Ilkeston is about 7 miles west of Mapperley, across the River Erewash in Derbyshire. Coal, iron and lace built the town, which grew from under 2,500 people in 1801 to over 30,000 by 1911, and the 20th century added large planned estates. Between them, they cover most of the plastering situations a home can throw up.
Kirk Hallam: 1950s to 1970s homes
Kirk Hallam was built up in two main stages. In the 1950s, Ilkeston Corporation and the Stanton and Staveley company built public housing around St Norbert Drive; in the 1960s and 1970s, mixed public and private housing followed around Godfrey Drive. Houses from the 1950s may still have their first plaster, which by now can be crazed with fine cracks or patched around every socket. Later homes are more likely to have plasterboard ceilings, sometimes with a textured finish added during redecoration.
For these houses a full skim is usually the answer. Fine cracks are raked out and filled, board joints are reinforced, and any loose patches are cut back before the finish goes on. Where a textured ceiling is involved, the texture is filled level first so the skim goes on at an even thickness.
Local brick, older houses
Erewash Borough Council's appraisal says local brick, often made alongside the collieries, accounts for the strong character of the town centre conservation area. That area runs along Bath Street and South Street to the Market Place, with larger detached houses on wider plots along Wharncliffe Road. Older brick houses like these tend to have solid walls, deep window reveals and chimney breasts in most rooms. Their original plaster may be soft and crumbly where it has been damp, and well past simple patching. Taking the failed plaster off, letting the wall dry if needed and building it back up in suitable layers gives a sound base for decorating.
Chimney breasts deserve a closer look in houses of this age. A breast with its fireplace taken out often has a poorly filled opening and plaster stained by old soot, and both need putting right before a finish coat will look clean.
Turning a house round
If you have bought an older house in Cotmanhay, Larklands or Hallam Fields to renovate, plastering is usually the stage that makes it feel finished. Get rewiring, heating and any structural work done first; then ceilings, walls, stairs and landings can be plastered as one job. We plaster full properties as well as single rooms.
For indoor plastering in Ilkeston, call 07877 353120 or send photos through the enquiry form. We are open seven days a week, 7am to 5pm.
