Plastering in Crossways
Dry lining, ceiling skims, cracked taped joints, solid wall replastering out towards Moreton, and external render across Crossways, priced in writing after a free visit.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
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If the walls in your Crossways house sound hollow when you knock them, nothing is wrong. Most of the village is dry lined, which means the plasterboard is stuck to the blockwork on dabs with a gap behind it, and that gap is what you can hear. It changes how we fix things to the wall and how a new opening gets formed, but it is not a fault and it is not a reason to replaster anything.
Plastering in Crossways splits into two sorts of house. Newer houses where the finish is sound but tired: hairline cracks along the taped joints, a ceiling that wants flattening, a wall opened up for a new door and never properly made good. And the older properties out towards Moreton and Woodsford, where the plaster has blown off a solid wall and needs taking back and rebuilding in coats.
Both are our work. It is a fair run out west towards Dorchester from us so it is booked, not passing trade, but the site visit is free, the written itemised quote is free, and we would rather tell you a wall needs filling and painting than sell you a room of new plaster.
The work
Let the house shrink first, then skim it once
Dry lining, and living with a hollow wall. A lot of the housing here is plasterboard on dot and dab or board on stud, not plaster laid straight onto brick.
Day to day that only matters when you want to fix something heavy to a wall or cut a new opening through one, because there is a void behind the board and a fixing has to reach past it. When we make good round a new door or a moved radiator, the board is packed and dabbed back properly first, then taped, so the repair does not telegraph through the paint a year later. Angle bead and stop bead go on every external corner and window reveal, because there is nothing solid behind the board to hold an edge on its own.
Taped joints and the first two winters. Newer ceilings in Crossways are taped and jointed, not skimmed, which is quick and flat when it is new and shows every joint once the timbers have dried out and shrunk. Hairline cracks in straight lines along a board joint or above a door are shrinkage, not damage, and the right answer is to let the house settle through a couple of heating seasons and then skim the whole ceiling in one go.
Out towards Moreton and Woodsford there are brick houses and cottages plastered straight onto the wall. Where the surface is sound we prepare it, seal it and put two coats of finish plaster on with a trowel. Where a patch sounds hollow it comes off and a backing coat of bonding, browning or hardwall goes back first, floated out and ruled level, and the finish coat wants a few days before a mist coat and decorating. Where a wall is genuinely old and has no damp proof course we use lime rather than gypsum, because it has to dry through its own face.
Extensions, garage conversions and loft rooms are the new work that fits these houses: boarding out, tape and joint or a full skim, and the insulation behind the board decided before the boards are ordered. Outside, gables and full elevations in sand and cement or pebbledash go rigid and craze; a hollow panel or two is cut out and patched back in a scratch coat and a render coat, and a wall that rings hollow all over comes off and goes back as a thin coat system with a bell cast bead at the base.
How it runs
Plastering a room in a seventies or eighties house
Thomas visits, knocks along walls and ceilings to find hollow spots, works out what each background is, and prices the work himself. His quote splits out the stripping, background preparation, beads, backing coat and finish coat, then making good and waste. The job is stripped, plastered and cleared up in one run.
Most Crossways houses have block inner walls with gypsum plaster or plasterboard, and plasterboard ceilings. Many ceilings were given a textured coating in the seventies and early eighties. Some of those coatings contain asbestos, so we test before anything is sanded, scraped or taken down, and we skim over a sound one rather than disturbing it. We move or cover furniture, lay dust sheets and keep the dust to one room. Waste is bagged and taken away each day. A failed lintel or damp found behind the old finish is photographed and priced for you before we continue.
Nothing done inside needs planning permission, and outside there is no conservation area. Listing goes house by house, so check your own address. Building control is what applies. An extension or a loft room is building work, and the insulation behind the plasterboard has to be inspected before it is boarded over. Dorset Council handles both.
Cost
Skim, re-board or strip back: what changes the plastering price
We do not price plastering by the square metre, because the background decides it. Skim or strip. Sound plaster just needs a skim. Hollow plaster is hacked off and the wall rebuilt with a backing coat before the finish. Plasterboard that has been wet or knocked about is quicker to replace than to patch.
Textured ceilings. A textured ceiling is usually sealed and skimmed over rather than scraped off. If a test shows asbestos and the ceiling has to come down, that is specialist removal and priced separately.
Where we mix and carry. On an open plot with a garage or a side gate, we mix outside and walk straight in. In a mid terrace, every bag and every bucket comes through your front door and hall, which means more protection and more time.
Outside work. To render a gable needs a platform: a tower is usually enough on a bungalow, and a two storey wall needs a full scaffold. The work at height rules make that a separate line on the quote. Re-rendering a whole wall counts as renovating a thermal element, which brings in Approved Document L and building control.
Making good. Sockets, switches, coving and skirting all need taking off and refitting.
Ask any other plasterer whether the walls are skimmed or stripped, how a textured ceiling will be handled, and whether making good and waste are included.
