Cornice
Standard cove and modern profiles fitted, repaired and matched, priced by the metre.
CorniceOrnamental plaster
Ornate plaster restoration, matched to what the room already has
Ceiling roses, decorative cornice runs, panel mouldings and enrichments. Repaired, run or cast to follow the original profile rather than replaced with the nearest thing off a rack.
Ornamental plaster in an older Sydney house is usually fibrous plaster: gypsum cast over hessian scrim on a bench, then fixed up to the joists, with the cornice run in place and the enrichments cast and stuck on. It is a different trade to sheeting a room, and it fails in different ways.
What this page sets out is how ornamental plaster is assessed, what actually separates a good repair from an obvious one, how a missing profile is matched by running or by casting, and what a job like this is quoted on. If you have a ceiling or a run you want looked at, ask us about the scope before anything is touched.
- Profile matched, not approximated
- Original fabric kept where it can be
- Quoted by run, piece and access
Match before replace
The first question is always whether the original can be kept and repaired, not what replaces it.
The profile comes off the room
A template or a mould taken from a sound section is what makes a new length disappear into the old one.
Old plaster is not plasterboard
Fibrous plaster, lath and lime all behave differently. They are assessed on what they actually are.
Heritage gets checked first
If a property is listed or in a conservation area, that shapes the scope before any work is priced.
What breaks
The ornamental plaster people ring about
Decorative plaster tends to fail in a handful of recognisable ways. Naming which one you are looking at changes the assessment, because some of these are surface damage and some of them are telling you the fixing behind has let go.
Very common
A ceiling rose with pieces missing
Chipped leaves, a broken run of beading, or a section knocked out when a light fitting was changed. Usually repairable by casting the missing detail from a sound part of the same rose rather than replacing the whole centre.
Very common
A decorative cornice run with a gap
A length damaged, removed during earlier work, or never reinstated after a wall came out. The new length has to follow the existing profile exactly, because the join is at eye level along a straight line.
Common
Detail lost under paint
Decades of coats filling the undercuts until acanthus, dentils or egg and dart read as soft lumps. The plaster underneath is often perfectly sound. What it needs is careful cleaning back, not replacement.
Common
Cracking through an ornamental line
A crack that runs through a cornice or across a panel moulding. The repair is straightforward once the cause is known, but a crack that keeps reopening is movement, and that is a different conversation.
Needs a look
A section that has dropped or feels loose
Fibrous plaster ceilings are held up by plaster wads over hessian to the joists. When those wads fail the panel sags or drops. Keep people out from under it and have it looked at before anything is pushed back.
Needs a look
Staining and softening after water
Gypsum that has been wet loses strength, and a wet fibrous panel can stay soft long after the stain dries. The ceiling has to be dry and the cause fixed before restoration is worth starting.
How a missing profile is made
Running, casting and piecing in
There are only a few ways to produce a length or a piece that matches something already in the room. Which one suits depends on whether the shape is a continuous run or a repeated ornament, and on how much sound original is left to copy from.
| Method | What it involves | Where it suits |
|---|---|---|
| Run in situ | A zinc template cut to the profile is drawn along the wall and ceiling junction through wet plaster, building the shape in place | Plain and simple decorative cornice runs, and making good where a run has been broken into |
| Run on the bench | The same template is run over a bench to produce a straight length, which is then cut, fitted and jointed in place | Longer replacement runs, and work where the room needs to stay usable between visits |
| Cast from a mould | A flexible mould is taken off a sound original piece, then new pieces are cast from it in gypsum, sometimes over scrim | Repeated enrichments, rose detail, corbels, brackets and anything ornamental rather than linear |
| Piece in by hand | Missing detail is built up and carved back by hand to follow the pieces either side of it | Small losses where taking a mould is not practical, and one-off detail with nothing to copy |
| Repair in place | Loose material stabilised, cracks cut out and filled with a compatible material, edges consolidated | Sound ornament with local damage, which is the outcome worth aiming for wherever it is possible |
| Stock profile substitution | An off-the-shelf cornice that is close but not the same is fitted in place of the original | Almost never in an ornamental room, and worth refusing where the original profile still exists to copy |
Scope
Where ornamental restoration starts and stops
This page covers traditional ornamental and decorative plaster: roses, decorative cornice, mouldings and enrichments, and matching what is already there. Everyday plastering work on the same ceiling belongs to the pages that own it.
