A holiday letting company managing a portfolio of cottages around Newby Bridge needed interior access for a full replaster and ceiling repair in one of their three-bedroom letting properties. The cottage — a converted stone barn beside the River Leven with exposed beams and lime plaster walls — had suffered cracking and delamination across several ceilings and wall sections following a period of heavy rain that had driven moisture through the slate roof before a recent repair.
The plastering contractor needed a stable working platform across every room at a consistent height below the ceiling line. Stepladders and hop-ups were not adequate for the sustained overhead work involved in stripping and re-applying lime plaster across large ceiling areas. The letting company had a three-week gap between autumn and winter bookings, and every day of that window had to count. Temporary staging was the right access solution — quick to install, easy to reposition between rooms, and far more practical than stepladders for the kind of sustained overhead plastering work this refurbishment demanded.
We supplied and installed temporary staging in the cottage’s three main rooms — the open-plan living area, the master bedroom and the landing/stairwell. Each staging platform was set at a height that gave the plasterer comfortable overhead reach to the ceiling and upper wall areas without stooping or overstretching. The living room staging covered a 6m x 4m area beneath the exposed beams, with the platform set at 2.1 metres to give full access to the lime plaster between the beam soffits.
The staging was designed to be repositioned by two people as the plasterer moved from room to room, avoiding the need for multiple sets of equipment. We also provided a narrow section of staging in the stairwell, configured to follow the stair angle and give the plasterer access to the awkward ceiling area above the stairs — one of the most difficult spots to reach in any cottage. The staging was erected in a single morning, and we scheduled collection for the day before the next guest booking. The letting company’s Newby Bridge portfolio includes several similar properties, and this kind of between-bookings interior refurbishment access is a regular part of our work in the southern Lakes letting market.
The cottage’s original stone doorways are lower than standard modern openings — the tallest is 1.85 metres, which meant staging components had to be selected for their ability to pass through without dismantling the frames. We specified narrow-profile trestles and short boards that could be manoeuvred through the restricted doorways and around the tight staircase turn.
The lime plaster work generated significant dust, and the letting company needed the cottage returned to guest-ready condition within the three-week window. We fitted the staging with dust sheets beneath the platforms to catch falling plaster debris, making clean-up faster for the plastering team. The cottage’s ground floor is a mix of slate flags and underfloor-heated screed — we used rubber-footed trestles throughout to avoid marking or scratching the flooring. This attention to property protection is standard on our staging work in holiday letting properties, where returning the building to pristine guest condition is as important as completing the maintenance work itself. Our experience with the Coniston and Windermere letting markets means we understand these pressures well.
The staging was in place for fourteen days. The plasterer stripped all failed lime plaster, treated the exposed lath where needed, and applied new three-coat lime plaster to every ceiling and affected wall section across the cottage. The staging was collected on day fifteen — two days before the next guest booking. The letting company’s cleaning team moved in immediately after collection, and the cottage was guest-ready with twenty-four hours to spare. The property has since received glowing guest reviews commenting on the beautiful restored plaster ceilings — a direct result of safe, practical staging access that let the plasterer do their best work.
Call 07415331135 for temporary staging in your property. We work around your letting schedule. Or contact us through our contact page, or find out more about us.
