Damp proofing and replastering a basement in Margate

The job

The customer had damp coming through the basement of their home in Margate. The plasterboard on the walls had taken the worst of it, and the timbers behind that board had gone rotten, so patching over the surface was never going to hold. The whole lot needed to come off and the structure behind it needed dealing with before any new finish went anywhere near it.

What we did

We recommended a damp proof membrane system rather than simply replastering, and explained why the detail behind the board matters as much as the membrane itself. Everything came out first: the old damp plasterboard, the rotten timbers and the failed plaster, back to bare brickwork. The area was then left to dry out properly, which is the part that makes or breaks a job like this. Once it was dry we fitted the damp proof membrane across the walls, then fixed new treated timber battens over it to hold an air gap between the membrane and the new plasterboard, so the wall can breathe instead of trapping moisture against the finish. The walls were boarded and given a fresh skim of plaster. The ceiling had damage as well, so that was repaired, primed with SBR and skimmed to blend into the existing ceiling.

The result

The basement now has smooth, dry walls and a blended ceiling ready to decorate. The work took four days spread across a week, with the drying time built into the schedule rather than rushed. The customer was very happy with the finished result and with how quickly and cleanly it was done. It is a long way from standard plastering, with a lot of separate stages that all have to be right, which is what makes this one worth showing.