Newark-on-Trent grew up around its castle and St Mary Magdalene church as a wool and cloth trading centre, and Victorian industry brought ironworks, engineering, brewing and sugar refining. That long history left a historic centre around the Market Place, while the town has more recently spread south to Fernwood, Middlebeck and Balderton.
Skim before the furniture arrives
If you have just bought a house in Newark, the easiest time to skim is before you move in. Empty rooms need nothing moving or covering beyond the floors, the plaster can dry with the windows open and nobody living around it, and you can decorate before the boxes arrive. Picture hooks, holes from the previous owner's shelves, rough patches where paper came away and old filled cracks all disappear under one new coat. Patch Me If You Can quotes for whole two, three and four-bedroom houses as well as single rooms, hallways and staircases.
Late-Victorian and Edwardian houses
Newark's conservation area, designated in 1968, was only the second ever designated in England. A 2022 council review proposed extending it to take in the late-Victorian and Edwardian planned housing around the Magnus School, on Hatton Gardens, Winchilsea Avenue and Milner Street, the 19th-century houses on Crown Street, and the late-Victorian and early 20th-century homes on Lime Grove. Walls in houses of this age are often a patchwork of original lime plaster and later gypsum repairs, and the two absorb water at very different rates. Sealing the whole wall evenly before skimming stops the new finish drying patchily, which is what causes fine crazing and dark blotches.
Fernwood, Middlebeck and Balderton
Fernwood is a new housing estate, Middlebeck is growing on the town's southern edge with a school that opened in September 2021, and homes have been built on the former Balderton Hospital site. New houses are usually lined with plasterboard and often finished with taped joints rather than a full coat of plaster. A skim over the boards gives a harder surface that dents less easily and hides joint lines, and it is a sensible upgrade once the house has settled.
Letting it dry
Whatever the age of the house, new plaster needs to dry slowly and evenly. Ventilate the rooms, don't aim heaters at the walls, and paint only when the colour is uniform, starting with a thinned matt emulsion.
For skimming in Newark-on-Trent, Balderton or the new estates on the edge of town, call 07877 353120 or send the enquiry form. We're working seven days a week, 7am to 5pm.
