Plastering in West Lulworth

Outside, render is repaired in patches. A blown patch is cut out square, the edges keyed, a render coat brought back level and the texture matched so the repair does not read as a repair.

Where an elevation drums over most of its face, patching is money you will spend twice, so it comes back to the stone and goes on properly: a scratch coat to key it, a basecoat with mesh bedded through it, a primer, then a silicone thin coat, a monocouche or a K render topcoat, with a bell cast bead at the bottom so water drips clear instead of tracking down into the wall. For the outside walls, see rendering in West Lulworth.

Lime render and limewash on the old stone. A stone rubble or cob wall is solid, with no cavity behind it, and it gets rid of rain by drying out again, so it wants a breathable lime render and a breathable paint over it. A rigid sand and cement skin on a wall like that seals the water in and it comes out somewhere else, usually as a damp patch on the inside face or a section of render falling away in one piece. Lime is slower and wants longer between coats, and on the right wall you pay for it once.

In the cottages the ceilings are lime pushed through riven lath, and the question is never the crack. It is whether the keys curled over the backs of the laths have snapped off, which we check from the loft or the room above. Keys gone, the ceiling has to come down. Keys holding, scrim, a patch and a skim is honest work and a great deal cheaper. Up the lanes it is board work instead: plasterboard on stud, dabs on the outside walls, taped joints and artexed ceilings, and where a wall sounds hollow that piece has let go and comes off for a backing coat of browning, bonding or hardwall first.

A good many houses in West Lulworth earn their keep between changeovers, and the constraint is the calendar rather than the wall. Tell us the free week and we will tell you what fits in it. A skim and a mist coat will. A hacked-off and floated wall will not, because the water in a backing coat leaves on its own timetable.

What has to come off. Every wall is sounded first. A room that only needs a skim is one price. Walls that come back to the stone and ceilings that need new board are another. That split moves the price more than the size of the room does.

Lime or gypsum. Lime plaster on a solid stone wall takes more coats and longer drying between them. It lets the wall breathe, which matters on a cottage near the sea where the walls take in damp. Gypsum and plasterboard are quicker on a modern stud wall.

Old ceilings. A lath and plaster ceiling that sags may be taken down and boarded, or held up and repaired. Taking it down is messy and adds to the disposal.

Getting in and out. A cottage with no parking and a room full of furniture is slower than a house up the hill with a drive and an empty room. External render on a gable needs scaffold rather than a tower, and work at height rules make that a priced line.

Ask each firm: what is being hacked off, and what is only being skimmed? Lime or gypsum, and why? Is making good round sockets and skirtings included?

We are 19.4 miles away at our Boscombe base, and we cover West Lulworth, East Lulworth and the coast road villages, out to Winfrith Newburgh, Wool and Wareham in BH20. Planning and building control for this address sit with Dorset Council.

The company is Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, company number 15471719, registered in England and Wales. It is owned by Thomas Hannen, who sounds the walls and writes the price himself. A verified customer gave us 10 out of 10 on Checkatrade. We charge nothing to visit and nothing for the quote, which is itemised and in writing. Before you book a visit in West Lulworth, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Most repairs in West Lulworth 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.