Full House Wall and Ceiling Re-skim by a Plasterer in Hammersmith and Fulham

This project took place in a Victorian terraced house in Lambeth, South London, with the SEO focus on the neighbouring borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. The property is a mid-terrace house with a ground-floor reception room and bedroom facing a rear garden. The rooms featured the typical characteristics of older South and West London housing stock — flat plasterboard ceilings with a heavily flaking decorative surface, and original painted plaster walls that had deteriorated significantly over the years. The house was being prepared for full refurbishment, with flooring stripped back to the subfloor and all furniture removed ahead of the plastering works.

The images show two rooms — likely a front reception room and a rear ground-floor bedroom — both in a pre-plaster state ahead of a full re-skim. The ceiling across both rooms displayed extensive flaking and peeling of the existing finish coat, with large sections of the decorative surface detaching to reveal the base coat beneath, creating a patchy, uneven surface throughout. The walls showed widespread areas of blown and delaminating plaster, with the old finish coat lifting away from the backing plaster in irregular patches across all four walls. Several electrical chase lines were visible running down the walls, indicating recent first-fix electrical work had been completed. The floors were stripped back to bare underlay or subfloor, confirming the property was mid-renovation and ready for the plastering phase to begin.

The scope of work covered a full re-skim of all walls and ceilings across two ground-floor rooms within this Victorian terraced property in South London. Both the front and rear rooms required a complete strip of the failing finish coat from the ceiling before any new plaster could be applied. The ceiling surfaces, while not fully replaced, needed to be thoroughly prepared to ensure sound adhesion of the new skim coat. All four walls in each room were identified as requiring a full re-skim over the existing backing plaster, with specific areas of blown and delaminating plaster marked for filling or cutting back prior to skimming. Electrical chases running vertically and horizontally across the walls needed to be filled with bonding compound and allowed to fully set before the walls were skimmed over. The works also included making good around the window reveal in the rear room, where chased conduit was visible at low level. PVA bonding agent was applied across the walls and ceiling to stabilise the porous, old plaster substrate and provide a regulated suction surface for the multi-finish. The project was executed room by room to allow adequate drying time between rooms and to minimise disruption to the ongoing refurbishment programme.

Before any plaster was mixed, all loose and delaminating finish coat was scraped back from the ceiling surface in both rooms using a broad scraper, removing any sections that had already detached or were visibly hollow. The walls were checked by tapping for blown areas, and any sections that had completely separated from the backing coat were cut back to a firm edge and filled with bonding compound. All electrical chase lines were filled flush with the wall using a bonding coat, scored lightly, and left to dry before skimming commenced. The entire wall and ceiling surfaces were then given a diluted PVA wash — one part PVA to four parts water — to consolidate the porous substrate and reduce suction, preventing the multi-finish from drying out too rapidly before it could be properly trowelled off.

With preparation complete, the ceiling in the first room was skimmed using British Gypsum Multi-Finish plaster, applied in a single continuous coat across the full ceiling area. The plaster was spread firmly and evenly using a 14-inch finishing trowel, working from the edges inward to maintain a wet edge throughout. Once the coat had stiffened to the correct consistency, it was trowelled back using a clean damp trowel in two further passes, bringing up the surface to a flat, tight finish. The walls were then skimmed starting with the largest uninterrupted surfaces and finishing around the door frame and window reveal. A scratch coat of multi-finish was applied to the walls first, spread to approximately 2–3mm thickness, and ruled off with a feather-edge straight to ensure a plumb, flat surface. Once the scratch coat had started to firm up, a second finishing coat was applied and trowelled to a smooth, hard surface. Each wall received two coats of Thistle Multi-Finish — the scratch coat followed by the closing coat — with the trowel dampened between passes to achieve a polished surface. The rear bedroom walls, which showed more extensive areas of bare backing plaster exposed by the stripped-off old finish, required closer attention during the scratch coat application to build up the surface evenly before finishing. The ceiling in both rooms was completed on the same day as the walls to allow the rooms to be closed up and left to dry uniformly.

The principal challenge on this project was the inconsistent suction across the wall surfaces. Because large sections of the old finish coat had already lifted and been removed, the exposed backing plaster was significantly more porous and absorbent than the areas where the old finish coat was still in place. This created a patchy suction profile across every wall — meaning the multi-finish plaster was at risk of drying out unevenly, which would have caused drag marks and trowel pulls in the finished surface. The ceiling presented a secondary challenge: the remaining surface coating was fragile in places, and any heavy pressure during skimming risked dislodging further sections and creating voids beneath the new skim coat.

To manage the variable suction across the walls, a second PVA coat was applied to the most porous and exposed sections of backing plaster immediately before skimming, while the less absorbent areas received a single diluted coat only. This allowed the plasterer to regulate suction across the full wall area and apply the multi-finish at a consistent rate without risk of premature drying. For the ceiling, the loose surface was consolidated by applying a bonding PVA solution to the peeling areas and allowing it to become tacky before the skim coat was applied, which stabilised the remaining surface and prevented further delamination during trowelling.

The completed walls across both rooms present a flat, continuous skim coat that fully conceals the previously patchy and delaminating plaster beneath. The warm terracotta-pink tone visible in the after photographs is the natural colour of freshly applied and drying Thistle Multi-Finish plaster, confirming the skim coat is properly bonded and curing uniformly across all surfaces. The ceiling retains its flat profile with no visible ridging or trowel lines. All electrical back-boxes and sockets have been plastered neatly around, leaving them flush with the new wall surface. The electrical chase lines that ran down both walls are no longer visible, fully incorporated into the new skim coat. The rooms are now ready for painting once the plaster has fully dried and cured.

The homeowner was mid-way through a full refurbishment of this South London property and needed the plastering completed promptly so that the decorators could follow on. The re-skim across both ground-floor rooms was completed within two working days, allowing the walls and ceiling to begin drying while the rest of the renovation continued in other areas of the house. The client confirmed the walls were ready for mist coat painting within seven days of the plaster being applied. The project cost came in within the quoted budget, and the rooms were left clean and protected with dust sheets throughout the works.

Re-skimming walls and ceilings where the existing plaster has partially delaminated is a technically demanding job that requires accurate assessment of substrate condition before any plaster is applied. Applying multi-finish directly to a surface with inconsistent suction — without appropriate PVA preparation — results in uneven drying, drag marks, and a finish that will crack or peel within months. A plasterer with direct experience of Victorian and post-war South and West London housing stock understands how these substrates behave and how to stabilise them correctly. London Plastering Service has over ten years of experience working on residential re-skims across Hammersmith and Fulham, Lambeth, and surrounding boroughs, using British Gypsum materials throughout.