Plastering in Swanage

Purbeck stone has to dry through its own face. A great deal of the older town is solid stone with lime plaster on the inside face and no cavity anywhere, and more than a quarter of the housing predates 1919.

Those walls have to dry through their own surface, so they take a lime backing coat and a breathable finish. A stone cottage that was skimmed in gypsum or sealed outside with a plastic masonry paint is a classic Swanage problem: the damp shadow at skirting level is the wall telling you where the water had to go instead.

The seafront and cliff-top houses take salt spray straight off the bay, so their walls get wet repeatedly, dry slowly and stay salty between showers, and render is what takes it. We sound the elevation for hollow areas, cut out what has let go, and either patch into sound work or rebuild it properly: a scratch coat, a mesh reinforced basecoat, a bell cast bead at the base and a silicone thin coat topcoat, with stainless beads rather than galvanised ones so nothing rusts through the finish later. Thin coat systems like K render and monocouche belong on blockwork, not on old stone.

Ceilings in flats, and leaks from above. Close to four homes in ten in Swanage are flats or maisonettes, so the ceiling below somebody else's bathroom is the repair to expect. We take out what is wet rather than skimming over the stain, let it dry, then patch or re-board, scrim and skim the whole ceiling so the repair does not show as a rectangle in a low winter sun.

Victorian and Edwardian houses in Swanage still have riven lath ceilings and run cornices, often buried under woodchip and six coats of paint. Where a ceiling is cracked but firm we overboard and skim, which keeps it in place. Where it has lost its keys it comes down and goes back in board, tape and joint and skim. A short broken run of cornice we can patch and match; a whole room of ornate work is a specialist's job and we will tell you so.

Rooms in holiday lets, rentals and flats where the walls are sound but tired get prepared, stabilised, beaded on the corners that suitcases have knocked about, and skimmed out flat ready to decorate, booked between changeovers where the calendar allows it. The post-war houses and bungalows on the hills take ordinary gypsum work: hacking off and re-backing in bonding or hardwall where a wall has blown, overboarding artex ceilings, dry lining a garage conversion on dabs or on studs with tape and joint, and making good after new windows go into an exposed wall.

Two rooms the same size can be a day apart, because what sits behind the surface decides the work. What the walls are made of. A Purbeck stone cottage wants lime plaster that lets the wall breathe, not gypsum, and lime goes on in thinner coats with drying time between them. A modern blockwork extension takes plasterboard and a skim in a fraction of the time.

Ceilings. Victorian villas split into flats often still have lath and plaster ceilings. Where the lath is sound it can be repaired; where it has sagged it comes down and goes back as plasterboard, which is dusty, heavy work carried out through a shared stairwell.

Corners and reveals. Deep window reveals, chimney breasts and staircases are where the hours go, each bead cut, fixed and floated true.

Outside work. Render on a seaward elevation wants a tower or scaffold, the weather sets the programme, and work at height rules make the platform a line of its own.

Ask other quotes whether hollow areas are being hacked off or skimmed over, whether lime or gypsum is specified on the old walls, and whether beads and making good are included.

Our base is in Boscombe, 10 miles from Swanage, and we plaster across the town and nearby BH19 addresses: Herston, Durlston, Langton Matravers, Studland and Corfe Castle, all in Dorset Council's area. Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719, which you can check yourself. Before you book a visit in Swanage, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Thomas Hannen's business: he sees the room, taps the walls and prices the job himself. One verified customer's score on Checkatrade is 10 out of 10. The site visit and the written, itemised quote carry no charge.

Most repairs in Swanage 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.