Renovation renovation
Why We Plastered Over Our 100 Year Old Walls
Some of the original rooms in our house had walls that were more than 100 years old. And they looked it. The old horsehair plaster was cracked and tired, but these were existing rooms we were keeping as part of the renovation. We needed to work out what to do with them without unnecessarily pulling everything apart. This ended up being one of those renovation problems where finding the right trade made all the difference.
Our plasterer came from an unlikely recommendation
Ironically, I found our plasterer through the painter.
Given that the painting itself didn't go particularly smoothly, finding us an excellent plasterer was probably the painter's one redeeming feature. You can read more about that experience in When Painting Our Old House Went Wrong.
The difference between the two experiences was enormous.
Our plasterer was reliable, knew old houses and was genuinely nice to work with.
Most importantly, he looked at what we actually had rather than treating the house like a new build.
His solution was to plaster over the old walls
The idea of covering the existing horsehair plaster was his.
Rather than trying to make the very old, cracked walls look new again, he suggested creating new walls over them.
It meant sacrificing a few centimetres around the edges of the rooms.
That sounds like something you wouldn't necessarily want to do, particularly when every bit of space counts, but for us the trade off was absolutely worth it.
We ended up with smooth new walls and were able to add insulation at the same time.
The rooms became very slightly smaller.
In everyday life, I don't think we ever noticed those missing centimetres.
We certainly noticed the difference in the walls.
A good trade makes everything easier
Coming straight off the back of a much more difficult experience with another trade, working with this plasterer also showed me just how much difference the right person can make to a renovation.
He turned up.
He understood the type of house he was working on.
He proposed a practical solution.
He communicated well.
And he treated me with respect.
That last point mattered.
Renovating can still sometimes feel like a man's world, and as a woman managing much of the project, I didn't always feel that every trade spoke to me in the same way they might have spoken to a man.
There was none of that with our plasterer.
I could ask questions, discuss the options and make decisions with him without ever feeling like I wasn't being taken seriously.
It made him incredibly easy to work with.
Sometimes you're paying for the solution, not just the work
One of the things I learned during this renovation was that a good trade doesn't simply perform the task you've asked them to do.
They can help you work out what the task should actually be.
I knew our walls were old and cracked.
I didn't know the best way to deal with them.
The plasterer did.
His experience with old houses meant he could look at the problem, explain the options and suggest a solution that made sense for our particular house.
That's very different from simply finding someone who can plaster a wall.
And it's something I would pay much more attention to when choosing trades now.
The few centimetres were worth it
There are always compromises when you're renovating an old house.
In this case, we lost a small amount of floor space.
In return, we kept the existing rooms, covered walls that were badly cracked, added insulation and ended up with a clean new surface throughout.
For us, it was an easy trade off.
And after some of the more difficult parts of the renovation, it was also a reminder of how enjoyable a project can be when you've found the right person to do the work.
Sometimes the best renovation decision isn't knowing how to solve the problem yourself.
It's finding someone who does.
More from Great Ocean Road Living
