Plastering in Oakdale

Ceilings in the older houses. A lot of the inter-war houses and bungalows in Oakdale still have some of their original ceilings, either lime plaster on timber laths or an early gypsum board.

Lath and plaster fails when the nibs that key it to the laths break, and it shows as a crack, a sag between the joists, or a ceiling that moves when you press it. Sound but cracked, it can be screwed back with plaster washers and skimmed. Sagging or loose, it comes down and new plasterboard goes up, screwed to the joists, taped at the joints and given a skim. Overboarding the old ceiling is sometimes right, but only when the laths are firmly fixed. Where an original lime plaster wall is sound on a solid wall, we repair it in lime so it stays breathable, rather than patching gypsum into it.

Walls that sound hollow. The walls in these Oakdale houses are brick with a backing coat and a thin finish. Where the backing has let go of the brick, it sounds drummy and cracks. We take it back to firm edges, put the backing coat on again in bonding or hardwall, float it flat and finish with a multi-finish skim. If the wall is damp, we find why before it is replastered, or the new plaster fails the same way.

Skimming. Where the old surface is sound, it is cleaned, primed with PVA or a bonding agent, and given two coats of finish plaster trowelled smooth, with new angle beads on the corners and reveals. Most rooms are a day. A room with picture rails and coving we can plaster around, keeping them, or take them off first if you want a plain wall.

Textured ceilings. Plenty of homes had Artex put on in the sixties to the eighties. Skimming over it is cleaner and cheaper than removing it, and it leaves the coating undisturbed. Some coatings from before 2000 contained asbestos, so if it is to be scraped or sanded it is tested first.

Dry lining and new walls. Stud partitions when a bungalow is being re-planned, plasterboard over a wall that is past saving, and insulated plasterboard on a cold outside wall, finished with a skim or tape and joint.

Where inside meets outside. Many thirties semis in Oakdale were finished outside in pebbledash or a sand and cement render. When that cracks or blows, the fix is a scratch coat, a basecoat with mesh at the weak points, and a topcoat, or a silicone thin coat such as K Rend on a new primer. That is a separate job with its own scaffold, and it has its own rendering page. What we see from inside is damp coming through, and we check the outside wall before plastering over it.

Stairwells. The high wall and ceiling over the stairs in a semi are done off a tower or a boarded platform, never a ladder balanced on a step, and that access is a line on the quote.

Making good. After a rewire, a new consumer unit, a boiler moved or a fireplace blocked up, we patch in so the repair disappears under paint. We would talk you out of a full replaster where a few square metres of patching will do.

No rate per square metre, because two rooms of the same size can be a day apart once you have seen the walls.

Getting to it. A bungalow where every room is on one level, a stairwell in a two storey semi, and a first floor flat reached by a shared staircase each have their own access and protection. Ceilings and stairwells need a platform, and a room you are still living in needs protecting rather than emptying. Where the work is at height the work at height rules apply just as they do on a roof.

What is behind it. Skimming over sound plaster is a different job from taking a wall back to brick, and you often cannot tell which you have until something is tapped. Lath and lime, old bonding, dot and dab and bare block all take different preparation and a different number of coats.

The awkward parts. Reveals, beads, stop ends, arches, curved walls and getting a flat finish where an old ceiling has dropped. The middle of a wall is quick. The edges are where the day goes.

Comparing quotes? Ask how many coats are included, whether the walls are being skimmed or taken back, whether beads and making good are in the price, and who moves and protects the furniture.

We plaster across Oakdale and Stanley Green, from the streets off Wimborne Road and Darby's Lane to the edge of Canford Heath, in BH15, from our base in Boscombe, about six miles east. BCP Council is the planning and building control authority.

You are dealing with Bournemouth Roofing & Building, the trading name of 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. Before you book a visit in Oakdale, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Most repairs in Oakdale 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.