Shoreham's council conservation appraisal describes the earlier buildings in the centre of town as built from cobblestones, pebbles and flint, with brick quoins around openings and corners. In Old Shoreham, some of the oldest houses are timber framed and were later refaced in render or in flint and brick. The boundary walls around the old town show what local builders had to hand: sea flint, broken brick, coarse lime and sea sand, mixed into the rough walls known along this coast as bungaroosh. Flint, cobble and old brick in lime can all turn up behind the plaster of an older Shoreham house, and they are some of the most uneven backgrounds a plasterer meets.
Floating a flint or cobble wall
Flint and cobble give a wall full of hollows, with joints of soft lime mortar between rounded stones. A backing coat cannot simply be trowelled on thick and ruled off; deep areas are dubbed out first, in layers, and each layer allowed to firm up before the next. Old solid walls like these also need to be able to dry outwards and inwards, so the backing is chosen for a wall that breathes rather than one that is sealed. Getting that wrong is a common reason for new plaster blistering and staining a year or two later. If the wall was stripped because of damp, the source of the water has to be dealt with first; damp proofing in Shoreham explains how that is approached.
Brick terraces and larger repairs
The two-storey Victorian terraces of Queens Place, Ham Road, New Road and Southdown Road were built with solid walls, as was usual for their age; where those are brick they are more regular than flint, but often patched over the years. Float and set comes into play when plaster has blown across a large area, when a chimney breast has been taken out, or when an opening has been formed between two rooms. Beads go onto corners and around the new opening, the brick is dampened or primed so it does not draw the water out of the backing too quickly, the float is ruled off straight and true, keyed, and then the set coat is laid on and polished.
New blockwork
Extensions and new builds across Shoreham, from Shoreham Beach to the roads north of the railway, are usually built in concrete block. Floated walls give a hard, solid surface that holds kitchen units, radiators and shelving firmly and stands up to knocks. Where speed matters more than toughness, plasterboard is the alternative, but on a busy kitchen or utility wall, floating usually earns its keep. Once the set coat has dried, it is decorated in the same way as any other wall. For a finish over board or sound old plaster instead, see plastering and skimming in Shoreham.
Drying out before decorating
A floated wall holds far more water than a skim, and the wettest months here, October to December, slow drying down. Keep the room gently heated and ventilated, avoid blasting it with heaters, and wait until the whole surface is an even pale colour before the first coat of paint.
Read more about traditional float and set plastering, or see what else we cover in Shoreham-by-Sea. Call 07824 165672 for a free, no-obligation quote.
