Our work
A look at recent jobs
Skimmed walls, ceilings and re-plastered rooms across Walthamstow and nearby.
Skimming over old lath, ceiling repairs, full re-plastering and plasterboarding across Walthamstow, Leyton and Chingford — fixed written prices, dust sheeted properly, walls left flat and ready to paint.
Almost everything in Walthamstow is Victorian terrace, and behind most of those walls is lath and horsehair plaster rather than board. That single fact decides the job, the price and how long it takes — and it is the thing a quote given over the phone always gets wrong.
Two coats of finish worked over a stabilised surface, taken flat to the corners. On a sound Walthamstow wall it is the whole job and it is done in a day.
Where the key has gone the ceiling comes down and goes back in board, taped and skimmed. Dustier than a skim, and it lasts rather than sagging again.
Old plaster off back to brick, bonding coat, then finish. The right call where the wall is blown rather than just tired.
New walls boarded, taped and skimmed — the everyday job on a Walthamstow flat conversion, done so the joints never show under a light.
Breast taken out and the wall and ceiling brought back flat, which is where most of these jobs are visibly rushed.
Salt-contaminated plaster hacked off and replaced with a proper sand-cement and render coat. We will tell you first if the cause is still there.
Plaster fails for the same three reasons every time: a wall never tested for a sound key, finish trowelled onto a surface that was never stabilised, and a skim put over a problem instead of fixing it. Get those right and a skimmed wall stays flat for decades. Get them wrong and it cracks across the middle inside two years.
Send a photo of the wall on WhatsApp — a wide shot and a close-up of any cracking tells us nearly everything we need.
We come out, check the substrate and the damp, then give you a fixed written price — materials, protection and making good all in.
Prepared, bonded, skimmed and left flat and ready to paint, the room swept and cleared — and the work guaranteed in writing.
Public-liability insured, with references from regular customers you can check first.
Floors, doorways and the route in and out covered from the start. The dust stays in the room it belongs in.
Every wall tapped through, loose plaster cut back, beads set true. The bit nobody sees is the bit that lasts.
One price for the whole job, agreed before we start. Materials, protection and making good included.
Skimmed walls, ceilings and re-plastered rooms across Walthamstow and nearby.
The plastering in a Walthamstow terrace is usually a hundred and thirty years old, and what is behind it changes everything about the job. Original lath and plaster is timber laths nailed across the joists with lime plaster pushed through to form a key on the back, and when that key crumbles — which it does, slowly, from vibration and damp and a century of doors slamming — the plaster stops being held to anything. It sounds hollow, it moves under your palm, and skimming straight over it buys you a smooth wall for about eighteen months. The honest answer on a lot of E17 ceilings is that the lath has gone and the ceiling wants taking down and boarding, which is dustier and dearer than the phone quote you were hoping for, and considerably cheaper than doing it twice. Where the lath is sound the right job is a proper skim: the surface stabilised, a bonding coat where it is uneven, then two coats of finish worked up to a flat, paint-ready wall. Walthamstow also has more flat conversions than almost anywhere in the borough, and conversion work brings its own plastering — new stud walls boarded and taped, old chimney breasts removed and made good, ceilings levelled where two flats meet at different heights. The other job that comes up constantly here is damp-damaged plaster in the back addition, where the original single-skin wall meets a much later kitchen. Replastering that without dealing with what wet it in the first place is money thrown at a symptom, and we will say so rather than take it. Everything is sheeted, the dust is kept to the room it belongs in, and the walls are left flat, filled and genuinely ready for a roller.
Not sure if we reach you? Send your postcode and we'll confirm.
If the plaster behind is still keyed to the lath, yes, and it is a day's work per room. If it sounds hollow when you tap it, skimming over it will crack out within a couple of years. We tap the whole wall through before quoting and tell you honestly which one you have.
A straight skim on a standard E17 bedroom is usually a day plus materials. Taking a lath ceiling down and reboarding the same room is two to three days and roughly double, because it is a different job. We price both so you can see the difference rather than being surprised by it.
Not always, and we would rather not. Plenty of Walthamstow ceilings are perfectly sound and just want overboarding or skimming. Where the lath has let go there is nothing to fix it to, and overboarding a failed ceiling puts weight on a fixing that is already failing.
A skim is contained and tidy. Taking down old lath and plaster is genuinely dirty work — it is horsehair and soot as well as plaster. We sheet the room, protect the route in and out, and take the waste with us.
Fresh plaster wants three to seven days to dry depending on the room and the weather, and it goes from dark brown to a uniform pale pink when it is ready. Then a watered-down mist coat first, never straight to emulsion.
Regularly — there is more of it in Walthamstow than anywhere nearby. New stud walls, ceilings levelled where the floors do not line up, and old openings made good so the finished flat does not read as a conversion.
07568 989654
Call us — or send a photo on WhatsApp
Walthamstow based, covering Leyton, Leytonstone, Highams Park, Chingford and across E17 — someone who can come and put a hand on the wall this week rather than book you in for next month.
Send us a photo of the wall on WhatsApp and we'll see if we can quote you over the phone.