The search results for “plaster repairs traralgon” are full of plastering companies, and some come from Melbourne. Plasterers are the right choice when a whole room or a new extension needs sheeting and setting. Most plaster damage in a lived-in house is smaller and more scattered: a door handle through the wall behind the door, cracks above the doorways, a soft brown patch on the ceiling under the bathroom, and a dozen screw holes left by an old TV bracket. That is patching work, and a handyman with the right materials and patience does it well.

We repair plasterboard and older plaster walls and ceilings in homes, rentals and offices across Traralgon, Morwell, Moe, Newborough, Churchill and nearby towns. The aim is always the same. When the paint goes on, you should not be able to tell where the damage was.

The plaster damage we fix most often

Holes

• Door-handle holes where a door has swung back without a doorstop
• Impact holes from furniture, a stray elbow, a kicked football or a moving day mishap
• Fixing holes from picture hooks, shelves, curtain rods and TV brackets
• Holes left by old services, such as removed light switches, old phone points, intercoms, air conditioner pipes and heater ducts

Small holes are filled and sanded. Larger holes get a backing piece or a new section of plasterboard cut in, screwed to the frame or to timber backing strips. The joints are taped, set in several coats and sanded flat.

Cracks

Cracks in plaster are common in the Latrobe Valley. Many homes sit on reactive clay soils that swell in wet winters and shrink in dry summers. That movement shows up as cracks at the corners of doors and windows, along the ceiling-to-wall junction, and through cornice joints. Cracks also open along plasterboard joints where the tape has let go, and at the junction between an original house and a later extension.

We rake out the crack, apply a flexible filler or re-tape the joint as the crack needs, then set and sand. One honest note: if a house is still moving, cracks can return. Wide cracks, cracks that keep growing, doors that start sticking at the same time, or diagonal cracks in brickwork outside can point to a structural or drainage issue. Those should be looked at by a building inspector or structural engineer. We will tell you if what we see looks like more than cosmetic movement.

Water damage

Leaking showers, overflowing gutters, a burst pipe in the roof and condensation in poorly ventilated bathrooms all damage plaster. You see brown stains, bubbling paint, crumbling plaster and, in the worst cases, a ceiling sheet sagging between the battens.

The leak has to be fixed first, usually by a licensed plumber or roofer, and the area has to dry out properly. After that we cut out the damaged sheet, replace it, seal any remaining stain with a stain-blocking primer so it cannot bleed through new paint, and set and sand ready for painting.

Sagging ceilings

A ceiling sheet that bows down between the battens, especially in an older home, can mean the glue daubs have failed or the sheet has been wet. Large sagging areas can be dangerous, and sheets can fall. We assess them and re-fix or replace them. If the whole ceiling is affected, we will recommend a plasterer to re-sheet the room.

Cornice repairs

Cornice cracks and gaps are common, especially where the cornice meets a corner. We re-fix loose cornice, fill and sand the joints, and replace short damaged lengths with a matching profile. Older homes sometimes have decorative cornice that is no longer made. In those cases we match as closely as we can or repair the original in place.

Older plaster: lath, fibrous and solid

Many older homes in Moe, Morwell, Newborough and Yallourn North were built in the decades after the war, when the State Electricity Commission was expanding the Valley’s power industry. Some have fibrous plaster sheets, and a few have lath-and-plaster in original rooms. These behave differently from modern plasterboard. They can be brittle, they may have a skim coat over them, and patching them needs the right compounds and careful work so the repair does not crack around its edges.

Asbestos warning: many homes built before 1990 contain asbestos cement sheeting, especially in eaves, wet areas, laundries, sheds and some wall and ceiling linings, and sometimes in textured coatings. We do not cut, drill or sand material that may contain asbestos. If we suspect a lining may contain asbestos, we will stop and recommend testing by a licensed assessor before any work. WorkSafe Victoria and asbestos.vic.gov.au have information for homeowners.

