About the service
I start every moulding job with a site visit, not with photographs. In an old apartment the cornice is usually buried under ten or more layers of paint and distemper: the acanthus turns into a soft sausage, the dentils lose their edges, and the ceiling rose can only be read by touch. There are almost always losses as well — a broken corner, a missing modillion, a run of moulding cut away when someone pulled cable through the wall. I also look at settlement cracks and at the places where the plaster has come away from its backing; if a section sounds hollow under a light tap, it has to be secured first, or any cleaning will simply bring it down.
Work begins with a test clean on a small, inconspicuous area. It shows how many layers there are, how they respond, and where the historic surface actually begins. I agree the depth of cleaning with you before the main work starts — sometimes it is wiser to stop on a thin ground coat than to go down to bare plaster. One warning matters more than any other: in a pre-war building the old paint may contain lead. For that reason I never dry-sand and never use a power sander — only wet methods, softening and hand removal, with a respirator; residues and strippings go into sealed containers and leave the flat, and children and pregnant women are kept out of the room while the work is running.
After that comes consolidation of weak plaster, taking a mould from a well-preserved length, casting the missing elements, fitting them in place, filling cracks with reinforcement, and matching the profile at the corners. If the building is a listed monument, I work only with formal approval and together with a specialist conservation organisation — improvising on such an object is not acceptable. Overhead work is done from a proper platform with fall protection; a stepladder at ceiling height is not a tool.
— survey, test clean and agreement on the cleaning depth;
— softening and removing paint layers by wet methods;
— consolidating delaminated plaster and reinforcing cracks;
— mould-taking and casting of lost elements;
— fitting in place and matching the profile at the corners;
— final matt paint that does not choke the relief;
— before-and-after photographs, an honest estimate and schedule.
Work begins with a test clean on a small, inconspicuous area. It shows how many layers there are, how they respond, and where the historic surface actually begins. I agree the depth of cleaning with you before the main work starts — sometimes it is wiser to stop on a thin ground coat than to go down to bare plaster. One warning matters more than any other: in a pre-war building the old paint may contain lead. For that reason I never dry-sand and never use a power sander — only wet methods, softening and hand removal, with a respirator; residues and strippings go into sealed containers and leave the flat, and children and pregnant women are kept out of the room while the work is running.
After that comes consolidation of weak plaster, taking a mould from a well-preserved length, casting the missing elements, fitting them in place, filling cracks with reinforcement, and matching the profile at the corners. If the building is a listed monument, I work only with formal approval and together with a specialist conservation organisation — improvising on such an object is not acceptable. Overhead work is done from a proper platform with fall protection; a stepladder at ceiling height is not a tool.
— survey, test clean and agreement on the cleaning depth;
— softening and removing paint layers by wet methods;
— consolidating delaminated plaster and reinforcing cracks;
— mould-taking and casting of lost elements;
— fitting in place and matching the profile at the corners;
— final matt paint that does not choke the relief;
— before-and-after photographs, an honest estimate and schedule.
