Streets that were built house by house
Hove spread across its fields fast in the late 19th century, but not to a single pattern. Cliftonville, laid out from the late 1840s, is a suburb of villas with angled bays and ironwork, and because plots were sold speculatively most houses were built to the requirements of whoever bought them. Sackville Gardens, three long streets running down towards the seafront lawns on former allotment land, was mostly finished by 1914 and is just as mixed in style. Around Hove station, Goldstone Villas filled up in the 1880s and 1890s with pale brick terraces and canted bays. For a plasterer, that variety means no two houses can be assumed to share the same walls, ceilings or past repairs, so every job starts with a look at what is actually there.
Flats, landlords and managing agents
A great many of Hove's grand Regency and Victorian houses have been converted into flats. That shapes how plastering work runs. Landlords often want walls and ceilings refreshed during a void, so the flat can be decorated and let again quickly. Managing agents need communal hallways and stairwells repaired without shutting residents out, which means working in sections, keeping a clear route through and controlling dust on shared stairs. We plan the order of rooms around those needs and around drying time, because fresh plaster has to dry properly before it is painted.
Portslade's terraces
Portslade joined Hove in 1974. Its coastal half, once called Copperas Gap, grew quickly after the railway arrived from Brighton in 1840, and it has rows of 19th-century terraced houses among its parks and allotments. Small terraced rooms tend to show every patch, so after a rewire, a new boiler or a chimney breast coming out, the repair has to be finished flush with the old wall so it vanishes under paint. Where a wall has been taken right back to brick, it is floated before the finish goes on, as described on our page about float and set in Hove.
How a skim goes on in an older Hove room
First the walls are tapped to find hollow plaster, which is cut back to firm edges. Cracks are opened and filled, corners and reveals are beaded, and the surface is treated so the new coat bonds evenly. The finish is two coats of British Gypsum plaster, the first laid on and flattened, the second trowelled to a smooth face. Converted villas often have much taller rooms than modern houses, so we bring staging to reach the top of the walls safely, and we work carefully up to any surviving cornice so it is not chipped or buried under new plaster. Ceilings that have cracked or dropped along their joints are better overboarded than skimmed, and our plasterboarding and dry lining service in Hove explains that option.
Getting a quote
Send a few photos of the rooms involved, mention whether the flat is leasehold and whether the freeholder needs to agree the work, and tell us about any rewiring or plumbing still to happen, which should come first. Pro Finish Plastering covers every part of Hove, and our main plastering and skimming page sets out the full service. Call 07824 165672 for a free quote with no obligation.