What this covers
- Ceiling roses and ceiling centres repaired, cleaned back or cast to match
- Decorative and ornamental cornice runs repaired, run in situ or run and fitted
- Panel mouldings, arch mouldings, corbels, brackets and enrichments
- Taking a profile template or a mould from a sound original section
- Fibrous plaster panels and lath and plaster assessed before anything is decided
- Careful cleaning back of detail lost under heavy paint build-up
- Matching new work into original fabric so the join is not the first thing you see
What this is not
- Standard cove cornice fitted, repaired or replaced, which is cornice
- Decorative trowelled finishes on walls, which is Venetian and polished plaster
- Ordinary joint cracking, screw pops and patching, which is ceiling repairs
- A ceiling that has dropped away from its fixings, which is assessed as sagging ceilings
- Reinstating plaster after a leak, which is water-damaged ceilings
- Heritage approvals, conservation reports and consent, which sit with your council and a heritage adviser
Plenty of ornamental rooms need both. A rose restored and the flat ceiling around it repaired is two kinds of work in one room, and it is quoted that way so you can see what each part costs.
The assessment
What gets looked at before a price is put on it
Ornamental plaster carries its own history. A useful assessment works out what is original, what has already been replaced, what is holding it up and whether anything is still moving.
- What it is made of. Fibrous plaster panels, lath and plaster, run lime work of the kind covered under solid plastering, or a modern replacement all repair differently and take different materials. That is settled by looking, not assumed.
- How it is fixed. Decorative ceilings are held up by wads, nibs or nails a century old. Whether those fixings are sound decides whether the work is surface repair or something more serious.
- What is original. Most old rooms carry earlier repairs. Knowing which sections are original and which are later substitutions tells you what to copy the profile from.
- What the paint is doing. Heavy paint build-up hides both detail and damage. How much can be cleaned back, and how, has to be worked out before anyone promises a crisp result.
- Whether it is still moving. A crack through an ornamental run that has been filled twice is a movement question first. Restoring it before the movement is understood means doing it again.
- What the property is. Listed items and conservation areas bring their own requirements. Those need to be confirmed with the council before scope is settled, not after.
Two different conversations
Restoration work, and things to settle first
Ordinary ornamental restoration
- Chipped or broken detail on an otherwise sound rose or moulding
- A length of decorative cornice missing where a wall was removed
- Enrichments that need recasting from a sound original nearby
- Hairline cracking through a run with no history of movement
- Detail softened by paint on plaster that is still firm
- Making good after a light fitting, a fan or ducting was moved
Sort these out before restoration
- A panel that is sagging, drumming or has dropped at an edge, which is a safety question before it is a finish question
- An active leak or a ceiling that is still damp, because gypsum that is wet is not ready for anything
- Cracking that has reopened after previous repairs, which points at the structure rather than the plaster
- Paint on pre-1970 surfaces, which in Australia may contain lead, so no dry sanding, heat gun or power sanding before it is assessed
- A heritage listed item or a property in a conservation area, where approval requirements come first
- Any ceiling where a section has already come down, which needs the area kept clear and looked at properly
How the work runs
Record, protect, take the profile, make, fit, finish
Restoration runs in a different order to ordinary plastering, because the reference for the new work has to be taken off the old work before anything is disturbed.
- 01
Record what is there
Photographs, measurements and a note of what is original before anything is cleaned or removed. If a piece has to come out, where it came from is recorded so it goes back in the right place.
- 02
Protect the room
Floors, joinery and fireplaces covered. Ornamental rooms usually have other things worth protecting in them, and gypsum dust travels.
- 03
Take the profile or the mould
A template cut to the section of the existing run, or a flexible mould taken from a sound enrichment. This is the step that decides whether the result matches, and it cannot be rushed.
- 04
Stabilise and clean back
Loose material secured, failed earlier repairs cut out, and paint carefully cleaned back where detail has been lost, using a method suited to what the paint is.
- 05
Make and fit
New lengths run and new pieces cast, then fitted and bedded so they sit true with the sections either side. Joints are made where they are least visible from the room.
- 06
Finish and hand over
Joins worked in, detail checked against the original under raking light, then the room cleaned down and handed back ready for a painter who knows ornamental work.
Assessment and recording Making and fitting
Before the quote
What an ornamental job is priced on
Restoration is priced very differently to sheeting or patching, because much of the cost sits in making the thing that matches rather than in fixing it up.
Whether a template or mould is needed
If a sound section exists to copy, a template or mould is made once and used for the whole job. That setup is a real cost, and it is the same whether the run is two metres or twenty.
How much can be saved
Repairing original fabric is usually cheaper and always preferable. A ceiling where most of the ornament is sound is a different job to one where half of it is gone.
Run length and piece count
Continuous decorative cornice is priced by the metre. Enrichments, roses and corbels are priced by the piece, because each one is cast and fitted separately.
How complicated the profile is
A simple two-curve cornice and a deeply enriched profile with dentils and repeating ornament take very different amounts of time to reproduce and to fit.
Paint build-up
Cleaning back decades of paint to recover detail is slow work, and what the paint is decides which methods are usable at all. It is quoted separately from the plastering.
