Plastering in Brockenhurst

Lath and lime ceilings. A good share of Brockenhurst is Victorian or older, and in those houses the ceilings are laths with a haired lime backing coat squeezed through them. When the keys break the ceiling bellies down between the joists.

Where enough key is left we repair and consolidate a section from above. Where it has gone, the ceiling comes down and goes back in lime on new lath, or in plasterboard with a breathable finish, depending on how much of the original you want to keep.

Solid walls, and what belongs on them. No cavity means the wall has always got rid of water through its own face, so the backing coat has to be breathable: a haired lime backing and a lime finish, never a cement render and never dry lining stuck on dabs, which leaves a cold void behind the board for moisture to sit in. Board on dabs over an old solid wall is worth undoing before it rots the wall behind it. The Lymington River runs through it and parts of the village sit in flood zone 3, so a ground floor wall here can have been wet from below as well as from the weather, and that decides the specification more than what the room is going to look like.

The Victorian and Edwardian houses still have their cornices, ceiling roses and picture rails, and they are worth keeping. We work a repair into a broken run and leave the rest of the room alone, and where a ceiling has to be replaced we take the cornice off in sections and put it back. Overboarding is quick and it is the wrong answer in a room with a good cornice, because it buries the top of it.

The later houses and the flats get ordinary work done properly: hardwall, bonding or browning as the backing coat depending on the block, plasterboard ceilings and stud partitions, dot and dab where the wall is true enough, tape and joint or a full skim, and angle bead and stop bead at every corner and reveal.

The exposed elevations face south west and take the weather off the open forest, and it is the openings and the edges that go first, long before the middle of a wall. On modern walls we build it up properly: primer, a mesh-reinforced basecoat, then a silicone thin coat, K render or monocouche topcoat that moves instead of cracking, with a bell cast at the bottom. On old solid walls it is lime, in a scratch coat and a topcoat, finished to match the rest of the street. Sound pebbledash we leave alone. For the outside walls, see rendering in Brockenhurst.

Patching, cracks and making good after a leak, after a rewire, or where an extension meets an old wall and the junction keeps opening. We would rather patch a wall than replaster one that is still doing its job.

Nothing is priced per square metre. What is behind the surface decides the job. What is there. Plaster still firmly stuck takes a skim. Plaster that sounds hollow comes off, and that brings a backing coat and a second visit. On a lath ceiling the question is whether the plaster keys are still holding. A sagging section may be screwed back, or it may need taking down and replacing.

Lime work. On a solid wall lime goes on in coats, each allowed to firm up before the next. It is slower than gypsum and costs more in time, but it lets the wall breathe, and patching old lime with gypsum causes damp and cracking.

The room. High Victorian ceilings need a proper platform, not trestles, and a room you are living in takes longer than an empty one. The work at height rules cover any external render work.

Drying time. Lime needs longer before decorating, and the mist coat must be breathable. In a damp winter a solid wall dries slowly, so we give you a realistic date for painting, not a hopeful one.

Ask any quote whether a backing coat is included or only a skim, whether the beads are new, and what plaster is going on.

Brockenhurst is 12.7 miles from our Boscombe base, and we plaster across SO42, out through Boldre and Sway to Lymington and up through Lyndhurst and the forest villages. Should anything need consent, the National Park Authority is who decides.

The business is Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719. Its owner, Thomas Hannen, comes to tap the walls and price the job, so you deal with him from the first visit. On Checkatrade you will find a 10 out of 10 from a customer whose job they verified. Both the visit and the written, itemised quote are free. Before you book a visit in Brockenhurst, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Most repairs in Brockenhurst need no application at all. What decides whether a change to the outside of your house does is who the council is, whether a conservation area or a listing applies, and whether the place sits in a protected landscape.