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 the classic call we get here: the damp shadow at skirting level is the wall telling you where the water had to go instead.

The exposed elevations face southwest and sit about a mile from the sea, so they 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 the town are flats or maisonettes, so the ceiling below somebody else's bathroom is the single most common repair. 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 here 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.

No rate per square metre, because what sits behind the surface decides it. A Purbeck stone cottage with lime plaster inside, a Victorian villa divided into flats with lath ceilings above, and a rendered blockwork extension facing the bay 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. External render on a seaward elevation wants a tower or a scaffold, and the weather sets the programme.

We cover Swanage and the BH19 addresses around it, out through Herston, Durlston, Langton Matravers, Studland and Corfe Castle, 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.