specification in writing. Inside your own flat, walls and ceilings that are not shared are yours to sort, and nobody else needs asking.

Nearby places we also cover for plastering, with straight-line distances from Boscombe, and the other trades we offer in Boscombe itself.

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