Loughborough is about 15 miles south of Mapperley, over the Leicestershire border at the far end of the A60, which starts in the town and runs north to Nottingham. It is a university town with a long industrial history, from lace and hosiery to bell founding and locomotives, and its housing reflects both.
Student lets and family homes
Loughborough University says several areas of the town have become very popular with students, and the Loughborough Echo named the streets between the town centre and the campus as particularly affected. Since February 2012, Charnwood's Article 4 Direction has required planning consent to rent a house in Loughborough to three or more unrelated tenants. For landlords, that makes looking after existing lets all the more important. Shared houses take wear: holes where shelves and posters were fixed, dented corners in hallways, and tired walls in kitchens and bathrooms. A summer refresh, with damage repaired and walls and ceilings skimmed where needed, covers a lot of it at once. In bathrooms, moisture-resistant board helps any reboarded areas last, and shared houses may need fire-rated boards on escape routes, so check your licence conditions.
From Shelthorpe to Thorpe Acre
Loughborough's 20th-century suburbs each have their own build. Shelthorpe was started in 1929, halted by the Second World War and resumed in 1946, so its houses straddle the move from lath and plaster ceilings to plasterboard. Thorpe Acre grew mainly in the 1950s for Brush Engineering workers and includes 100 dwellings built of no-fines concrete, with a further estate in the 1960s and early 1970s. Concrete walls take plaster differently from brick, so we check what the walls are made of before deciding on the backing. Dishley was heavily developed in the 1970s, the Hazel Road and Fairmeadows Way estates date from the same decade, and the Haddon Way estates came after. Textured ceilings were in fashion then; they can be skimmed flat over a filling coat.
Newer Loughborough
Grange Park was started in 2006, and the Eastern Gateway housing by the station was completed in 2013. Homes like these are usually dry-lined. Fine cracks along board joints and above doors are normal as a house settles, and a skim gives the walls a harder finish once that has happened.
If your home is in one of Loughborough's eight conservation areas, such as Ashby Road, Queen's Park or Victoria Street, check whether it is listed before changing original interior plaster.
For indoor plastering in Loughborough, call 07877 353120 or send photos through the enquiry form. We are open seven days a week, 7am to 5pm.
