Plastering in Stone

Ceilings after a leak from the flat above. Nearly a third of the homes here are flats or maisonettes, so this is the commonest call we get. A washing machine, a shower tray or a failed seal upstairs, and the ceiling below goes brown, then soft, then starts to drop. We take out what is wet rather than skimming over a stain, let it dry, then patch in board, scrim the joints and skim the whole ceiling so the repair does not read as a square through the emulsion.

Hollow walls that are not actually blown. A lot of the housing here went up in the 1980s and later, and that means dry lining: plasterboard stuck to the blockwork on dabs of adhesive, then a skim or a taped joint. A wall like that sounds hollow because it is hollow, by design. Knowing the difference between a dabbed wall doing its job and a backing coat that has let go of the brick is most of what a proper look is for, and it decides whether you need a skim or a strip out. Where wet plaster goes back it is browning or hardwall where the block pulls, bonding on a dense face.

Re-skimming a stairwell in an occupied block is a different job from a front room: the access has to stay open, the dust has to stay inside the sheeting, and the work has to be priced so a managing agent can put it in front of the leaseholders. We work in sections and leave the route in and out usable at the end of every day. Dust sheets go down first and the background is prepared, with PVA where it is dusty.

A fifth of the parish predates 1919 and there are ninety-one listed entries in it, most of them the old brick cottages along the lanes: solid walls with lime plaster on them and lath ceilings above. Those want a lime backing coat and a breathable finish rather than gypsum, and a lath ceiling that is only cracked is usually worth overboarding and skimming rather than pulling down.

New work is boarded on studs or on dabs, taped and jointed or fully skimmed, with an angle bead on every corner and a stop bead at every reveal. Where a new opening meets old plaster, the join is floated out wide rather than filled tight, which is what stops a line appearing there next summer. Outside, render is patched into sound work where that is honest, or taken back to a scratch coat, a render coat, a mesh reinforced basecoat, a bell cast bead and a silicone thin coat topcoat. The old sand and cement and pebbledash come off harder than people expect. Thin coat systems suit modern blockwork; on old solid brick it is lime render instead.

No rate per square metre, because what sits behind the surface decides it. A maisonette ceiling that has been rained on from above, an eighties house lined out on dabs, and an old brick cottage with lime plaster on solid walls are three different jobs before anyone lifts a trowel. We tap the old surface before quoting, because anything hollow is already blown. Reveals, chimney breasts and staircases are where the hours go, since each is a bead cut, fixed and floated true. In a block, protecting the common parts and carrying waste down a shared stair is real time and goes in the price. Outside, a tower does for low work and a gable wants a scaffold.

We cover Stone, Pamphill and the BH21 addresses around them, out through Cowgrove, Wimborne Minster, Colehill and Corfe Mullen, under Dorset Council. 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.