Polished plaster in Reading

If you are looking for polished plaster in Reading, Zavoré supplies it, lays it and teaches it. We work in authentic Italian lime based Venetian plaster and other decorative finishes, and the nearest of our centres is the showroom and training centre in London, open by appointment. Polished plaster is the smooth, reflective member of the family, lime putty and powdered marble built up in thin passes and burnished with a steel trowel. In this town it earns its place in tall Victorian and Edwardian stair halls and in the flat walls of the riverside apartments. The first step is a sample board.

Patterned brick outside, plain walls within

Reading grew quickly in the Victorian years on the back of the railway, the biscuit factory and the brewery, and its builders liked to show off. Whole streets in Newtown, Katesgrove and Redlands are laid in red brick picked out with silver grey headers. Inside those houses the walls are usually plain plaster on solid brick, often repaired many times, and that matters for a burnished finish, because a reflective wall shows each patch and every chased cable run.

North of the Thames, Caversham has larger Edwardian and Victorian houses with deep stair halls and high ceilings, and Castle Hill and the streets off the Bath Road keep earlier stucco fronted villas. These are rooms with the height and the proportions to carry polished plaster well, provided the walls are flat or can be made flat.

Then there is the newer Reading, the apartment blocks around the station and along the Kennet, built for people who commute. Plasterboard walls there are usually square and true. The joints need reinforcing and the right primer, and after that the board is often a simpler starting point than a century old wall.

Rooms and walls that suit polished plaster

Read the full guide to polished plaster finishes for how the material is built up. In Reading homes and businesses we would look first at these.

• A Caversham stair hall rising through two or three floors, where the reflection changes from landing to landing.
• The front reception room of a Castle Hill villa, kept calm and pale.
• The living wall of a Kennet side flat, where one strong colour does more than any artwork.
• Reception desks and meeting rooms in the offices around the town centre and Green Park.
• Restaurant and bar interiors, where the wax gives a surface that wipes clean.

We steer people away from it inside showers and steam rooms, right behind a hob, and on any wall that is still settling. A new extension wants time before a polished wall goes on it.

Planning a Reading installation

A first look can often be done from photos. When it comes to pricing, we survey the room, checking the substrate, flatness, cracks, damp, signs of movement, how the space is used, access and protection. If the wall wants skimming, stripping or a damp repair before we start, you hear that from us plainly.

The colour is chosen on a sample board, from 48 house colours or any NCS reference you give us. Polished plaster darkens a little as it is burnished, and the board shows that honestly. Once you approve it, the material is tinted to match before it ships.

Where a job needs several visits we plan it in blocks of days, so our applicators stay with the work and each coat goes on in its proper order. Dates are fixed once the sample and price are signed off. Our Venetian plaster installation page sets out the process from primer to wax.

Materials, trade accounts and courses

If your own decorator will lay it, the plaster, primer and wax are sold with tracked UK delivery in our online shop. Decorators and contractors who buy regularly can apply for a trade account.

Laying polished plaster is not the hard part. The burnish is, because each area has a short window, and a missed one leaves a dull patch or a drag mark. We teach it at our training centres in Birmingham, London and Manchester, with the same courses at each. Details are on the training page.

More finishes in Reading

Not every room in Reading wants a reflective wall. Marmorino in Reading gives a satin sheen with visible grain, while limewash in Reading and clay plaster in Reading stay soft and matt. For bathrooms and wet rooms look at tadelakt in Reading or microcement in Reading. Harder, more urban looks come from concrete effect plaster in Reading and liquid metal in Reading. Everything we install is gathered on the page for a decorative finishes specialist in Reading, and the traditional lime family has its own page, Venetian plastering in Reading.

Questions about polished plaster in Reading

Can I see polished plaster before I decide?

Yes. A sample board shows your chosen colour burnished, and you can hold it in the room. Our showroom and training centre in London is also open by appointment if you want to see finishes in person.

Our Caversham stair hall is very tall. Can you reach it?

Height is part of what we look at in the survey, along with access and protection. Tall stair halls are often where polished plaster looks its most striking, and the work is planned so each coat is laid and burnished in order from top to bottom.

Will the patterned brick of a Newtown terrace affect the plaster inside?

Not directly, since the plaster goes on the inner walls. What matters is the state of the old plaster on that brick, how flat it is and whether there is damp. The survey tells us whether it can take polished plaster or needs work first.

Is polished plaster practical for an office or restaurant?

It is, on walls that are seen more than knocked. Waxed polished plaster wipes clean, and for a reception or dining room it gives a lot of presence from a small area.

Call 07592 929191 between 9am and 6pm, Monday to Saturday, or email sales@zavore.co.uk with a few photos, rough measurements and your postcode. Ordering a sample board is the easiest place to begin.