Strata plastering
Work orders, resident access, common-area protection and invoices scoped so a committee can read them.
Strata workNorth Sydney
Plastering for the apartments, walk-ups and older houses of North Sydney
A council area only a few kilometres across, carrying towers, 1960s walk-up blocks and Federation houses side by side. The plaster work changes with the building, and so does getting into it.
Most of the plastering we are asked about in North Sydney sits inside somebody else's building. A unit in Neutral Bay, a top-floor flat in Cremorne, a lobby ceiling in Milsons Point. The repair itself is often small. The lift booking, the loading dock hours and the question of who actually owns the wall take longer than the plaster.
Under the apartment belt there is still a base of older houses through Waverton, Cammeray and the streets behind Kirribilli. Those bring their own work: cornice runs, lath and plaster in the oldest of them, and ceilings that have been patched by four different people across a century.
- Photo quote to begin
- Strata and owner work
- Building access planned first
Built for building access
Lift bookings, dock windows and common-area protection get planned before the first sheet moves.
Small jobs taken seriously
A single unit ceiling is quoted and scheduled properly, not squeezed in between larger work.
Clear on lot versus common
We describe what we are repairing so you can work out who it sits with.
Licensed in NSW
Contractor licence 244708C.
North Sydney at a glance
- Council area
- North Sydney Council
- Postcodes covered
- 2060, 2061, 2062, 2065, 2089 and 2090
- Typical work
- Unit ceiling repairs, water damage, wall patching, cornice, common areas
- Nearest covered areas
- Mosman, Willoughby, Lane Cove
Building types
Six kinds of building, six different plastering jobs
North Sydney fits an unusual range of housing into a small area. Knowing which of these you are in tells you most of what the job will involve before anyone looks at the ceiling.
Very common
Post-war walk-up blocks
Three storey brick blocks through Neutral Bay and Cremorne. Concrete or timber-framed ceilings, hard-set walls in the older ones, and no lift, so everything is carried up the stairwell.
Very common
Modern apartment towers
Set plasterboard on steel or timber battens over concrete. Repairs are usually straightforward, but access is governed by the building manager and the work hours in the by-laws.
Common
Federation and interwar houses
Waverton, Cammeray and the older pockets. Decorative cornice, ceiling roses, and in the oldest of them lath and plaster still sitting behind a later coat.
Common
Converted and infill terraces
Narrow houses split into flats, with partitions added at some point and junctions where the new lining meets original plaster that has moved since.
Regular
Common property
Corridors, lobbies, stairwells and car park soffits. Priced by area and by how much of the building has to keep working while it is done.
Regular
Offices around the station
The commercial core through North Sydney, Crows Nest and St Leonards. Partitions, bulkheads and ceiling reinstatement between tenancies.
Access
Getting a plastering job into a North Sydney building
This is the part that surprises people. In a freestanding house we park, unload and start. In an apartment building there are four or five gates to pass through first, and every one of them has a lead time.
- Parking. Street parking is metered, time limited or resident only through most of the LGA. On a multi-visit job we plan on a loading zone window or a visitor bay, and that shapes the start time more than the work does.
- Lift booking. Sheets, trestles and waste all move through the lift. Buildings usually want notice, a protective blanket fitted and a set window, which is why a one hour repair can still need a half day slot.
- Work hours. Most by-laws set when noisy work can happen. Sanding and cutting are noisy. We schedule the loud stages inside those hours and leave the quiet stages for the rest.
- Protection. Corridor carpet, lift lobbies and stairs get covered before anything is carried through. Damage on the way in costs more than the repair was worth.
- Waste. Old board and offcuts cannot sit in the corridor. Either it goes straight out on each visit or a bin location is agreed with the building manager first.
What we get called for
The North Sydney call list
Across a year the enquiries from this council cluster into a handful of repeating jobs. Here is what they usually turn out to be and where each one is dealt with.
| What gets described | What it usually is | Where it belongs |
|---|---|---|
| A stain on a unit ceiling | Water from the balcony or bathroom above, or a common-property pipe | Water-damaged ceilings, once the source is stopped |
| Cracking along the top of a wall | Slab and partition moving against each other, common in towers | Wall plastering and repairs |
| Holes after a bathroom renovation | Lining cut back for plumbing or waterproofing and never made good | Wet area linings |
| A corridor ceiling opened up | Fire or hydraulic services accessed through the plasterboard | Ceiling access panels |
| Cornice damaged in an older flat | Original run knocked, painted over repeatedly, or cut for a new service | Cornice |
| Walls that read as patchy under light | Decades of separate repairs at slightly different levels | Skim coating |
Find out whose plaster it is before you pay for it
In a strata building the boundary between your lot and common property usually sits at the inner surface of the structure. A ceiling under a concrete slab, and the plasterboard fixed to it, will often be the owners corporation's problem rather than yours, particularly when the cause came from outside the lot.
