Plastering and plasterboard installation in Lane Cove
Lane Cove is a small suburb, around twelve thousand people, and a good deal of it is built on a slope running down toward the river. That single fact changes a plastering job before anybody starts: long stair carries from the street, no level driveway, split level interiors, and a hard limit on how long a sheet can be. Nearly two thirds of the dwellings here are apartments, but the ones that define the work are the Federation, interwar and post war houses on the bushland blocks, many of them extended downhill with a glazed room at the back. It is a suburb where reputation carries further than advertising, so we would rather explain than sell.
Common plasterboard problems in Lane Cove
Two things drive most of what we deal with here and neither is what a western Sydney plasterer would guess. One is the slope. The other is what the slope and the tree canopy do to moisture and drying time.
Twenty steps down from the street
This is the constraint that shapes everything else. A house stepping down a bushland block has no level driveway, a long stair carry from the road and split level interiors, and a full length sheet simply cannot be walked down that and turned at a landing. So the ceiling gets built from shorter pieces and carries more butt joints than the same room would on a flat block. Those joints have to be backed properly rather than skimmed and hoped over. It is a planning problem, and it is why we want to see the access before quoting rather than after ordering.
Damp in a room cut into the slope
The most commonly botched repair in the suburb. Lower ground and sub floor rooms cut into a sandstone slope, under heavy canopy on a shaded aspect, hold moisture in a way an open site never does. Somebody patches the plasterboard, it looks fine, and within a year it has failed in exactly the same place. Plasterboard cannot hold back a moisture source. It has to be identified and dealt with first, which is somebody else's trade, and we will say so rather than doing the cosmetic version.
Compound that will not give up its water
Shade, canopy and a river valley aspect mean jointing compound and base coats here take materially longer to dry than on an open site. Recoating too early traps moisture and shows up later as bubbling, peeling or cracking paint, which looks like a paint failure and is not. In a shaded house through winter, two days between coats is a real number rather than a padded one. It is worth knowing that when you are comparing a schedule as well as a price.
Cracking that is not the clay, because there is not much clay
This is where Lane Cove differs from most of Sydney. Ridge shale gives way to Hawkesbury Sandstone down in the river valley, so the seasonal soil movement that explains nearly every crack in the western suburbs largely does not apply here. What does is lath and plaster losing its key, framing that has shrunk since it was sheeted, or an original house and a downhill addition sitting on separate footings and moving relative to each other. Reaching for the clay explanation on this side of the harbour is the common local error.
The glazed downhill addition meeting a ninety year old wall
The classic Lane Cove renovation is a rear addition stepping down toward the valley with a large glazed living space in it, and that produces the hardest junction in the suburb. New dead flat board and full height glass meeting an old wall carrying decades of paint build, in a room with strong grazing light all day. There are three honest answers: skim the whole wall, put a deliberate shadow line break in, or carry the new work to a natural break. What does not work is feathering it in the middle and hoping.
A lath and plaster ceiling that has lost its grip
The Federation and interwar houses here have ceilings held up by plaster pushed through timber laths, and after ninety years or more those keys break, usually helped along by a roof leak at some point. These ceilings are heavy. If one has bellied, cracked around its edges or moved noticeably, keep the room out of use and have it looked at rather than watching it, because whether it can be saved is not a judgement anybody can make from underneath.
Why Lane Cove homeowners choose Sydney Gyprock Masters
Our plasterers work across Lane Cove and the Lane Cove Municipal Council area, supplying the sheets, cornice and compounds for every job, so there is nothing for you to order, collect or store on site.
How our plastering service works in Lane Cove
Getting plastering work quoted in Lane Cove starts with a call or the quote form on this page. For a new home or a renovation, send the floor plans and we can price the job from those, so a site visit is often not needed at all. For a repair, a photograph of the damage is usually enough to price it. A site visit and measure is free wherever one helps, and there is no travel charge to reach you.
Once the price is agreed, most residential jobs in Lane Cove are completed in one to two days on site. We deliver and supply the plasterboard, cornice and compounds ourselves. Each coat of jointing compound dries in under an hour, so the plasterer works through the coats in sequence rather than booking a return visit days later, and you do not need to be at home while anything dries. Walls are left sanded and ready for your painter to prime.
Access here is the job rather than a footnote. On a bushland block the material comes down a stair from the street, so the sheet length is decided by the landing rather than the room, and the extra joints that creates are backed as a matter of course. Mature tree canopy limits where scaffolding or a crane can sit, and that is worth establishing early rather than promising and then discovering the tree protection position. In the 1960s to 90s walk ups the constraint is the usual stair and dog leg landing. In the mid rise along the highway corridors it is a service lift booking and a dock timeslot. On a repair we take the waste back up the stairs with us, which is worth knowing when you compare a price.
