A few questions, photos if you have them, and a written price after a look at the job.
Pricing
Written price after a look at the job
Who turns up
Family run, City & Guilds Level 2 Diploma
On site
Dust sheeted, swept and cleared down daily
What we take on
Domestic and commercial, all property types
Interwar housing, generally well kept
West Wickham is largely interwar, a mix of semi detached and detached housing built through the twenties and thirties with some later infill, and on the whole it has been looked after. Solid and early cavity walls, bay fronts, picture rails, and lath and plaster ceilings in the original parts of the houses.
Because the stock is in decent order, the work is more often one room at a time than a whole house. A reception room being brought back to flat before decorating, a ceiling that has started to crack, making good after a kitchen or bathroom has been refitted.
Making good after a refit
A refitted kitchen leaves bare wall where the old units were and a clean line at the top of the new ones. A moved bathroom leaves scars across two walls and a ceiling. Each is awkward on its own and they are far cheaper and better done together.
Skimming the whole wall rather than filling each patch is what makes the difference. Patches filled to slightly different levels catch the light and read as patches forever, and a wall that has been skimmed right across simply does not.
Ceilings, and knowing which kind you have
The original ceilings here are lath and plaster and the ones in extensions are boarded, and the two need completely different answers. Pushing gently up on a ceiling tells you most of it: solid under the hand is a repair, and any give means it has lost its grip on the laths.
Repair and skim where it is sound, overboard where it is tired but steady, replace where it is moving. Which one it is gets decided in front of you at the estimate rather than after the sheets are down.
Interwar semis, Coney Hall, and the standard job done properly
West Wickham and Coney Hall went up in the twenties and thirties as the railway pushed out, and the stock is interwar semis and detached houses with bay fronts, hipped roofs and gardens long enough that most of them now have something built on the back of them.
This is the most standard work on the patch, and standard is not the same as easy. A skim over sound existing plaster is the cheapest good outcome available in this trade, and the whole skill is telling sound from unsound before quoting rather than after starting. A wall that rings hollow over a square metre is not a skim, it is a cut-out and a float and set, and finding that on the first morning is how a fixed price turns into an argument.
The rear extensions and knock-throughs are where most of the enquiries here come from. Opening up a kitchen and dining room leaves a beam, two new returns and a ceiling that is now two different ages, and pulling all of that into one flat surface is the job. Boxing the beam so it reads as deliberate rather than as something that got covered up is the part people notice afterwards.
The ceilings here are of an age where they have usually already been worked on once. A lot were overboarded in the seventies or eighties, which means the original lath is still up there above a layer of board and the fixings are going through both. Knowing that before starting decides where the screws go and whether the ceiling can take another layer at all, and it is checked rather than assumed.
“Good honest business, we called SMB after we had a bad experience with previous contractors. ... The work is immaculate (we had our house skimmed), the detail, care and attention is spot on.”
“Frank and Steve did a fantastic job on my hallway! Really professional team and their work is seamless. I was really impressed, and they even fixed my skirting board and put it back on for me, a very appreciated extra! Would highly recommend.”
“They did a great job. I had an awkward hallway area and a large ceiling to skim. I thought they'd finished earlier in the day as it looked great to me then, but they went over the whole area to make sure that the finish was perfect.”
“Excellent work! Scott plastered our living room including some tricky details around fireplace and bay window. Great finish looks really good, all the work was tidy and well communicated all done on time. Would highly recommend.”
“Frank completed a wall for me that needed plastering, he was on time, very polite and nothing seemed an issue. ... Although only a small job, kept my house tidy, even outside the house, cleaned up after he finished and done a perfect job, highly recommended from myself.”
“Hi, Had the team in plastering for a week. What a joy. There were no problems they turned up on time everyday and very polite. Would recommend them to anyone. Thanks very much guys.”
“I don't often leave reviews, but Frank was so helpful and pleasant to work with that he deserves 5 stars. Very responsive and professional. He did a great job and left our place clean and tidy. Thanks again Frank!”
“Frank very kindly stopped by to plaster a chipped wall. Perfectly done and really helpful and kind guy. 100% calling if I ever need any more plastering done!”
“Although we didn't require any work, Frank was extremely helpful and knowledgable on his visit to inspect our issue. He was prompt and on time and responded quickly.”
“Very, very happy with Franks work finishing off kitchen walls after having been let down by a builder. It was a tricky job as the granite worktops ect had already been installed but I couldn't be happier with the result.”
“Really happy with the work. Great finish and very professional. Turned up on time, kept things tidy, and did a top-quality job. Would definitely recommend.”
“very pleasant experience in communication and the level of service provided. tradesman was very polite. He came around for a diagnosis before outlining the job in details with cost and what needs doing.”
“Just had Scott round, Arrived on time started straight away and just got on with the job. Pleasant at all times clean & tidy worker will definitely use again. Work looks good and he stuck to his price. Thanks Scott was was good to meet you.”
“Very professional, was very clear on what exactly will be done. Agreed a price and kept me update all the way through. Happy with the work completed and after care as well. Very helpful and highly recommended.”
“Scott called me before booking a date to come and do work. He reasured me about somethings i was worried about. He come in time he said he would and helped me with another job as well. Very helpful and happy with service”
“Great job by Scott plastering the small room, he managed to sort out the uneven ceiling and walls. Will be using Scott again to sort out a couple of other rooms.”
Plastering, screeding and rendering out of Bromley, across South East London, the Kent border and Central London, on every kind of property, domestic and commercial. If you are outside that it is still worth asking, because it depends on the size of the job and how the week is already booked.
Yes, always in writing, and after somebody has looked at the job rather than off a description. If something turns up behind the plaster once work starts, you are told before it is dealt with, not after.
Most of the work is in occupied property. Floors get sheeted, doorways get sealed where the rest of the house is in use, and noisy work is kept to the middle of the day so the neighbours can live with it.
Yes. Domestic and commercial both, and a commercial fit out tends to run to a tighter programme with more of the work happening out of hours, which is planned for rather than charged for as a surprise.
It depends what is already booked and how big the job is. A single room repair usually fits in sooner than a whole property. The honest date gets given at estimate stage rather than an optimistic one.
Yes. Hacked off plaster, board offcuts and packaging all leave with the job. Nothing gets left in a communal hallway or stacked in a front garden.
Nearby
Bromley, South East London, Kent and Central London
CoveringBromley, South East London, Kent and Central London
Qualifications and training
City & Guilds Level 2 Diploma in PlasteringFrank McBride, College of North West London, 2021Federation of Damp: Damp Proofing Technician trainingFrank McBride, January 2026be Accredited health and safety trainingAsbestos awareness, abrasive wheels, confined space, accident and incident, environmental awareness
