Plastering in Wimborne Minster

Lath ceilings and lime plaster in the old town. Getting on for one home in five in Wimborne Minster predates 1919, and the brick houses through the Borough streets and the lanes off the Minster carry lime plaster on solid walls with lath ceilings above.

The crack you can see is rarely the story. What decides it is whether the plaster keys that curl over the backs of the laths have snapped off, and we check that from the loft or the room above, not by guessing from underneath. Keys gone, the ceiling comes down. Keys holding, scrim, a patch and a skim will see you out.

Plenty of the older rooms here still have a run of cornice worth keeping. It gets protected before anything comes off the ceiling, cleaned back where a century of paint has filled the detail, and any missing length is run or cast to match. The nearest thing off a shelf never looks right. If a room has lost its cornice altogether we will say honestly what can be matched and what cannot.

Flats, conversions and rooms above shops. A third of the homes in Wimborne Minster are flats or maisonettes, a good many of them carved out of older houses and the buildings over the shops. Behind those partitions you find timber studwork, old lath and later board all in the same wall, so the joints between them are where cracks appear. New board is cut in square, mesh goes over every junction between two different backgrounds, then tape and joint or a full skim. Stairs and access get planned at the site visit, because full sheets of board do not go round every turn. The outside of a flat usually belongs to the freeholder, not to you, so it is worth knowing which of the two you are ringing about.

Where plaster has parted from the brick or block behind it, the loose work comes off back to a clean background and a backing coat goes on before any finish. On a solid old wall that means lime, because the wall has to stay breathable and a hard gypsum finish over one still carrying water simply blows again. On a dry modern background it is browning where it keys, bonding on dense block or a painted face, hardwall where you want it harder. A floated wall holds real water and keeps a room out of use far longer than a skim.

Outside it is painted render over soft old brick in the town, pebbledash on the post-war housing and thin coat systems on the newer work. A blown patch is cut out square, a render coat brought back level and the texture matched so the repair does not read as one. A full elevation goes back as a scratch coat and a basecoat with mesh bedded through it, a primer, then a silicone thin coat, a monocouche or a K render topcoat, off a bell cast bead at the base. On an old town house it is lime render, never sand and cement. For the outside walls, see rendering in Wimborne Minster.

Plastering is not priced per square metre. The size of the room matters less than what is under the surface.

Skim or strip back. Every wall and ceiling is tapped first. Sound plaster just needs a skim. Hollow or blown areas are hacked off back to brick and rebuilt with a backing coat and finish, and that split moves the price more than anything.

Old or new. Lime plaster on the older town houses goes on in thinner coats, each left to cure, so it takes more days. Board and skim on a newer house is quicker. Lath ceilings can often be kept and repaired.

Getting materials in. A first floor flat over a shop with a narrow stair that will not take full sheets of board means cutting sheets down and more joints to tape. A house with parking outside is easy. In the centre, loading may need planning around restrictions.

Outside work. Anything above a porch needs a scaffold, priced on its own line under work at height rules.

What is behind it. Damp, a leak or failed render outside must be dealt with first, or new plaster will fail.

Ask any other quote which walls are skimmed and which are hacked off, whether it is lime or gypsum, and who takes the waste.

Our base is in Boscombe, 8.1 miles from Wimborne Minster, and we plaster in the town, Colehill, Pamphill and Merley, and out to Corfe Mullen, Furzehill and the BH21 villages. Planning questions and building control go to Dorset Council.

You would be dealing with Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719. It is Thomas Hannen's firm, and he sounds out the walls and writes the price himself. Our Checkatrade page shows a verified customer's rating of 10 out of 10. The site visit is free, and the itemised written quote is free as well. Before you book a visit in Wimborne Minster, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Most repairs in Wimborne Minster 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.