Carlton sits in a valley with two distinct halves. The northern side was built mostly during the Industrial Revolution and the early 1900s, as railways from the 1840s and then the 1914 tram route turned a township of farmers and framework knitters into a suburb for people working in Nottingham. The southern side came later, developed mainly in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. Patch Me If You Can skims rooms on both sides, but the preparation is rarely the same.
Older walls on the north side
Homes from the 19th and early 20th centuries were usually plastered with lime, and by now most have been patched many times over. Typical faults are hollow areas behind the paint, cracking around door frames and walls that have drifted out of flat. Every wall is tapped before work starts, and anything loose is cut out and filled back to level. Chimney breasts get extra attention: after years of coal fires they can hold soot and salts that bleed through new plaster as brown or damp-looking marks, so stained areas are cut back and treated before the finish coat goes on.
Mid-century houses on the south side
The 1930s to 1950s houses on the southern side usually have firmer plaster, so the skim is more about covering what decades of decorating have left behind. If you have stripped woodchip or vinyl paper, the surface underneath is often torn and furry, and it needs scraping back and sealing before it can take a skim. Picture rails and original door frames can stay; the plaster is finished neatly up to them.
Netherfield's terraces and steep stairs
Netherfield, once part of the old Carlton Urban District, grew quickly after the Nottingham to Lincoln line opened in 1846, and rows of terraced Victorian houses became its signature. In a terrace the staircase is often steep and boxed in between two walls. Skimming it properly means setting up a stair platform rather than balancing a ladder on a tread, and doing each wall top to bottom in one go so there is no visible join.
Whichever side of the valley you are on, give the new plaster time to dry right through with some ventilation and no fan heater pointed at it, then seal it with a thinned matt emulsion before the top coats.
Whether you are off Carlton Hill, near the King George V Recreation Ground on Standhill Road or in Netherfield, call 07877 353120 or fill in the enquiry form. We work 7am to 5pm, seven days a week.
