Dot and Dab Plastering in Bournemouth and Dorset.

You have stripped a room back to bare blockwork. The walls are uneven, 10, 15, even 20mm out of plumb in places. You could build up multiple coats of wet plaster to straighten them, but that takes days of drying time between coats and uses a lot of material. Or you could dot and dab.

Dot and dab means fixing plasterboard directly to the masonry using dabs of adhesive. The board is pressed into position, levelled with a straight edge, and left to set. Once set, we skim the board to a flat, paint-ready finish. The whole process (board one day, skim the next) is faster than multi-coat wet plastering and gives you a dead-flat wall every time.

This is one of the most common jobs we do in Bournemouth period property renovations. The 1930s semis in Moordown, the Victorian terraces in Winton, the Edwardian houses in Southbourne. They all have solid brick or block walls that are rarely straight. Dot and dab sorts them out without the cost and disruption of metal stud framing.

Dot & Dab vs Metal Stud

Metal stud framing gives you a cavity for services and insulation, but it eats into your room size, typically 50 to 70mm per wall. Dot and dab only takes 12 to 15mm off the room. In small Bournemouth terraces where every inch counts, that difference matters. We will tell you which approach suits your project.

For full details on our boarding services, see drylining and plasterboarding. If your walls just need a fresh skim without boarding, check our domestic plastering and skimming page.