Plastering in Three Legged Cross

The mixer goes on the path, not the drive. In a terraced house the practical side changes more than the plastering: the mixer goes on the path, every bag of waste comes back through the hall, and hacking off on a shared wall is felt next door, so we tell the neighbour when the noisy hours will be.

The biggest single block of housing in Three Legged Cross went up between the late sixties and the early eighties, and that plaster is usually still gripping. What has failed is the surface, under woodchip, textured paper and paint, so those rooms get two passes of finish coat trowelled flat. Roughly four homes in ten were built from the mid-eighties on, and those walls are dry lining instead: board stuck to blockwork on dabs, or screwed to a stud, joints taped, then a skim. A repair on one is a different movement. Cut the board back to a sound edge, fit a new piece the same thickness, tape and skim it out wide. An external corner takes an angle bead and a reveal a stop bead, bedded and run in. The hollow sound across the rest of it is how the wall was built rather than a defect. Where a patch has blown it comes off for a backing coat, browning or hardwall where the block pulls and bonding on a dense face.

In the bungalows here the ceilings sit under a cold loft with nothing heated above them, and that is where sagging board and cracks along the board edges turn up first. Overboarding and skimming usually beats pulling a ceiling down, and anything textured from before the mid-1980s is tested before it is scraped. Outside, plenty of the older bungalows are pebbledashed or rendered in sand and cement that has now crazed and started to drum off, and the choice is a like-for-like patch or a strip back to the masonry and a modern system, a scratch coat and render coat under a silicone thin coat or a monocouche, with a bell cast bead keeping the render clear of the damp proof course. For the outside walls, see rendering in Three Legged Cross.

No rate per square metre, because two rooms the same size can be a day apart. What the wall is now. A sound wall that only needs a skim is the quick end. A wall where the backing coat has blown needs hacking off and a new bonding coat. A wall that was dot and dabbed with plasterboard can have hollow patches behind it.

Ceilings. Artex on seventies ceilings is common. It can be skimmed over if it is sound, or overboarded with new plasterboard. If it may contain asbestos, which older Artex sometimes does, it gets tested before anyone sands or scrapes it. Ceilings take longer than walls because every coat goes on overhead.

Getting in and out. A bungalow with a drive is easy. A terraced house where every bag comes through the hall takes longer. A first floor flat means boards up a shared stair and protection on the common parts.

Making good. Sockets, switches, coving and skirting all take time to work round or replace.

When comparing quotes, ask whether the walls are being skimmed or hacked off and replastered, how the Artex will be dealt with, and who moves the furniture.

We work in Three Legged Cross, Verwood, West Moors and the BH21 addresses along the old railway line, a nine mile drive from our Boscombe base. Planning and building control here are Dorset Council's. You deal with Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719. Before you book a visit in Three Legged Cross, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

The owner, Thomas Hannen, taps the walls and writes out the price himself. A verified customer left us 10 out of 10 on Checkatrade. We come and look without charge, and the written quote, set out item by item, is free.

Most repairs in Three Legged Cross 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.