Weston-super-Mare · Across the South West
Eighteen years of plastering, rendering and roofing.
Plastering, rendering, lime work and roofing. Based in Weston-super-Mare, happy to travel right across the South West. Friendly, tidy, and finished when I said it would be.
Kieran Thompson Free quotes, no pressure Across the South West
- 18
- Years on the tools
- Free
- Quotes, in writing
- 4
- Kinds of work covered
- SW
- Weston-based, travels the South West
01 What I do
Whatever the place needs doing.
i — Inside
Ceilings, walls, and waving goodbye to artex.
Fresh skims, overboarding, dot and dab, and covering artex so completely you'd never know it had been there. Ceilings too — they're nobody's favourite job, but they're a good chunk of what I do and I've got quick at them. Whatever state a wall is in, it can almost always be made flat and lovely again.
- Skimming
- Boarding
- Dot & dab
- Artex cover
- Ceilings
ii — Outside
Render that shrugs off a Weston winter.
Sand and cement, monocouche, K-Rend, pebbledash, and patching up any of them. Living this close to the sea is hard on a front wall, so I take my time over the corners and the beads. That's the bit that decides whether it still looks good in ten years, and it's worth doing slowly.
- Monocouche
- K-Rend
- Sand & cement
- Pebbledash
- Repairs
iii — Restoration
Bringing tired old walls back.
Blown plaster, damp damage, hairline cracks, and a century of patching by whoever happened to be about at the time. Most of it comes back beautifully and costs less than people expect. Now and then it genuinely doesn't, and I'll tell you that up front rather than take your money.
- Blown plaster
- Damp damage
- Crack repair
- Making good
iv — Roofing
And yes, I do the roof as well.
Full re-roofs, new tiles and slates, ridges rebedded and repointed, lead valleys and flashings, fascias, soffits and guttering, and the odd slipped tile before it turns into something worse. It's handy having the same person do the roof and the render — the two meet at the top of the wall, and that join is where most of the trouble starts.
- Re-roofs
- Tile & slate
- Ridges
- Lead work
- Fascias & gutters
- Repairs
Not sure which of these you need?
Give me a ring on 07597 565 496
03 The speciality
Old houses like a bit of breathing space.
Lime is the oldest plaster there is, and it's coming back — not out of nostalgia, but because on the right building it simply works better than cement.
Modern gypsum and cement plasters were designed for modern walls: a cavity, a damp-proof course, and a clean barrier between inside and out. An older solid wall doesn't work like that. It was built to take moisture in and let it back out again, and it needs a finish that lets it do exactly that.
Put cement on a wall like that and you seal the moisture in. It has to go somewhere, so it travels sideways and upwards through the masonry, and the wall quietly deteriorates behind a finish that still looks perfect from the hallway. By the time anything shows, it's been happening for years.
- It breathes Moisture moves through the plaster and evaporates away instead of being trapped in the wall. The building manages damp the way it was designed to, rather than fighting it.
- It moves Lime flexes with the building as temperature and humidity change through the year, so it's far less prone to cracking than a rigid modern plaster on an old wall.
- It lasts Done properly and left to cure in its own time, a lime finish behaves the way the original did — and on a lot of these buildings the original lasted a century or more.
- It looks right Softer and hand-finished, with a depth and a slight movement in the surface that a machine-flat modern skim never quite has. On a period property it's the difference you notice without being able to name it.
Where it belongs
Solid-wall properties — generally anything built before about 1919. Cottages, Victorian and Georgian townhouses, farm buildings and chapel conversions. It's also specified more and more on new eco-builds, where the whole point is a wall that handles moisture naturally rather than sealing it out.
It isn't right for every wall. Lime takes longer than modern plaster, it costs more, and on a standard cavity-built house ordinary plaster will do the job perfectly well. I'd rather come and tell you that honestly than sell you something your place doesn't need.
Lime putty · Hydraulic lime · Haired coats · Breathable finishes · Period property · Eco-build
Got an older place and not sure what it needs?
Ring me and I'll come and look04 How it usually goes
Four steps, and no nasty surprises.
i
I pop round and have a look
Whenever suits you, evenings included. There's no charge for it and no pressure to book anything at the end.
ii
You get a proper price in writing
Itemised, so you can see exactly where it goes. That's the price. If something genuinely changes, you'll hear it from me first rather than find it on the bill.
iii
We pick a date and I keep it
If I'm booked three weeks out, I'll say three weeks. I'd much rather be straight with you and lose the job than let you down on the day.
iv
I tidy up properly afterwards
Floors sheeted before I start, everything out at the end, and a hoover round. You shouldn't be able to tell I was ever there — apart from the walls.
05 A bit about me
Eighteen years in, and I still enjoy it.
Houses, flats, shops, new builds, and old places that badly needed rescuing. Walls that had been papered over four times, and walls that hadn't been touched since the day they went up. Most of the skill is working out which one you're standing in front of.
No job too big or too small is a bit of a cliché, but I do mean it. I'll skim a little box room and I'll render a whole extension, and you'll get the same care either way. The small jobs are usually how people decide whether to trust you with the big ones.
- Trading since
- 2008
- Based in
- Worle
- Quotes
- Free
06 Where I work
All over the South West.
Based in Weston-super-Mare, working right across the South West.
Bristol, Bath, the rest of Somerset, Devon, Dorset, Wiltshire, Gloucestershire and Cornwall — I've worked all over, and the distance is rarely the thing that decides it.
Nearer to home that's Worle, Hutton, Locking, Banwell, Congresbury, Yatton, Bleadon, Uphill and Clevedon, though I'm out well beyond that most weeks.
Wherever you are, give me a call and we'll talk it through. Happy to come and have a look, and there's no charge for that.
07 Common questions
The things people usually ask.
It depends on the size of the room, the state the walls are in, and whether it needs boarding first. A straightforward reskim of an average bedroom is a very different job to a whole house that needs hacking off and starting again.
That's why I come and look rather than guess over the phone. You get an itemised price in writing, it's free, and there's no obligation at the end of it.
Usually three to seven days, depending on the weather and how much ventilation the room gets. You're looking for the colour to go from dark brown to a consistent pale pink all over — if there are still dark patches, it isn't ready.
When it is, go on with a mist coat first — watered-down emulsion, roughly seventy-thirty. Straight paint onto fresh plaster tends to peel later.
Yes, genuinely. Patching a corner, a single ceiling, making good after a radiator's come off the wall — all fine. Small jobs are usually how people decide whether to trust you with the big ones, so they get the same care.
If your place is solid-walled — no cavity, usually anything built before about 1919 — then lime is very often the right answer. Cement seals moisture into a wall that was built to breathe, and the damage happens quietly behind a finish that looks fine.
I'll tell you honestly when you need it and when you don't. It costs more, so there's no sense recommending it where ordinary plaster will do.
I do. Full re-roofs, tiles and slates, ridges rebedded, lead valleys and flashings, fascias, soffits and guttering. It's handy having one person for both — the roof and the render meet at the top of the wall, and that join is where most trouble starts.
I'm based in Weston-super-Mare and I work right across the South West — Bristol, Bath, Somerset, Devon, Dorset, Wiltshire, Gloucestershire and Cornwall. Nearer to home that includes Worle, Hutton, Locking, Banwell, Congresbury, Yatton, Bleadon, Uphill and Clevedon, but I'm out a good deal further than that most weeks. Wherever you are, give me a call and we'll talk it through.
08 Get in touch
Give me a ring and tell me about it.
07597 565 496Eight till five, most days. If I don't pick up I'll be up a wall or on a roof somewhere — leave a message or send me a WhatsApp and I'll get back to you the same evening.