Plastering & Rendering

The finish that makes every other trade's work look complete

Plastering and rendering are the finishing layer that most other trades' work depends on to look genuinely complete — a smooth internal wall or ceiling ready for decoration, and a weatherproof, finished external wall surface — and both need proper preparation and the right material for the substrate underneath.

Internal plastering finishes walls and ceilings to a smooth, decoratable surface, whether that's a full skim coat over new plasterboard, patching and making good after other renovation work such as removing a wall or rerouting services, or replastering older solid walls where original lime or sand-and-cement plaster has failed or is being brought up to a modern standard. The plaster mix and technique used depends on the substrate — plasterboard, blockwork, brick, or an older lime-plastered wall in a period property all behave differently, and using the wrong approach on an older solid wall in particular can trap moisture that a traditional lime plaster would otherwise allow to breathe through. External rendering serves a different but related purpose: it's the weatherproof, finished outer layer on a masonry wall, protecting the brick or block underneath from water penetration while giving a chosen textured or smooth finish. As with internal plastering, render needs matching to the wall it's going onto — sand-and-cement render suits modern masonry construction, while older solid-wall properties often need a breathable lime-based render to avoid trapping moisture in a wall that was never built to be sealed. Both plastering and rendering are unforgiving of poor preparation underneath — cracks, unevenness and adhesion failure almost always trace back to inadequate preparation of the substrate rather than a fault with the finish coat itself.