Hucknall homes old and new
Hucknall grew quickly once its pits opened, with Top Pit sunk off Watnall Road in 1861 and Bottom Pit off Portland Road in 1866. Wikipedia notes that mining turned it into a market town in under a century. Today it runs south into Bulwell and Bestwood Village, and new building is still going on: Persimmon's estate on the former Rolls-Royce land on Watnall Road will have more than 900 properties when it is finished.
From Mapperley it is about five miles north-west, and Patch Me If You Can covers the whole town, including Butler's Hill, Westville, Beauvale and the West Hucknall Estates.
Repairs in newer houses
Newly built houses are lined with plasterboard, and the commonest patch jobs in them are small but annoying. A curtain pole bracket pulls out and takes a chunk of board with it. A door handle without a stop punches a neat round hole in the wall behind. An electrician runs a new cable and leaves a cut opening. Each needs the same approach: trim the damaged board back to firm edges, add a backing piece or a new section of board, then plaster over it so the repair lies level with the wall. Fitting a door stop afterwards keeps it from happening again.
Cracks at ceiling corners and along board joints often appear while a new house settles. Hold off until they stop moving, and find out whether your builder's warranty covers them before paying for a repair.
Repairs in older houses
In older homes, walls are often solid brick, and the plaster may be softer and patchier after decades of alterations. Here the usual repairs are blown areas that sound dull when tapped, cracked plaster around old door openings, and chases left after a rewire or a new heating system. The loose material has to come out completely before anything new goes on, otherwise the patch can lift with it.
Stairwells take a lot of punishment in any family home, old or new. Corners get chipped by pushchairs and furniture, and plaster around handrail brackets works loose. A badly damaged corner can be rebuilt on a new metal bead, so the edge runs straight again and stands up better to the next knock.
Getting it sorted
Hucknall has a town centre conservation area. Inside it, internal repairs in an ordinary house are rarely affected, though listed buildings need the council's say first. Send a photo through the enquiry form, or call 07877 353120. Patch Me If You Can is open seven days a week, 7am to 5pm.
