Plasterboard, Plastering & Painting Nottingham

Partitions: what is inside the wall

A stud partition is quick to put up and easy to put up badly. The things that decide whether it feels like a wall or like a screen are all buried: studs at proper centres, noggins where anything will be fixed, and something in the cavity.

An empty stud wall transmits sound both ways, which people notice immediately when a partition splits a bedroom or closes off a home office. Acoustic mineral wool in the cavity, boards staggered so joints do not line up on both faces, and a bead of sealant at floor and ceiling make a large difference for a small share of the cost. If the wall will ever carry a television, a basin, a radiator or heavy shelving, the noggins for it have to go in before boarding: fixing into plasterboard afterwards is a compromise, and fixing into nothing is a repair waiting to happen.

Boarding to existing walls

On masonry there are two approaches. Dot-and-dab bonds board directly to the wall with adhesive: fast, and it keeps the room dimension, but it needs a sound, dry substrate and it leaves a void that will find any damp. Battening costs a little more room and a little more time, and it gives a dead-flat plane on a wall that is out of true, plus space for insulation or services. On an old, uneven or slightly damp wall, battening is usually the right answer even though dot-and-dab is quicker to quote.

Skim, and how long it really takes to dry

A skim coat is a two or three millimetre finish over board or over a backing coat. It is a wet trade, and the drying is not negotiable. Fresh plaster goes through a colour change from dark brown to a uniform pale pink as it dries, and it is not ready for paint until the whole wall is that even pale colour with no dark patches, including corners and behind radiators.

That takes days for board finish and considerably longer over a backing coat or on a cold, still room. New plaster then needs a mist coat: watered-down matt emulsion, roughly three parts paint to one part water, with no vinyl in it. Plaster is porous and drinks the water out of undiluted paint before it can form a film, which is why full-strength paint straight onto new plaster peels off in sheets months later. The mist coat soaks in and gives the finish coats something to bond to.

Older Nottingham houses

Victorian and Edwardian houses locally still have lath and plaster ceilings and walls: timber laths with lime plaster pushed through them. It is worth keeping where it is sound, because the original mouldings and coving usually go with it. When it has blown, the plaster has parted from the laths and it sounds hollow and moves under hand pressure, and no amount of filling brings it back; that section has to come off and be reboarded and skimmed. Original coving and ceiling roses can be cut around and kept.

Cracks: cosmetic or not

Fine hairline cracks along a ceiling and wall junction, or in the same place every year, are usually seasonal movement and a filling-and-decorating job. Cracks worth looking at properly are diagonal ones running from the corners of doors or windows, cracks wider than a couple of millimetres, cracks that are wider at one end, and any crack that has visibly grown. Those are worth understanding before decorating over them, because paint hides the evidence without addressing anything.

Decoration

Most of a good paint finish is preparation: filling, caulking the gaps at architraves and skirtings, sanding back, and dusting off. Paint applied over dust does not bond. Finish choice matters by room: a durable washable matt or eggshell for hallways and children's bedrooms, a moisture-resistant finish for kitchens and bathrooms, and a water-based satinwood on woodwork if you do not want white trim yellowing over a few years the way traditional oil-based gloss does.

What drives the cost

Area and access, the state of what is there now, whether ceilings are included, whether old plaster has to come off, and how much making good is needed around a previous job. Free site visit, fixed written price, 12-month guarantee on the work.