replacement victorian cornice

[jackie wyke]

I live in a victorian house which was altered in the 1960's (before my time) and some cornice in one room was lost on one wall (the room was partioned to make it smaller).

I live in the West Midlands - any ideas where there may be a specialist plasterwork company/contractor who could copy the existing cornice and replace it on the missing wall?

Thanking you in anticipation

 

[BMcD]

There are quite a few good plasterers in and around the West Midlands, here is just a few I know of:

Trumpers (Birmingham 0121 202 5382/3) They employ Jeff Orton who is possibley one of the best plasterers working today

AP Molloy (Coventry 024 7666 7829) I've used there pre cast mouldings for some of my work

Traditional Plastering Co. (Rugby 01788 811889) I've heard good reports about these and seen their work.

Failing that try this link http://www.plaistererslivery.co.uk/plr/indexe7c4.html?/plr/trade/

There should be some one able to help you there. Or look in the Yellow Pages or some such directory

 

[NT]

Probably quicker to do it yourself, it usually is.

NT

 

[Penners]

BMcD - It's interesting that The Worshipful Company spell their trade "Plaistering". I presume this is an Olde Englishe way of spelling it?

I had never made a link between the London district called Plaistow and plastering, but the above casts a new light on it.

 

[biffvernon]

Online Etymology Dictionary[/url]"]plaster (n.)
O.E. plaster "medicinal application," from V.L. plastrum, shortened from L. emplastra "a plaster" (in both the medical and building senses), from Gk. emplastron "salve, plaster" (used by Galen instead of more usual emplaston), from neut. of emplastos "daubed on," from en- "on" + plastos "molded," from plassein "to mold" (see plasma). The building sense is first recorded in Eng. c.1300, via O.Fr. plastre. Meaning "to bomb (a target) heavily" is first recorded 1915. Plaster of Paris (c.1462) originally was made from the extensive gypsum deposits of Montmartre in Paris. Plastered "drunk" is attested from 1912, perhaps from plaster in sense of "to apply a remedy to, to soothe," hence "to give compensation" (1891).

 

[Penners]

Interesting, Biff, but nowhere in that definition do I see that "i".

 

[BMcD]

The Worshipful Co. retained the spelling of plaisterers in the charter granted by Elizabeth 1 in 1596 and written in English as all previous charters were in Latin http://www.plaistererslivery.co.uk/plr/index178e.html?/plr/aboutus/
(follow link and click on History)

As for the link to Plaistow, I have often wondered about this myself since the pronunciation of Plaistow is in fact Plastow as in plaster without the I.

Of course Penners you have now ruined my weekend as I'll be Googling the history of Plaistow to see if I can find and link to plasterers

 

[Geoffrey]

I am currently getting plaistered!

 

[biffvernon]

According to Adrian Room's Dictionary of Place Names, Plaistow, both the one in Newham and the one in in Bromley, means 'Play-place', from the Old English pleg-stow. plega=play, stow=place, thatis a place where people gathered for sport and recreation. The place would have been an open space like the modern village green.

So, nothing to do with plastering, unless one got plastered there after the match.

 

[NT]

Why do old buildings tend to have cornice and new builds tend to have cornasty?

NT

 

[BMcD]

It's all to do with workmanship, in old buildings the craftsmen were just that, craftsmen, who built thier soul into the fabric of the building or to put it another way the core of the building was nice, core-nice evolved to cornice and applied to the decrotive plasterwork at the junction of wall/ceiling as it symolised the work put into the building...?
Where as new build is just nasty

PS Thanks Biff you've just saved my weekend

 

[NT]

Today there are so many more technologies to get into, I think those with skill many less of them are available for the building trade today. Computers didnt exist back then - or not in any meaningful way. Much less medical research, and so on.

I'm sure our lousy planning & regs system kills a lot of good builds too, as well as stopping many bad ones.


NT

 

[BMcD]

Building trades do seem to be getting carved up into thier component parts so for instance plasterers used to do everything from floors up to ceilings; screeds,float & set and decorative work as well as distemper, tacking lath/boards, external works, renders etc etc. Now however each process is treated as a trade on its own so you have people who only do dry lining tape & joining or board skimming yet they can call themselves plasterers even though they haven't a clue how to float a wall let alone run a cornice or lay a floor and as for lime work!.
Now it could be argued that each facet of the trade is better served by having specialist contractors but as far as I can see all that will happen is builders/specifiers will go for the cheapest option, ie dry-lining or whatever leaving the remaining aspects of a trade to fall out of favour and in turn become obsolete as every one will want to learn the one being used.

I once went to apply for a CSCS (construction services certification scheme) card, a requirement for site work now as it tells the builder what your skills are. Well there must have been about 7-8 catagories for plastering which used to be covered under 1 City and Guilds certificate needless to say I didn't bother since most of my work is private and not new build anyway but it doesn't bode well for the future

 

[Lime]

but it doesn't bode well for the future

You can say that again.

 

[Penners]

Now however each process is treated as a trade on its own

That trend is certainly not unique to building. My grandfather was a country GP in the early 20th century,which meant that he did a bit of coughs and colds, a bit of dentistry, the odd optometry - even a bit of general surgery. My father was an orthopaedic surgeon - dealt with bones and joints throughout the body. Now, you get specialists in hip replacement who won't touch knees - a different specialisation altogether.

I don't necessarily see this as a bad thing, though. If I were having some part of my body carved about, I'd rather it was done by someone who had done the same operation hundreds of times before, and ironed out all the wrinkles (figuratively speaking!).

 

[Moo]

But, one would hope, not found the repetition so tedious as to affect concentration.

 

[Nigel Watts]

The government doesnt help. Its policy of dumbing down academic subjects and trying to shove as many sudents as possible into university courses is misguided. Is a poor degree from a former poly in some useless subject like tourism management or media studies really going to help the student earn a living? In fact the policy appears to be having the opposite effect from that intended; social mobility has in fact decreased under the present Government - a phenomenon which I am sure must be related to the abolition of grammar schools.

There are two possible gleams of hope. Workers from eastern Europe are said to be hard working and more diligent than our native builders. I dont have experience of using them myself, but in our street these day slavic accents abound. The other is a craft revival along the lines of the organic movement in farming. Like organic food however, it doesnt come cheap.

 

[Moo]

The newspapers have been taken by the council and are probably being recycled as I type this, but a few days ago I saw an article about a scheme sponsored by that great friend of our heritage, HRH Charlie, that provides training in traditional building skills. A drop in the ocean, but a glimmer of hope....?

 

[Penners]

a glimmer of hope....?

Let's hope so. The trouble is that it's fashionable amongst the illuminati and the press to regard HRH's commitment to organic farming, traditional building and traditrional values in general as being loony and uncool.

 

[Moo]

Loony and uncool initially, maybe, and the poor chap does take a lot of flack, but many of his ideas are gradually being adopted - organic food is becoming seriously cool.