Plastering in Holt

Ground levels crept up, and the wall pays for it. Usually the wall itself 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 in Holt 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.

Plastering is not priced by area here, because one room can be a quick skim and the next a week of hacking off.

The state of the wall. A sound float coat takes a skim. A blown one rings hollow, comes off back to the masonry, and goes back in bonding, browning or hardwall before the finish.

Lime or gypsum. On older solid masonry with lime plaster, a gypsum patch holds damp and fails. Lime goes on in thinner coats, takes longer and needs more drying time.

Ceilings. A sagging lath and plaster ceiling can be overboarded with plasterboard screwed into sound joists, or pulled down, which is dusty and slower. A textured ceiling is sampled for asbestos before anyone sands it.

The building. A room in a newer house is a barrow and a dust sheet. An old cottage with narrow doors is slower before a bag is opened, and a barn with a high open roof needs a tower inside as well as a scaffold outside.

Damp. A wet patch on an outside wall has a cause, often a leaking gutter or soil banked against the wall. Plaster over it without fixing that and you pay twice.

Ask whether you are getting a skim or a full replaster, how long it must dry, and who takes the waste away.

Walls and ceilings in Holt, Furzehill, Colehill, Wimborne Minster, Three Legged Cross and across BH21 are in Dorset Council's area, and Holt is 8.6 miles from our base in Boscombe. Thomas Hannen, the owner, comes out himself, taps the walls, checks for damp and does the pricing.

One verified Checkatrade customer gave us 10 out of 10 for their job. A look at the job is free, as is the itemised quote in writing. Our company is Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719. Before you book a visit in Holt, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Most repairs in Holt 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.