We are plasterers, not strata managers, so we will not tell you who is liable. What we will do is describe in writing what failed and where, with photographs, so you can put it to the committee or your insurer before the repair goes ahead.
Before the quote
What changes a price in this part of the lower North Shore
Two identical ceilings in two North Sydney buildings can be quoted very differently. Almost none of the difference is the plaster.
Floor level and lift access
Ground floor with a dock is one job. Level fourteen with a booked lift and a long corridor walk is another, and the difference is time, not skill.
Whether there is anywhere to park
Metered and resident-only streets across most of the LGA. A permit, a loading zone or a spot in the building changes how many visits are practical.
Building work hours
If cutting and sanding can only happen inside a set window, the job stretches across more days even though the hours are the same.
Who is approving it
An owner deciding on the spot moves quickly. A work order through a strata manager and committee has its own timeline and its own paperwork.
Age of the building
Set plasterboard in a recent tower behaves predictably. Hard plaster and lath in a pre-war flat needs a different approach and a cautious first cut.
How much has to match
Repairing one painted wall is simple. Matching an original cornice profile in an older block is slower.
Start here
The services North Sydney asks for most
Four pages cover the bulk of the work in this council area. Each explains what the job involves, how it is scoped and what affects the quote.
Ceiling repairs
Cracks, screw pops, failed old patches and access cuts, repaired and set back to one flat plane.
Ceiling repairsWater-damaged ceilings
Reinstatement after a leak from the unit above or a common-property pipe, once it has stopped and dried.
Water damageOffice fit-out plastering
Ceilings, partitions and bulkheads for the commercial floors around North Sydney, Crows Nest and St Leonards.
Fit-out workOther lower North Shore areas
Local questions
Plastering questions from North Sydney owners and managers
Most of these come from people living in or managing an apartment. If yours is not here, send a photo and ask.
Can you work in a building with restricted access hours?
Yes, and it is normal here. Tell us the permitted hours at the quote and we will plan the noisy stages, cutting, fixing and sanding, to sit inside them. Quiet work such as taping and coating can often run outside that window if the building allows it.
The practical effect is on the calendar rather than the price. A repair that would take one day in a house may run across two or three short visits in a building with a narrow work window.
Do you need the lift booked before you arrive?
For anything involving full sheets, trestles or waste removal, yes. Most buildings here want notice, a blanket fitted and a set time slot, and turning up without one usually means the load goes back on the truck.
For a small repair we can often carry what we need in by hand and avoid the booking entirely. We will tell you which it is when we see the photos, so you only involve the building manager when it is genuinely needed.
My ceiling stain came from the unit above. Who organises the plastering?
That depends on where the water came from and how your building's by-laws sit, which is a strata question rather than a plastering one. What matters for us is that the leak has been stopped and the space has dried before anyone reinstates the plaster.
We can document the failure with photographs and a written description of the affected area so it can go to the owners corporation or an insurer. Repairing over water that is still moving means paying for the same ceiling twice.
Is the plaster in a 1960s Neutral Bay flat the same as in a new tower?
Often not. Many of the older walk-up blocks have hard plaster applied directly to brick, or a render and set finish, rather than plasterboard on battens. It sounds solid when you tap it and it does not cut the same way.
That changes the repair. Patching hard plaster is closer to solid plastering than to a plasterboard patch, and where a wall has been patched many times over the decades a skim coat across the whole surface often gives a better result than another local repair.
Can you do a single small repair, or is there a minimum job?
Single repairs are a large part of the work here, because that is what apartments generate. One patch, one access cut, one run of cornice. We will quote it as its own job.
What we would rather avoid is three separate visits to the same building in the same month for three separate small repairs. If you are a manager or an owner with a list, send the whole list. It is quicker and it prices better than three attendances.
Do you do the painting afterwards?
No. We hand the work over sanded, cleaned up and ready for paint, and we will tell you how far the paint needs to go. That is usually further than people expect, because fresh compound and aged paint never match on the same plane.
For a wall repair, plan on repainting to the nearest internal corner. For a ceiling, plan on the full ceiling.
North Sydney
Send a photo and the building details
A picture of the damage, the floor level and whether there is a lift and a loading dock is usually enough for us to price it and tell you how many visits it will take.