Re-plastering old houses

Poggie123

Looking for some advice please.....

I've got a victorian mid terrace with a knocked through lounge diner that desperately needs skimming. I got a plasterer in who said that plaster in houses of this age can't be skimmed and the whole lot will have to be taken back to the brick. He reckoned the job would take two blokes a week and cost £1200 + vat :eek: A lot more than I'd anticipated!!! Does this sound right or is he pulling a fast one?!!

Ditto

If the builder is correct about being taken back to the brick, and he may not, get another two quotes from different builders.

Nile

Hello Poggie123


Welcome to the MSE site.:wave:

Keldin

We've just had a room done and our house was built in 1880. I don't know if the plaster was also that old but we had to have some patches redone (about 2-3 sq metres) and had it skimmed. No-one doing the quotes said anything about having to replaster from the brick.

K

bluekp

Hi,

Our house is a 1970's 3 bed terrace. We've recently had the whole thing replastered (a lot of areas were done from the brick as the browning coat that was originally applied wasn't stuck well enough to the wall - you can tell by tapping the plaster - if it sounds hollow then it will probably all have to come off).

Anyway, it cost us around £3.7k for the whole house to be done.

Hope this helps

mrsmess

my husband is a plasterer and he said he is pulling a fast one tap on the plaster wall and see if solid or hollow sounding, if solid a reskim should be ok. hope this helps

Poggie123

Now that I've taken the wallpaper off there are a few patches where the top layer has come away but the majority of it is solid. It's the old lime plaster apparently (means nowt to me!!) and the surface isn't as smooth as the pinky coloured stuff. There are a few places that look like they've been patched and it seems to have held ok.

Old houses are great for big rooms but inheriting other peoples bodgit & scarper jobs is expensive and annoying!! Grrrrr!

nelly_2

Im a plasterer and you can reskim pretty much anything. I charge about £350 per room so that gives you an idea

moggins

Our house was built in 1820 and still has most of the original lath plaster walls. We had our hallway and stairs skimmed last year without a problem at all, we just tapped away the loose stuff until we reached solid plaster and the plasterer just built up the base until he had a level surface to skim.

cargo

I am also a Plasterer and agree with Nelly and other comments made.
As a visual aid might help I have uploaded a few of my photos to show the type of walls that can be re-skimmed/patched hope this may be of some help.

http://www.astk60.dsl.pipex.com

Poggie123

Wow cargo thats great!! Thank You!!:T

My walls are pretty much like the first pic with a few crumbly bits but nowhere near down to brick. Seems like the bloke who came round was trying it on - perhaps I look like i've got pots of cash!! If only!

Roughly how much would it cost to skim a 20ft lounge diner?