Plastering in Stourpaine

The rain comes off the downs and finds the same spots. Stourpaine sits under the downs and the weather comes across them, so render fails in the same places again and again: the head and sill of a window, the base of the wall below a leaking gutter, and the corner of the elevation that faces the wind.

We deal with the water first, then the render, in that order. For the outside walls, see rendering in Stourpaine.

The older cottages in Stourpaine are solid walled and soft, finished in a lime render. They fail where somebody has patched them in sand and cement or sealed them with a plastic masonry paint, because the wall then holds water it used to give back. We cut out the hard patches, put on a lime scratch coat and float coat and finish to match what is already there, even where something else would be quicker. Inside those same cottages it is lime plaster on the solid walls and haired lime on lath ceilings. We are honest about what flat means in a building like this: a three hundred year old wall can be made true enough to hang a picture on and take paint evenly, but straightening it completely means losing the character you paid for. A cracked ceiling that is still firm gets overboarded and skimmed. One that moves under your hand has lost its keys and comes down, then goes back in board, tape and joint and a skim.

The post-war and later houses in Stourpaine take ordinary gypsum work: a re-skim, hacking off and re-backing with bonding or hardwall where a wall has blown, and dry lining on dabs or studs in a converted garage. Where an extension is blockwork, a mesh reinforced basecoat with a bell cast bead and a silicone thin coat topcoat is the right system. It has no business on the old part of the house, and we will say so before you order it.

Plastering is priced by what is behind the surface, not by the square metre. What the wall is. An old cottage wall of flint, brick or cob wants lime, which goes on in thinner coats and takes longer to cure. A post-war blockwork wall with gypsum hardwall is quicker. A lath ceiling can sometimes be repaired, or it may need overboarding with plasterboard and a skim.

How much is blown. We tap every wall before quoting, because a patch that sounds hollow has already let go and will come away as soon as the next coat goes near it. Hacking off and taking it away is a cost before any new plaster goes on.

The fiddly parts. Reveals, chimney breasts, stair walls and corners each need a bead cut and fixed, and floating them true takes longer than a flat wall.

Outside work. External render needs a tower or scaffold, and the weather sets the pace, because each coat has to take up before the next.

Ask any other quote whether it is lime or gypsum, whether hollow areas are coming off or being skimmed over, and whether the beads and making good are included.

From our base in Boscombe it is nineteen miles to Stourpaine. We plaster in the village and across DT11, out through Durweston, Pimperne, Shroton, Bryanston and Blandford Forum, all under Dorset Council. Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd is registered in England and Wales and its company number is 15471719. Before you book a visit in Stourpaine, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Thomas Hannen owns it. He comes to tap the walls and writes the price himself. We have a verified 10 out of 10 from a customer on Checkatrade. The visit and your written, line by line quote cost nothing.

Most repairs in Stourpaine 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.