Plastering in Sopley

Filler along a straight crack is a six month fix. On the post-war houses around Sopley the ceilings are plasterboard with a thin skim or a textured coating over the top. They crack in straight lines along the board joints as the house moves, and filler along a crack like that is a six month fix.

We scrim and skim the whole ceiling instead, or overboard it where the old board has sagged between the joists, and it goes flat and stays flat.

Houses of this vintage went up with a browning or hardwall backing coat on blockwork downstairs and board upstairs. Where a wall has been wet, or where a fixing has been hammered about, the backing loses its grip on the block and the whole patch sounds hollow when you tap it. That comes off back to the block, gets a new backing coat and a fresh finish coat. A skim laid over a wall that is already letting go will not hold.

A shower tray, a failed seal or a slipped overflow shows up as a stained, soft patch on the ceiling below. We take out what is wet, never skimming over it, let it dry, then patch or re-board and skim so the repair does not read as a rectangle through the paint. In a terraced house the mixer and the waste both come back through the house, and hacking off on a shared wall is felt next door, so it is worth telling the neighbour before we start.

Garage conversions and knock-throughs. Where a garage or an outbuilding is being turned into a room, that is dry lining rather than wet plaster: insulated plasterboard on dabs or on a stud, tape and joint or a full skim over the board, and a proper angle bead on every corner and reveal so the new opening looks like it was always there.

Down by the church and along the lane there are cob and brick cottages with solid walls and lath ceilings, a good number of them listed. Those want lime plaster and a breathable finish, not gypsum. A cottage wall that was skimmed hard ten years ago and now has a damp shadow at skirting level is usually telling you the wall cannot dry through its own face. Outside, the exposed elevation faces southwest, so the wind and driven rain work at the openings and the edges more than the middle of a wall, and that is where pebbledash and render crack or go hollow. Those get patched into the existing where the rest is sound, or taken back and rebuilt with a scratch coat, a mesh reinforced basecoat, a bell cast bead and a silicone thin coat. Thin coat systems suit blockwork; a solid old wall takes lime render instead. For the outside walls, see rendering in Sopley.

What is behind the surface. A post-war house with browning on block, a garage conversion lined in plasterboard, and a cottage with lime on solid walls need different materials. Tapping finds the hollow areas before we price, because they have to come off.

Artex ceilings. Many ceilings from this period have a textured Artex finish. Older textured coatings can contain asbestos, so a sample is tested before anyone scrapes or sands, and the result decides whether we skim over it or it comes down.

Detail. Reveals, chimney breasts, a staircase wall and a room full of corners each need beads cut, fixed and floated true. That is where the hours go, far more than on a flat wall.

Damp and its cause. Plaster blown by a leak or by rising water will blow again if the cause is still there, so we look at the gutter, the roof or the ground level outside before replastering.

Outside work. External render wants a tower or a scaffold, and each coat has to take up before the next, so the weather sets the programme and the platform stands longer.

Ask another plasterer whether the old surface is being hacked off or skimmed over, whether the Artex has been tested, and whether beads and making good are in the price.

Our base in Boscombe is 3.7 miles from Sopley. We cover the village and the BH23 addresses around it, out through Winkton, Burton, Bransgore, Ripley and Neacroft. New Forest District Council handles planning and building control in Sopley parish, while Winkton and Burton come under BCP Council.

Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd is the company, registered in England and Wales under 15471719. The owner, Thomas Hannen, looks at your walls and ceilings in person, and prices the work. Checkatrade shows a verified customer's 10 out of 10. There is no charge to visit or to write up the itemised quote. Before you book a visit in Sopley, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Most repairs in Sopley 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.