Kitchen Wall Strip & Re-Skim by a Plasterer in Camden

This project took place in a Victorian terraced house in South London, with the work targeted at the kitchen. The kitchen is a mid-sized galley-style room fitted with light wood-effect units, a gas hob, integrated oven and dark laminate worktops. Coving runs along the ceiling perimeter, consistent with a period property. The ceiling was finished in a heavily textured Artex coating — a common feature in homes of this age — while the walls behind the existing plaster had been lined with painted surfaces that had begun to fail.

The collage of four images clearly shows the kitchen in four distinct stages. In the top-left image, the walls appear intact but heavily painted, and the ceiling carries a thick, heavily textured Artex finish. In the top-right image, the old plaster and painted surfaces have been stripped back, exposing bare brick across the main wall beside the window. Chunks of old plaster debris are scattered across the floor. The bare brick is uneven in places, showing the original mortar joints clearly. There is no visible damp or structural cracking, but the wall substrate is porous and in need of stabilisation before any new plaster could be applied.

The scope of this project covered the full strip and re-skim of the kitchen walls. The existing painted plaster was hacked off back to the bare brick substrate, removing all failing surface material before new plaster was applied. The ceiling Artex was not removed but was left in place, suggesting the ceiling re-skim was either handled separately or was outside the scope of this visit. The primary work involved preparing the exposed brick walls, applying a bonding coat to create a suitable surface for the finish plaster, and then skimming the walls to a flat, smooth surface ready for decorating. Work was carried out around the existing fitted kitchen units, which remained in position throughout, requiring careful cutting-in around cabinet edges, the window reveal, and the coving line at ceiling level. The finished result — visible in the bottom-right panel — shows the walls brought back to a clean, flat plastered surface consistent with the surrounding cabinets and coving. The kitchen is left in a paint-ready condition with the fitted appliances undisturbed.

Once the old plaster was fully stripped back to bare brick, the walls were swept down to remove loose dust and debris. The brick substrate was then treated with a diluted PVA bonding solution, applied by brush across all exposed surfaces, to seal the porous brick and improve adhesion for the bonding coat. The window reveal was also prepared, with the edges masked to protect the existing window frame during plastering. Cabinet edges were similarly protected before any plaster was applied. The bonding coat — a sand-and-cement or thistle bonding product — was then applied and allowed to partially set before the finish coat was applied.

With the bonding coat applied and brought to the correct suction level, the walls were skimmed using a multi-finish plaster. The plasterer worked from the top of the wall downward, applying the first coat across the bonded surface and ruling it back to a consistent flat plane using a straight edge. Around the kitchen cabinets, the plaster was cut in carefully using a smaller trowel to avoid disturbing the unit frames. The window reveal received the same treatment — bonded and skimmed flush with the surrounding wall. Once the first coat had begun to stiffen, a second finishing pass was applied using a clean, wetted trowel, working the surface in broad circular strokes to consolidate the plaster and close the face. The bottom-left panel shows the walls mid-process, with the plaster still wet and dark grey in colour — consistent with freshly applied multi-finish. The bottom-right panel shows the completed walls after drying, with the plaster tightened to a pale, even surface ready for mist coat and decoration. The coving joint line was preserved cleanly throughout.

The primary challenge on this job was achieving a flat, consistent finish directly over a bare Victorian brick wall. Unlike a modern plasterboard surface, old brick is highly uneven — the mortar joints sit lower than the brick faces, creating a deeply undulating substrate. Without adequate preparation, finish plaster applied directly to brick would pull and dry unevenly, resulting in a weak bond and an uneven face. Additionally, working around fixed kitchen units required careful cutting-in at every cabinet edge and around the window reveal, where there was limited working space to manoeuvre a full-size plastering trowel.

A PVA bonding wash was applied first to reduce suction and consolidate the brick surface. A full bonding coat was then built up across the walls to bridge the uneven mortar joints and bring the substrate to a consistent level before any finish plaster was applied. This two-stage approach — bonding coat followed by multi-finish skim — is the correct method for re-plastering over bare brick, as it gives the finish coat a stable, evenly absorbent surface to key into. Around the units, a smaller margin trowel was used to work the plaster into the tight edges cleanly.

The finished walls — visible in the bottom-right panel of the collage — are flat, smooth and consistent in tone, showing the multi-finish plaster has dried evenly across all surfaces. The coving line at ceiling level is intact and unaffected. Cabinet edges are clean with no plaster bleed onto the unit frames. The window reveal is neatly finished flush with the adjacent walls. The Artex ceiling remains in contrast overhead but the wall surfaces are now fully prepared for a mist coat of diluted emulsion followed by the client's chosen decorating finish.

The client had their kitchen walls stripped and re-skimmed in a single visit, with the fitted kitchen left fully in place and undisturbed. The walls dried to a flat, even surface ready for decoration, eliminating the flaking and uneven painted plaster that had been a long-standing issue in the room. The project was completed within the agreed timescale, leaving the kitchen functional and ready for the decorator to follow on within a few days of the plaster drying fully.

Re-plastering a kitchen wall that has been stripped back to bare brick requires more than just applying finish plaster directly — the substrate must be correctly prepared to avoid the finish coat cracking, blowing or bonding poorly. Applying multi-finish directly to porous brick without a bonding coat is one of the most common DIY plastering failures. A plasterer working in Camden with experience of Victorian properties understands how to read the substrate, control suction and build up the correct thickness of plaster in stages to achieve a wall that will last rather than fail within months.