Plasterer and Renderer in Everton

Surviving terrace, and what it needs

Everton lost a great deal of its Victorian housing to the clearances, but the streets that survived are the same solid-wall terrace as the rest of the inner city: bay fronted, single leaf, and now well over a century old.

On those, the rule does not change. Breathable finishes only, anything hollow off first, and no hard cement over soft brick. A wall that has stood for a hundred and twenty years did so because it could dry out, and the quickest way to ruin it is to seal it.

Internal work on both

Whichever half of Everton a house is in, the internal work is much the same: ceilings, skimming out whole rooms, artex over-skimmed, and making good after alterations.

Modern rooms are lit with a lot of downlights and a wall that is only nearly flat is obvious at night. That is worth knowing before choosing between a skim over what is there and boarding it out properly, because on a bad wall the second is the cheaper answer in the end.

A fair amount of the work here is turning a house round between tenancies or before a sale, which usually means whole rooms rather than repairs and a fixed date to be out by. That is workable so long as the drying time is in the plan: fresh plaster wants four to seven days to go from dark pink to an even pale before anyone paints it, longer in winter.