If it has started to come down
A ceiling bowing after a leak from above
A bowing ceiling means clearing the room and keeping everyone out. Where water has come through, turn off that room's lighting circuit at the fuse board, and shut the stopcock if a pipe or tank has burst. Wall plaster that falls away in sheets normally has damp or a leak behind it.
Do not scrape at an old textured ceiling that has come down. Leave the pieces where they are until they are tested. At the first visit anything unsafe comes down, a sagging ceiling is propped, and the cause is found before we price. Plastering is booked Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm. With a ceiling on its way down, phone and forget the form, and a missed call is returned just as soon as we can.
Worth knowing
Replastering inside needs nobody's say-so here
Skimming, re-boarding or replastering inside your own house in Crossways needs nothing from anybody. The village has no conservation area either, which is rare on our patch, so the outside is usually your own decision too. Listing goes house by house, so check your address on the Historic England list before you plan anything outside.
On an unlisted house, a new render in a new colour normally needs nobody asking, as Planning Portal guidance on external walls sets out where no designation applies.
So pick the outside finish for the wall: a mesh reinforced silicone thin coat over blockwork that takes driven rain, a monocouche if you never want to repaint, and sand and cement only when patching into an existing coat. For the outside walls, see rendering in Crossways.
The single thing that can still catch you is a planning condition on one of the newer estates, because some developments have permitted development rights removed by condition, which does the same job as a conservation area without being called one. Check your own planning permission or your deeds before you order anything. It takes ten minutes and it is the only paperwork in it.
Who you are dealing with
A plasterer you can check before booking
From Boscombe, where we are based, Crossways is 21.8 miles. We plaster in the village, in Moreton and Woodsford, and at DT2 addresses towards Dorchester. Dorset Council handles planning and building control. The company behind us is Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, number 15471719, registered in England and Wales. Before you book a visit in Crossways, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.
It is Thomas Hannen's business, and he comes out, taps your walls and prices the work himself. One customer, verified on Checkatrade, gave us 10 out of 10. The visit is free, as is the itemised quote you get in writing.
Planning at a glance
Do you need planning permission in Crossways?
Most repairs in Crossways 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.
| Question | In Crossways |
|---|---|
| Who decides | Dorset Council is the planning authority for Crossways. Dorset Council's heritage pages set out what it controls. |
| Conservation area | None covers Crossways, so a like-for-like repair is ordinary maintenance. |
| Listed buildings | Nothing in Crossways is on the statutory list, so listed building consent does not come into it. |
| Protected landscape | No National Park or National Landscape covers Crossways. |
Questions
Questions about plastering in Crossways
Crossways has no conservation area. Are we free to re-render?
On appearance, you are. Crossways has no conservation area, which is unusual on this patch, so unless your own house is listed the render system, the texture and the colour are your choice, and permitted development covers the ordinary case. Dorset Council still has a say if you are thickening a wall out past a boundary or altering the structure. For recovering a wall that is already rendered, nobody needs asking.
Why do the cracks follow the board joints upstairs?
Because the joint is the weak line and the timber behind it is still moving. Plenty of Crossways homes are recent enough to be built with dry lining and taped joints, not a wet backing coat, and a taped joint a couple of millimetres thick cannot bridge much. A full skim across the whole wall spreads that movement over a continuous surface instead of concentrating it on the tape.
Does the Poole Harbour nutrient rule affect a loft conversion here?
Not normally, if the loft is for your own household. Those rules are aimed at a new dwelling, an annexe or a holiday let, so a loft bedroom in the house you live in is not normally caught, and replastering a room you already have never is. If it might be let, ask Dorset Council before anyone is boarding out. Plain plastering work in Crossways does not trigger it at all.
Will you plaster through the winter, or wait for spring?
Inside work carries on all year as long as the heating is on low and steady; what changes is the drying, so a January skim wants a couple more days before paint goes near it. Rendering outside stops in a frost. A cold clear night after a wet day is the combination that ruins a fresh coat, so we watch the forecast for the week ahead rather than the calendar.
A few older cottages here are pre 1919. Do you do those?
We do, and they need a different approach. About one home in seven in Crossways predates 1919, so the village is mostly modern with a handful of solid walled buildings mixed through it. On the older ones we use a lime backing coat so the wall can still dry through; on the estate housing next door it is board and skim. The mistake is treating both the same because they share a postcode.
Nearby, and next door
Plastering near Crossways
Nearby places we also cover for plastering, with straight-line distances from Crossways, and the other trades we offer in Crossways itself.
Plastering nearby
Our other trades in Crossways
Plastering and rendering guides
Silicone, cement or lime: which render? Cracked render: which cracks matter Hollow-sounding wall: blown plaster or dot and dabEverything we do in Wareham Plastering, all areas Every area we cover
Free quote
Get a written price for your Crossways plastering
Send the postcode and tell us which rooms, or which elevation outside. We come out, tap the walls, and put the price in writing with the days it will take.