Plasterer & Roughcaster in Paisley

Work in Paisley

Sandstone, and why it changes the job

A good deal of Paisley is red and blond sandstone: tenements, terraces and villas built when the town was making money from thread. Stone is a different background from block or brick, and anything put on it has to let it breathe.

Where a stone wall has been harled or rendered and that coat has failed, you can usually see the stone through it. That is the point at which the wall itself starts taking the weather, so it is worth dealing with rather than leaving.

We have done exactly this job: a gable where the dash had failed and the stone was showing through, cut back, made good and re-dashed in a golden mix. It is in our work section.

The inter war suburbs

Round the edges of the town there are whole districts of inter war and post war semis, bungalows and short terraces, most of them roughcast from new and most of them now on their second or third coat.

These are the straightforward ones: sound block or brick behind, a coat that has simply come to the end of its life, and a full re-dash or a change to smooth render as the choice.

Inside the older flats and houses

High ceilings, lath and plaster, cornice work and a century of papering. Skimming over a sound old wall is often possible and is much the tidier job; walls that sound hollow have to come off.

Ceilings in older Paisley property are the ones most likely to be lath and plaster, which eventually lets go whatever you do to the surface of it.