Our patching process

1. Protect the room. Drop sheets go down, furniture is moved or covered, and dust control is set up.

2. Cut back to sound material. We remove loose, crumbling and water-damaged plaster.

3. Back and fix. We add backing or new plasterboard and screw it to the frame.

4. Tape and set. Joints are taped and set in multiple coats, feathering each coat wider than the last.

5. Sand. We sand smooth, using a sander with dust extraction where practical.

6. Prime. We spot prime so the patch takes paint the same way as the rest of the wall, and use stain blocker over water marks.

7. Paint, if you want. We can paint the patched wall or ceiling, or leave it primed for your painter.

Setting compound needs drying time between coats. A small patch can often be done in one visit with fast-setting compound. Larger repairs may need us back the next day to sand and finish. We will tell you which applies when we quote.

Matching textures and finishes

Not every wall is flat. Some homes have sand-finish ceilings, swirl textures, or rendered-look feature walls. We do our best to match the texture around a repair so it blends in. Perfectly matching an old textured ceiling can be hard. Sometimes the best result comes from re-coating a whole section to a natural break such as a corner or cornice line, and we will talk you through the options.

Patching for rentals and sales

Plaster patching is one of the biggest jobs at the end of a lease, and before a house goes on the market. Picture hook holes, Blu-Tack marks that have pulled paint off, a hole behind the bedroom door and the bracket holes from the TV all need dealing with. We can patch the whole list in one visit, spot-prime, and paint where needed. Property managers can ask for before-and-after photos with the invoice. See also end-of-lease and rental repairs.

Preventing future damage

Once the wall is fixed, a few small things stop it happening again:

• Doorstops. A skirting or floor-mounted stop, or a hinge-pin stop, prevents door-handle holes. We fit these as standard when we repair a handle hole.
• Correct wall anchors. Heavy items need proper fixings into studs, or anchors rated for plasterboard, not nails. See picture and shelf hanging.
• Bathroom ventilation. If a bathroom ceiling keeps getting mouldy and soft, the room may need a better exhaust fan. That is a job for an electrician, and we can recommend getting one installed or replaced.
• Gutters. Overflowing gutters can push water into ceilings and walls. Regular gutter cleaning helps.

Plaster repairs and painting together

A patch is only finished when it is painted. Fresh plaster and primer look different from aged paint even in the same colour, so painting a whole wall corner to corner often gives the best result. We can do that, or match your existing paint if you have the tin or the colour name. More on our painting and touch-ups service.

Areas we cover for plaster repairs

We repair plaster in Traralgon, Morwell, Moe, Newborough, Churchill, Yallourn North, Glengarry, Tyers, Traralgon South and Hazelwood North.

Plaster jobs we pass on

Being honest about the limits of a handyman service saves everyone time. We refer these jobs to the right trade:

• Re-sheeting whole rooms, new extensions and new ceilings, which is plasterer’s work
• Structural cracking, which needs an engineer or building inspector
• Any lining suspected of containing asbestos, which needs a licensed asbestos assessor and removalist
• Leaks, which need a plumber or roofer before we patch
• Electrical work around switches and lights, which needs a licensed electrician

For everything else on the plaster side, from one hole behind a door to a whole house of patching before painting, we are glad to help.

Plaster in wet areas and laundries

Bathrooms, ensuites and laundries need a different approach from living areas. Standard plasterboard should not be used where it will get wet. Behind tiles and around showers, building rules call for wet-area board and a waterproofing membrane installed by a qualified waterproofer. If a bathroom wall behind the tiles has gone soft, the cause is usually a failed membrane or a leaking pipe, and patching the plaster alone will not fix it. In those cases we will tell you a plumber or waterproofer needs to look first. Above the tiles and on ceilings, we can patch with moisture-resistant board and finish with a mould-resistant primer and bathroom-grade paint. That gives the repair the best chance of lasting through steamy winter showers, when windows stay shut and condensation runs down the walls in many Valley homes.

What a good patch looks like

A well-finished patch disappears under paint. Run your hand across it and you should not feel a ridge. Shine a torch along the wall at a low angle and you should not see a hump or a dip. The edges should be feathered wide, sometimes well beyond the hole itself, because a small patch built up proud of the wall shows up under light more than the original damage did. That is why we take the time to build up the set in thin coats and sand between each one, rather than trowelling on one thick coat.

Frequently asked questions