Repairs close to home
Mapperley sits on a narrow ridge along Woodborough Road, a little over 400 ft up and the highest part of Nottingham. It is also where Patch Me If You Can is based, so small plaster repairs here are some of the simplest jobs to fit in. A single hole where a bracket used to be, a crack across a landing ceiling, or a patch of plaster that has started to bulge is worth sorting before it spreads. With 18 years in indoor plastering behind it, a small job gets the same care as a whole house.
Edwardian walls, older ceilings
A lot of the housing around here dates from the early 1900s. The Mapperley estate was released for building in 1903, and about 163 houses received planning consent in Mapperley Park between 1906 and 1914. On the east side of Woodborough Road, houses on Blyth Street and Querneby Road went up from about 1900, with new streets reaching Porchester Road over the following twenty years.
Homes of that age were usually plastered in lime onto solid brick, with ceilings of lath and plaster. Both last well, but over a century they pick up problems: wall plaster that has lost its grip on the brickwork, ceilings where the plaster has parted from the timber laths, and cracks that open where an old wall meets a newer partition. A patch on these walls needs a repair material that suits the background, rather than a quick fill with whatever is to hand. If part of a lath ceiling has dropped or feels loose when pressed gently, that area is secured or boarded before any new plaster goes on.
Hairline cracks around door frames are common in houses this old and usually come from the building moving with the seasons. Wide cracks, or cracks that keep growing, are a different matter and should be seen by a surveyor before anyone plasters over them.
Mapperley Park and the conservation area
Mapperley Park is part of a conservation area noted for its Victorian and Edwardian homes on tree-lined avenues, bounded by Mapperley Road, Mansfield Road, Private Road and Woodborough Road. Conservation area rules mostly concern the outside of a building, so ordinary internal plaster repairs are rarely affected. If your house is listed, though, speak to Nottingham City Council before original plaster or decorative ceilings are removed or replaced. Where a room has a cornice or ceiling rose, the new plaster is worked up to it by hand so the original detail is left alone.
Getting a repair booked
Take a photo of the damage, note roughly how big it is and which room it is in, and send it through the enquiry form. You can also call 07877 353120 to talk it through. Patch Me If You Can works every day of the week from 7am to 5pm, which helps if weekends are the only time you are at home.
