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Where Artistry Begins
Burnished lime and marble for the tall Regency and Victorian rooms of the county, and honest advice where an older timber framed wall cannot take a polish.
Polished plaster in Kent is slaked lime and finely ground marble, laid in thin coats and burnished with a steel trowel until it shines like stone. Zavoré supplies it tinted to your colour, and our own applicators travel from Birmingham to lay it. It is a finish for the tall rooms of Kent, the Regency and Victorian terraces, the town houses and the formal reception rooms. It is also a finish that Kent's many timber framed and uneven houses cannot always take, so we tell you honestly which you have. A sample board is the first step.
Kent has plenty of the buildings polished plaster was made for. The seaside towns on the north and east coast have Regency and Victorian terraces with tall ceilings and wide staircases. Spa towns such as Tunbridge Wells and the cathedral city of Canterbury have town houses with generous halls, and the county's villages have Victorian villas and Edwardian family houses. A hallway or a dining room with good height and flat walls is where a burnished wall earns its keep.
A reflective surface finds every dip, though, so the wall underneath decides everything. Kent also has a huge number of older houses, including timber framed Wealden houses and weatherboarded cottages, where walls are not flat and the frame moves with the seasons. Polished plaster is a thin hard skin and it fails where the thing beneath it moves. On a flexing timber frame or loose lath, marmorino or limewash is the better answer.
New homes are different again. The new estates and apartments built across the county have flat plasterboard, which is straightforward once the joints are reinforced and the right primer is on. Sound modern board is often the easiest wall we meet.
Our polished plaster finishes suit these rooms.
It is not for inside a shower or steam room, and not directly behind a hob. Wax gives useful water resistance on a bathroom wall, but tadelakt is the answer where water runs.
We survey the walls first and say honestly whether they need skimming or boarding out. On a Kent house with a century of repairs, preparation can cost more than the plaster. Small questions can often be answered from photos. Then the sample board shows the colour and the sheen, and a polished wall is never one flat colour, so judge it on the wall you will live with. The plaster is tinted before it leaves Birmingham, in 48 house colours or any NCS reference.
A burnished wall has a short window on each patch and is finished in one go, so larger rooms are planned for more than one pair of hands. Kent is well beyond a daily trip from Birmingham, so the work is planned in blocks of days, with the team staying on the job and laying each coat in order. Dates are agreed once the sample and price are signed off. The Venetian plaster installation page covers the steps.
If your own plasterer is doing the work, the shop sells the plaster, primer and wax with tracked UK delivery. It is the hardest finish we sell, so be honest about your experience. People who want to learn can look at our Venetian plaster courses in Birmingham, and trade customers can ask about a trade account.
If the wall is not flat enough for a mirror, marmorino in Kent is calmer and more forgiving. Older rooms may prefer limewash in Kent or clay plaster in Kent. Wet rooms need tadelakt in Kent or microcement in Kent. For other statements see concrete effect plaster in Kent and liquid metal in Kent, and for the whole range see decorative specialists in Kent and Venetian plastering in Kent.
Yes, tall hallways and reception rooms suit it well. The walls must be flat and sound, so we survey first and say if they need skimming. A reflective surface shows every dip.
Usually not. A thin hard skin fails where the wall beneath it moves, and a flexing timber frame or loose lath does. Marmorino or limewash is the better choice in those houses.
Yes. Sound plasterboard is often straightforward, provided the joints are reinforced and the right primer is applied. We check this on a survey.
On the walls away from the shower, yes, waxed or sealed, as there are no grout lines. Inside the shower enclosure we would use tadelakt instead.
Tell us about the wall and we will say whether it is ready for a polish. Call 07592 929191 (Monday to Saturday, 9am to 6pm) or email sales@zavore.co.uk with photos, rough measurements and your postcode. You can also order a sample board and start from there.
Order a sample board tinted to your colour, or send photos and rough measurements of the walls in Kent and we will come back to you with the right finish and a clear quote.
For a quote, email photos and measurements of your walls to sales@zavore.co.uk or call 07592 929191, Monday to Saturday, 9am to 6pm.
See every area we cover.
We also supply the trade by post, wherever you are. The shop ships tracked across the UK, and the Academy teaches the finishes in Birmingham.
Providing luxury finishes for the most prestigious addresses in the world
Venetian plaster, limewash, microcement, tadelakt, metallics, sculptural plaster and gold leaf, supplied and installed by our own team, with Venetian plaster taught at our Birmingham studio.
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