Plastering and rendering in Holt

Ground levels crept up, and the wall pays for it. Nine times in ten the wall is not the problem. Ground levels creep up over the years: a path gets relaid, a patio goes down, a border builds up, and now the outside ground sits above the inside floor, so water walks straight across into a solid wall with no cavity. Replastering that in gypsum buys you a year. We take it back, sort the level or the drainage first where we can, let the wall dry out, then put lime plaster back so it stays breathable and any salts come to the surface instead of pushing your paint off.

In the older cottages the ceiling is lime plaster squeezed through timber lath, and what holds it up is the material squeezed out above. When that snaps the ceiling bellies down and starts shedding dust. Firm to the palm and only hairline cracked, it can be over-boarded and skimmed. If it moves, it comes down, the joists get looked at while they are open, and it goes back in board and skim, or in lime where the building deserves it. Artex is over-boarded rather than scraped, because a coating put up before the turn of the century can hold asbestos fibre.

Barns and outbuildings. An old brick or cob building being made into an annexe or a workshop turns on a lining decision made early and hard to undo: board on dabs straight onto a solid wall traps moisture behind it, so we build out on a stud with a ventilated gap or use a lime and wood fibre build-up that lets the wall dry inwards. Insulated board makes it a thermal element, so building control want to see it and Approved Document L sets the target it has to reach. Outside, old brick and cob want a lime render coat and limewash, not sand and cement. On newer blockwork a mesh basecoat under a silicone thin coat or a monocouche is the right answer instead, on a bell cast bead, with an angle bead on every corner and a stop bead against each frame.

No rate per square metre. A room in one of the newer houses along the lane is a barrow, a dust sheet and a door kept shut; an old cottage with narrow doors and a stair you cannot get a full sheet up is slower before a bag is opened; a barn with a high open roof needs a tower inside as well as a scaffold outside. A sound float coat takes a skim; a blown one comes off and goes back in bonding, browning or hardwall. Ask whether it is a skim or a full replaster, how long it wants for drying, and who takes the waste away.

We cover Holt, Furzehill, Colehill, Wimborne Minster, Three Legged Cross and the rest of BH21, in the Dorset Council area, out of Bournemouth. Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719, which you can look up in a minute. Thomas Hannen's business, and he is the one who comes out to price the job, not a salesman. A verified customer's 10 out of 10 on Checkatrade. The visit and the written quote are both free.