Plastering in Branksome

Skimming works over sound plaster. Where the old plaster is firm, a PVA bond and a two coat skim in multi-finish gives a smooth wall ready for decorating. A room this way is usually a day, sometimes two if the ceiling is included.

It is the job most people think they need, and on a good wall it is the right one. On a wall that sounds hollow when you knock it, a skim only hides the problem for a year or so, and we will say that at the visit.

Lath and lime ceilings in the Edwardian houses. A good share of Branksome's housing went up in the years either side of 1900, and in those houses the ceilings are often still lime plaster keyed onto timber laths. When the nibs of plaster behind the laths break, the ceiling drops and cracks. A small blown area can be cut back and patched in lime. A ceiling that has sagged across the middle is usually overboarded with plasterboard screwed through to the joists, or taken down and replaced. Taking one down is dusty and the room has to be sealed, so we plan the dust sheets, the doorway and the route out before the first lath comes off.

Solid walls that need to breathe. Older nine inch brick walls were plastered in lime, and they dry out through the plaster. Patch them in gypsum or seal them behind a cement backing coat and the damp stays in the brick and shows as blown or salt stained plaster lower down. So on those walls we match what is there: a lime or breathable backing, then a finish that suits it.

Dry lining and boarding. In later houses, and in flats where the partitions were added when the house was split, the walls are often stud and plasterboard or dot and dab board on block. Damaged boards are cut out and replaced, joints taped, and the whole wall skimmed. New stud walls, boxing in pipes, and angle beads on corners and reveals come under the same heading.

Making good after other trades. Rewires, new windows, a replaced boiler or a kitchen refit all leave holes and chases. We make good in bonding and hardwall where the hole is deep, then skim so the patch disappears under the paint.

Stairwells and high ceilings. The hall and landing of a tall older Branksome house is the one room you cannot reach off a stepladder. We put up a tower or a small internal scaffold on the stairs so there is safe access to the full height, and that is priced as its own line.

Small render repairs outside. A cracked patch of sand and cement render by a back door or under a window is often done at the same visit. We cut back to sound edges, fix a stop bead or keep the bell cast over the damp course where there is one, then build it up in a scratch coat and a finish to match. Where the whole wall needs doing, in a silicone thin coat system with a mesh basecoat and topcoat, that is the rendering page rather than this one.

Artex and textured ceilings. A lot of later ceilings in Branksome carry textured coatings. Some older artex contains asbestos, so it is tested before anyone sands or scrapes it. Usually the answer is to skim over it rather than take it off.

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 is maintenance and needs no planning permission. The exception is a listed building, where even like for like work inside can need consent, and the only listed entry nearby is a railway signal box, so it will not touch most homes. The streets around Brunstead Road are a conservation area, on the council keeps the list, but that controls the outside of the houses, not the plaster inside.

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. In a converted Branksome house, a ceiling coming down may be sitting under someone else's floor, so tell the flat above and the managing agent as well as us. 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

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

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