Plastering, Rendering & Screeds

Our internal works cover all aspects of plaster, renders, backing coats and skimmed finishes. The re-skimming of damaged or Artexed walls and ceilings being a popular and safer option when renovating property and are less disruptive. We also undertake what is known in the trade as ‘Dot and Dab’, the lining of walls with plasterboard, Stud wall partitioning, Metal or Timber stud, dry walling, Tape & Jointing, Remedial Damp proofing and Floor Screeds.

Our external trades include Sand; Lime & Cement rendered finishes, Spar dash, High Build coatings, Tyrolean, Remedial Damp proofing and tanking.

Skimming

Generally, when wallpaper is stripped off internal walls, we all want to have nice clean painted or freshly papered walls, but it's not unusual to find the walls underneath the paper are cracked or damaged. This can happen to the most cared for walls as well as any other, it's just what happens after time. If this is what you have then we can make your walls look brand new ready for painting or repapering.
Don't worry about your most prized flooring style (wood finish, carpet etc), we take great pride in making sure we cover every area of the room and floor whilst work is in progress.

Artexing

We're usually asked for most artexing styles/patterns to go on ceilings, but still also asked for walls as well. If you already have an artexing pattern on your ceilings or walls, we can re-skim the surfaces first and then apply your new chosen style/pattern of artex. Until the year 2000 artex could potentially contain white asbestos, which was added as part of the maufacturing process to strengthen it. Inhaling microscopic asbestos fibres can cause asbestosis and mesothelioma - defined by the World Health Organization as cancers - so anyone removing the coating or working with a surface covered with it should wear protective clothing and masks – and the area being worked on should be sealed off. We can organise a sample to be taken and tested and then deal with it as appropriate.

Coving & Cornice

This gives a gorgeous look to any room. Coving can marry walls and ceilings up in wonderful, different styles and is becoming more and more popular. You can have a straight forward popular style coving style, or for the more adventurous, we can discuss another point of view you may have in your mind's eye.

Metal stud partitioning and Dry lining

There are many applications for metal studwork. Many requests we get are for partition walls to be placed strategically to divide one room into two. This can be done very easily and can create the feel of an additional room or two, in your house or office. This is ideal for larger houses to create an extra bedroom, en suite, bathroom, utility room or home office. This can also be addapted to add an additional layer for insulation purposes and is a quick clean option when doing any conversion or refurb.

When any new internal wall is erected, dry lining plasterboards are the most popular way of covering the internal wall build before plastering of any fashion can take place. These are fastened to the internal wood build with nails and lost under the final coats of plastering. Plasterboards can be cut to fit any shape of wall/design.
The most commonly used thicknesses of plasterboard available are 12.5 mm (modern equivalent of half an inch), typically used for walls, and 9.5 mm (modern equivalent of three-eights of an inch), typically used for ceilings. 15 mm thick board is commonly available, and other thicknesses are also produced.
Plasterboard is commonly made with one of two different edge treatments: Tapered Edge, where the sides of the board are tapered at the front to allow for jointing materials to be finished flush with the main board face, and Straight Edge, where there is no different thickness at the side of the board.

Rendering

External rendering (cement mortar & sand). It's usually applied in two coats/stages. The first is a scratch coat this is applied to the brickwork to flaten out the joints etc, also known as a scratch coat.
The second coat is two thirds sand which is applied a day later, and is worked to a smooth finish.

Screeding

Traditional floor screed basically consists of sand & cement mixed at a ratio of between 3 to 5 parts sand & 1 part cement. In the majority of cases 4 to 1 is quite sufficient.

In the past reinforement was achieved by using Hex wire (chicken wire) or D49 mesh.  In the early 90’s Polypropylene Fibres (PPF) started to become very popular, and today PPF is the most common used reinforcement for traditional floor screed. This is the best way of getting a flat finished floor over a concrete slab or creating falls for wet rooms.