Plastering in Corfe Castle

Stone walls take lime plaster. The older walls in Corfe Castle are limestone rubble, thick, uneven and built without a cavity. You cannot rule a wall like that straight in one pass, so the work starts by dubbing out the hollows in successive coats of haired lime mortar, each one allowed to firm up before the next, and only then a floated backing coat and a fine finish.

It is slower than gypsum and it is the reason a room here takes longer than the same room in a newer house, and it wants leaving to dry before a mist coat and any decorating.

Ceilings, laths and the beams. Between the beams you will usually find riven lath with haired lime pushed through it. Those nibs of plaster over the back of the lath are all that holds the ceiling up, and once enough of them have snapped the whole panel sags and comes down in one go rather than gradually. Where most of the keys are gone the ceiling comes down and is re-lathed. Where it is sound and only tired it can be washed off and finished again. We will tell you which, and we will talk you out of boarding over a ceiling that is still moving.

Blown plaster at skirting level is the commonest symptom in an old cottage here and it is rarely solved by plaster alone. A solid wall with no damp proof course carries moisture up and lets it evaporate off the face, and the moment somebody covers that face with cement render, gypsum or a plastic paint the water has nowhere to go and takes the finish off with it. The fix is to strip the offending material, let the wall dry, and put back something breathable.

The newer houses on the edge get ordinary work: a skim over a sound wall, a bonding, browning or hardwall backing coat where a patch has blown, board on dot and dab where there is blockwork to fix to and on stud where there is not, finished in tape and joint or a full skim, artex taken back or overboarded, and bead on every corner and reveal. A hollow sounding wall in one of those is dry lining doing its job, not a fault.

The exposed elevations face the weather coming up the gap. On stone the render should be lime, softer than what it covers, in a scratch coat, a render coat and a float, left able to breathe; sand and cement or pebbledash on the same wall traps water, freezes and pushes the face off the stone. On modern blockwork a thin coat silicone system is the right answer instead, or a monocouche where the colour is wanted through the material, with a bell cast bead at the base. For the outside walls, see rendering in Corfe Castle.

A plastering price here is not set per square metre. What sits behind the finish decides the price. Sound or hollow. Sound plaster takes a skim. A hollow wall comes off back to the stone and needs a backing coat before the finish coat, and on a solid stone wall that should be lime, because gypsum traps damp against stone and lets go.

Lath ceilings. A lath and plaster ceiling that has lost its keys can sometimes be screwed back and patched, and sometimes has to come down and be replaced in plasterboard or re-lathed. Which one depends on the building and whether it is listed.

Getting in and out. On a cottage whose door opens onto the pavement, every sheet of plasterboard and every bag of old plaster goes through the front room, and the van may have to park further off. A house on the lanes behind with a yard, or a newer place on the edge with a drive, is quicker to supply. Outside work on render needs a tower or a scaffold, which is priced separately because of the work at height rules.

The regulations. Re-rendering a whole external wall is treated as renovating a thermal element, which brings in Approved Document L and a building control notice with Dorset Council.

Ask each firm whether they are skimming or taking back to the stone, which plaster goes on the solid walls, and whether the making good and waste are included.

We travel roughly eleven and a half miles from Boscombe to plaster in Corfe Castle, Church Knowle, Kingston, Ridge and the other BH20 addresses across Purbeck. Planning, listed building consent and building control all sit with Dorset Council. Send your postcode if you are not sure we reach it.

Thomas Hannen owns Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719, and he is the one who comes out and prices the plastering. There is a verified 10 out of 10 from a customer on Checkatrade. Visiting and quoting in writing are both free. Before you book a visit in Corfe Castle, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Most repairs in Corfe Castle 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.