Plastering in Lymington

Water runs sideways behind the dabs. Most houses in Lymington from the eighties on are plasterboard on dabs against a block inner leaf, and the eighties are the biggest single slice of the town. A damaged area does not get filled.

It gets cut out square back to sound board, a new piece fitted and fixed, then taped and skimmed so the repair does not print through the paint later. Where a leak has been at it the board comes out further than the stain, because the void behind the dabs carries water sideways.

The fault to expect in the newer housing is a line of cracking along a board joint or round the perimeter where the ceiling meets the wall. That is movement in a taped joint, not a failing ceiling: cut out, re-taped and skimmed, with the whole ceiling skimmed after if you want to be sure the repair never shows. Older ceilings towards the town centre are lath and plaster, where the key breaks off the laths and the ceiling sags: down, boarded and skimmed, or fixed from above where it is worth keeping. Artex on the seventies houses skims flat over the top, and we never sand it.

A taped and jointed finish is flat but thin, and after thirty years of fixings and knocks it looks it. A full skim over the existing board gives you one hard surface, and it is quick because there is nothing to hack off: two to four days for a three bedroom house with the rooms empty.

Solid walls in the older streets. Down near St Thomas Street and the quay the walls are solid brick with lime plaster on them and no cavity behind, and Lymington carries something like a hundred and sixty listed entries, a good number of them in those streets. Those walls get lime plaster back, not gypsum, in a scratch coat and a render coat where the wall is bare, because a solid wall has to dry out through its own surface.

Extensions and garden rooms get dry lining on dabs where the blockwork is fair, stud partitions where a wall has to be built, then tape and joint or a full skim over the lot, with angle bead on every external corner and stop bead where the plaster stops against a frame. Kitchens and bathrooms get moisture resistant board first, then a skim and a mist coat before any proper paint.

The older bungalows and semis around the edge of the town carry painted sand and cement render and pebbledash, and four kilometres from the water, on the south west face, it goes blown and hollow at the top of the wall first. Small areas are cut out, primed and patched. Whole elevations come off and go back as a mesh reinforced basecoat with a silicone thin coat topcoat, or a through-coloured monocouche if you would rather never paint it again, over a bell cast bead clear of the damp course and with the scaffold on its own line in the quote. For the outside walls, see rendering in Lymington.

Plastering in Lymington has no useful rate per square metre, because what is behind the surface decides the job. What the wall is. Plasterboard on dabs in an eighties house can usually be skimmed. A textured ceiling in a post-war semi may need boarding over first. Lime plaster on solid brick in an older town house needs lime repairs, with longer waits between coats.

Whether it is wet. A wall that has had a leak through it, or damp coming in from outside, has to dry before it is plastered, and the cause has to be fixed. Plastering over it only brings the stain back.

How much comes off. A skim over sound plaster is a short job. Hacking back blown plaster to brick or taking down a ceiling makes dust and waste that has to be bagged and carried out.

Getting in and out. A terrace off the High Street with residents' parking, a semi on an estate with its own drive, and a first floor flat up a shared stair each change how materials come in and waste goes out.

Ask any other plasterer whether it is a skim or a full replaster, whether boarding or lime work is included, and who takes the waste.

We are 12.5 miles from Lymington at our base in Boscombe, and cover the town and Pennington, Walhampton, Boldre and Sway, out to Everton and Milford on Sea. All of it is within New Forest District Council's area.

You are dealing with Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719. Plastering jobs are priced by Thomas Hannen himself, whose firm it is, after he has looked at the walls and ceilings. A verified customer's review on Checkatrade gives us 10 out of 10. The survey visit and the itemised written quote are free. Before you book a visit in Lymington, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Most repairs in Lymington 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.