Plastering in Lytchett Matravers

Skim it, or hack it off. The longest run of work here is the 1970s and early 1980s stock, almost all built the same way: a block inner leaf, a float coat straightened onto it, a gypsum finish over the top.

Fifty years on that plaster is usually still stuck and what has failed is the surface, under gloss, woodchip and paint rolled on until the wall lost its line. The wall is prepared, PVA'd where it is thirsty, then two passes of finish coat, trowelled flat, a room at a time. If a wall answers dead when we knock it we will talk you out of stripping it. Where it does drum it comes off back to the block and takes bonding on a dense face, browning or hardwall on something more absorbent.

From the early eighties on, walls in this village stopped being floated and started being dry lined, and a good deal of the village went up in that period. Repairs there are a different movement: cut the damaged board back to a sound line or a stud, fit a new piece the same thickness, tape the joint and skim it out wide enough that daylight across the wall does not find the edge. A knocked corner takes a fresh angle bead rather than filler. Hacking at a dot and dab wall the way you would at a floated one only makes the hole bigger.

Plenty of the homes in Lytchett Matravers are bungalows, so the ceiling sits under a cold loft, not another heated room, which is where staining and cracked joints turn up first, and overboarding usually beats pulling it down. One house in nine predates 1919, solid walls in lime where gypsum traps the water that used to leave through the surface and blows above the skirting within two winters. Fifteen entries in the parish are listed, which decides the material as well as the paperwork. Outside it is mostly sand and cement on gables and porch cheeks with the odd pebbledash panel; a whole elevation that has let go comes off and goes back under a silicone thin coat.

Plastering in Lytchett Matravers has no rate per square metre, because what is behind the finish decides the job. Skim or strip. A sound wall just needs a skim coat. Blown or cracked plaster comes off back to the masonry, and then a backing coat goes on before the finish. Tapping every wall tells us which, and that is the biggest swing in the price.

Ceilings. An artexed or cracked plasterboard ceiling can often be over-boarded and skimmed. An old lath and plaster ceiling that is sagging has to come down first, which is dusty work, means sealing the room off from the rest of the house, and adds a day.

The house itself. A bungalow on one level, with a drive to stand the mixer on, is straightforward. A cottage with no side gate means every bag of plaster and every bag of waste goes through the front door. A first floor flat means carrying everything up the stairs.

Outside work. A tower or a scaffold for render or a gable is priced as a separate item. For the outside walls, see rendering in Lytchett Matravers.

Before you choose, ask each quote: skim or full replaster, are beads and making good included, and who clears the waste?

The owner, Thomas Hannen, looks at your walls and ceilings and writes the price himself. From Boscombe it is roughly eleven miles to you, and our patch here covers the village, Lytchett Minster, Upton and the BH16 addresses either side of the Dorchester road, with Dorset Council for planning and building control.

You would be contracting with Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719. There is a verified 10 out of 10 on Checkatrade from one of our customers. We come out and quote in writing, itemised, at no charge. Before you book a visit in Lytchett Matravers, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Most repairs in Lytchett Matravers 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.