Plasterers in Burgess Hill

The town grew up around the railway on the London to Brighton line, and its older core still has Victorian and Edwardian brick houses and terraces. Most of the town, though, is made up of post-war and later estates, with more recent developments continuing to spread out around its edges. That means the majority of local plastering is on cavity-walled homes finished with gypsum plaster or plasterboard.

For homeowners this is good news, because modern walls are usually straightforward to skim and repair. The common jobs are re-skimming tired or damaged walls, smoothing out Artex ceilings in homes from the 1970s and 1980s, plastering new extensions and loft conversions, and fixing the cracks that appear in newer houses. Older houses in the original centre may still have lime plaster on solid walls, and those need a gentler approach.

Skimming puts a thin finishing coat over existing plaster or plasterboard to give a smooth, flat surface for decorating. It is the usual choice for walls marked by years of use, wallpaper removal or patched repairs, and for covering textured ceilings once they have been tested for asbestos. Older textured coatings can contain asbestos, so they should not be sanded or scraped until a sample has been checked.

Extensions and loft conversions normally need boarding and skimming throughout, and in some cases dry lining on the walls. These jobs are usually planned around other trades, so it helps to involve a plasterer early to agree when the room will be ready. Your builder or building control can confirm which boards the new space needs.

Most of Burgess Hill's newer houses have insulated cavity walls, but some older and mid-century homes are harder to heat, and external wall insulation can help where cavity insulation is not an option. It counts as renovating a thermal element under the building regulations, so building control approval is needed, and planning permission may apply in a conservation area, on a listed building or where the appearance changes significantly. Check with Mid Sussex District Council before you go ahead.

For a semi-detached house, Checkatrade gives £14,000 to £20,000, while the FMB says a standard three-bedroom semi averages about £10,000. Checkatrade heads its figures "Cost+VAT" and the FMB does not state VAT. Our external wall insulation cost guide explains why the published figures vary so much.