Residential plastering and gyprocking in Lane Cove
Lane Cove runs from Federation cottages and post war houses on the bushland slopes to 1960s walk ups and recent mid rise along the highway corridors. The older houses carry lath and plaster ceilings, run cornice and ceiling roses. The post war stock is brick veneer and some fibro, frequently on blocks falling away toward the river, and sits inside the asbestos window along with everything else of that age. The apartment layer is three to six storey walk ups without lifts, plus newer buildings on the main roads.
It is the smallest conventional suburb we cover and one of the most balanced: nearly two thirds apartments, but a third of households carrying a mortgage and only about a third renting, which makes this primarily an owner occupier renovation market with a strata layer beside it rather than a turnover market. More than four in ten employed residents are professionals, close to double the state rate. What that means in practice is that people here ask why rather than only how much, and are usually deciding about a house they intend to keep, so the answers on this page are longer than they would be somewhere with more churn.
Get a free quote in Lane Cove
Tell us what you need done in Lane Cove and we will get back to you with a price as soon as we can. There is no obligation to go ahead.
Services we provide in Lane Cove
New home gyprock installation
Renovation plastering
Suspended ceilings
Bulkhead ceilings
Fire rated walls and ceilings
Soundproofing walls and ceilings
Cornices
Sagging ceiling repairs
Wall repairs
Water damage and wet areas
Commercial plastering
Asbestos in older homes
Suburbs we service in Lane Cove and surrounds
Our service vehicles reach every suburb within the Lane Cove Municipal Council area and the surrounding localities, with no travel charge to any of them. If your suburb is not listed below, contact us to confirm coverage.
Frequently asked questions about Lane Cove
Do you service all suburbs in the Lane Cove area?
Yes. We work across the Lane Cove Municipal Council area and the surrounding localities, including every suburb listed on this page. There is no travel charge anywhere we work. If your suburb is not shown, contact us and we will confirm coverage.
What are your working hours in Lane Cove?
We work Monday to Saturday, 7am to 5:30pm. A quote can be requested at any time through the form on this page or by sending through your floor plans or a photograph, and we come back to you during working hours.
How do you even get sheets down to our place?
Down the stairs, in shorter lengths, and it changes the job rather than just the morning. A full length sheet cannot be carried down twenty steps and turned at a landing, so on a block like yours the ceiling is built from shorter pieces and ends up with more butt joints than the same room would have on a flat site. That is unavoidable. What is avoidable is those joints showing in a year, and the answer is backing them properly rather than relying on compound. It is also why we want to walk the access before quoting rather than after ordering material.
The downstairs room keeps getting damp. Will new plasterboard fix it?
No, and this is the most common repair we are asked to redo in this suburb. A room cut into a sandstone slope, on a shaded aspect under canopy, is holding moisture from behind, and plasterboard cannot hold that back. Whatever goes on the wall will fail in the same place, usually inside a year, and it will look like poor workmanship. The moisture source has to be identified and dealt with first, which is a different trade. We would rather tell you that and do the lining afterwards than take the job twice.
Why does a job here take longer than the same job somewhere flat?
Two reasons, and both are real rather than padding. Material comes down a stair rather than off a driveway, which is slower and needs more hands. And drying takes longer: shade, canopy and the river valley aspect mean compound gives up its water far more slowly than on an open western Sydney site, and in winter two days between coats is genuine. Recoating early to catch a schedule is what causes bubbling and peeling paint months later, so a quote that promises the same timeframe as a flat suburb has not thought about it.
Is our cracking caused by the ground moving?
Almost certainly not, and the reason it needs saying is that it is the first explanation offered almost everywhere else in the city. Up here the ridge is shale but the valley is sandstone, and the seasonal soil movement that explains nearly every crack in the west largely does not apply. What usually does is a lath and plaster ceiling losing its key, framing that has shrunk since the house was sheeted, or an original house and a downhill addition on separate footings moving against each other. That last one is diagnosable by where the crack runs, and it changes the repair entirely.
How do we stop the new extension looking obviously new?
By deciding where the difference lives rather than trying to hide it. New dead flat board next to a ninety year old wall with decades of paint on it will never blend across the middle of a wall, and in a glazed downhill addition the light rakes along that junction all day and shows everything. Three approaches work: skim the whole wall so both surfaces read the same, put in a deliberate shadow line so the change looks intended, or carry the new work to a natural break like a doorway or a change of ceiling height. We will suggest which suits your layout at the quote.
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