Plastering and Rendering in Milton Keynes
Plastering and rendering across Milton Keynes, by trades who do it every week rather than once a year.
Plastering is where a renovation is won or lost, because it is the surface you look at every day. Most of ours is done inside our own projects, after the walls have been moved and the electrics chased in. But we get asked for it on its own often enough that it deserves its own page: artexed ceilings, blown plaster, and the house that has never quite looked right since somebody decorated over a bad skim.
Typical works can include
Every project is different. Depending on the agreed scope, works may include:
- Skim coat over existing plaster, walls and ceilings
- Overboarding artex and damaged ceilings
- Hacking off blown plaster and replastering to the brick
- Dot and dab plasterboard to new and existing walls
- Making good after rewires, chases and structural openings
- Beads, stop ends and arrises
- Removal of failed external render and substrate repair
- Silicone, monocouche and sand and cement render systems
- Render matching on extensions
- Mist coat and decoration, where included within the agreed scope
Elements such as decoration, flooring, structural engineer fees, Building Control fees and any professional or design costs are dealt with according to the individual project, and are included only where the quotation says so.
Skimming, reboarding and replastering
A skim coat over sound existing plaster is the quick win: two coats of finish plaster, flat and ready to paint in a few days. Artex ceilings we would normally overboard rather than skim, because it is quicker, flatter and avoids disturbing older textured coatings that can contain asbestos. Where the plaster is blown, hollow when you tap it, it comes off back to the brick and goes back on properly with a backing coat and a finish.
The big replastering jobs come after structural work. A knock through, a rewire or a new opening leaves chases, patches and new plasterboard that all need bringing to one flat plane, and that is where having the plasterer inside the same team pays off. Nobody argues over whose patch it is.
External rendering
A lot of Milton Keynes houses from the seventies and eighties have render panels or a rendered upper storey that has cracked, blown or just gone green. We take failed render off, repair the substrate and re-render, usually in a modern through coloured silicone or monocouche system that does not need painting and copes better with movement than the old sand and cement. Matching an existing finish on an extension is the other common job.
Rendering is weather dependent. It cannot go on in frost or in direct summer sun, so the honest window is spring and autumn for most of it, and we programme around that rather than rush it.
Drying, mist coats and when you can paint
New plaster needs to dry before it is decorated, and that takes longer than most people want it to. A skim over existing plaster is often ready in a week; a full float and set in winter can be three or four. Then a mist coat of watered down emulsion before any proper paint, otherwise the finish peels. If we are decorating as well, we build that into the programme. If you are painting it yourself, we will tell you when.
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Examples of this work
Some of these are mid build rather than finished, because that is where you can see how something was put together.
Worth knowing
A single ceiling or one small wall is a job for a local plasterer working on their own, and they will be better value for it. Where we make sense is a whole room or a whole house, anything that follows building work, and any render job that involves repairing what is underneath as well as the finish.
Where we do this work
Milton Keynes is home and most of this work is inside the city. We also take it on across the surrounding towns.
Every area we cover, and what is different about building there
Common questions
How long before new plaster can be painted?
Until it has dried to a uniform pale pink with no dark patches, which is a week or so for a skim in summer and three or four weeks for a full replaster in winter. Then a mist coat of watered down emulsion before any proper paint, or the top coat will peel. If we are decorating as well, we build the drying time into the programme.
Can you get rid of an artex ceiling?
Yes. On most ceilings we overboard with new plasterboard and skim it, rather than trying to skim over the texture, because it is flatter, quicker and avoids disturbing the old coating. Textured coatings applied before the mid eighties can contain asbestos, so we do not sand or scrape them, and where there is any doubt it gets tested first.
Do you do small jobs?
No. We do not take on handyman work, single repairs or odd jobs, and it is better to say so up front than leave you waiting for a quote that never comes.
We are set up for substantial building and renovation work: extensions, structural alterations, whole house projects, conversions and significant external works. For smaller repairs or handyman-type work, we would recommend using a tradesperson who specialises in that type of service, as our team is structured around larger building and renovation projects.
How long will the work take?
It depends on the job, and anyone who gives you a number without seeing the house is guessing. As a rough guide: a bathroom is two to three weeks, a kitchen refit two to four, a single storey rear extension is usually ten to fourteen weeks from breaking ground, and a full house renovation runs three to six months depending on scale.
Weather, Building Control inspections and lead times on windows, doors and kitchens all move those numbers. We build realistic float into the programme rather than promising a date we cannot hold.
Related work
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