Ceiling height and access
Ornamental rooms tend to have high ceilings. Staging, working overhead and getting long lengths up the stairs all change the day.
Occupancy and programme
A furnished, occupied room is protected, worked in stages and cleaned each visit. An empty room before a repaint, or a room already opened up as part of renovation plastering, is far more straightforward.
Heritage requirements
Where consent, a conservation adviser or a specified material applies, the scope has to follow it. That is confirmed before the work is priced rather than discovered during it.
Related work
The pages either side of this one
Ornamental rooms usually need more than one kind of plastering. These four own the work that sits around a restoration.
Ceiling repairs
Cracking, screw pops and patching on the flat ceiling around the ornament.
Ceiling repairsSagging ceilings
A panel that has dropped away from its fixings, assessed before anything is refixed.
Sagging ceilingsWater-damaged ceilings
Plaster reinstated once the leak is stopped and the ceiling is properly dry.
Water damageCommon questions
Questions about ornamental plaster
If yours is not here, ask it. We would rather answer it on the phone than have you guess.
Can a broken ceiling rose be repaired, or does it have to be replaced?
Repaired, in most cases. A rose is usually a repeating pattern, so the missing detail almost always still exists somewhere on the same piece. A mould taken off a sound section produces new detail in the same material, and that is bedded in and worked back so the repair follows the pattern.
Replacement is the answer only when so little of the original survives that there is nothing left to copy, or when the rose has been so badly damaged that it is no longer holding together. Even then it is worth asking whether a reproduction can be cast from the original rather than bought off a shelf, because a stock rose in an original room is usually obvious.
How do you match a cornice profile that is not made any more?
By copying the one in the room. A clean section of the existing run is cut through or measured, and a template is cut in zinc to exactly that section. That template is then drawn through wet plaster, either in place or on a bench, and the new length comes out as the same profile.
This is why an intact section matters so much. If every length in the room is damaged, the profile has to be reconstructed from the best evidence available, which is slower and less certain. If you are removing a wall or a run for any reason, keep a clean length of the cornice, because it is the reference for everything that follows.
Is it possible to get the detail back under all that paint?
Often, and the result can be a surprise. Decorative plaster that reads as soft and blurry is frequently crisp underneath, with the undercuts simply filled by coats of paint. Cleaning back is patient work with the right method for the paint that is actually there, and it is quoted as its own task.
It has limits. Where previous work has skimmed over ornament, or where paint has been applied over damaged detail, cleaning back reveals losses that then need making good. It is also why older paint has to be identified first. Paint in Australian homes built before 1970 may contain lead, which rules out dry sanding and heat without proper controls.
My ornamental ceiling has a crack right through the cornice. Is that serious?
Not necessarily. Old buildings move seasonally and a hairline through a run is common. It is cut out, filled with a compatible material and worked back so the profile continues through the repair rather than being bridged over.
What matters is the history. A crack repaired before and reopened in the same place is telling you something is still moving, and the same applies to wide, stepped or diagonal cracking, or cracking that shows in the walls as well. That is a question for a builder or an engineer before it is a plastering job, and where a whole ornamental ceiling has failed it becomes ceiling replacement rather than restoration.
Do you handle heritage approvals?
No. Consent, heritage advice and conservation documentation sit with your council and with a heritage adviser, and that is where those questions belong. What we can do is work within a scope that has been set, keep to specified materials and methods, and record what was done.
If the property is a listed item or sits in a conservation area, it is worth confirming what is required before anything is priced. It changes what can be removed, what has to be retained and sometimes which materials are acceptable, and all of that affects the scope of the plastering.
Can new work be made to look old, or will it stand out?
A well matched repair should not stand out once it is painted. The profile is the thing that gives a repair away, followed by the line of the joint and the crispness of the detail, which is why the template and the mould are taken from the room itself.
What is not attempted is fake ageing. New plaster is new, and it will be a little sharper than hundred year old work that has been painted many times. Painted out properly, and with the joins placed where the eye does not travel, that difference is not what anyone notices.
What should I ask anyone quoting restoration work?
Ask how they intend to match the profile, and whether a template or mould is being taken from your room or a stock item is being substituted. Ask what material the new work will be, how it will be fixed, and how much original fabric they expect to remove. Ask how the paint will be dealt with and what happens if damage is worse once it is cleaned back.
Then ask what is not included. Painting, scaffolding, making good the flat ceiling, electrical work around a rose and any heritage documentation are the usual gaps. A quote that answers those questions is comparable. One that gives a lump sum for restoring a ceiling is not.
Have it looked at
Send photographs of the run and the room
Close-up photographs of the damage, one of a sound section of the same profile, and a wider shot of the room are enough to start. We will tell you what the work involves and what it would take to match it.