Painting a Victorian terrace: what actually needs doing first

Most of south London is the same house repeated. Once you have decorated a few hundred of them, the same four things come up.

1. The ceilings are lath and plaster

Horsehair plaster pushed through timber laths, a hundred and forty years old. Fine cracking is normal and fills happily. What matters is telling that apart from a ceiling that has lost its key — where the plaster has parted from the laths behind. Tap it: a hollow, drummy sound over a wide area means overboarding, not filler.

2. The cracks are usually movement

A crack that has been filled before and come back is not shrinkage. It is the building moving, seasonally, and it will keep moving. Raking it out, taping the joint and filling over the tape is what holds. Filling it flush again is a job you will repeat next year.

3. The cornice is full of paint

Original cornice and ceiling roses are the best thing about these houses and they are usually buried. Every repaint since 1885 has softened the mouldings. You do not have to strip it — cutting the build-up back on the leading edges recovers most of the definition, and it is a fraction of the cost.

4. The woodwork is oil gloss, and it is yellow

Oil-based gloss yellows, badly, in rooms that get little direct light. North-facing back bedrooms are the worst. Moving to a water-based eggshell fixes it permanently, but old gloss has to be sanded back properly first or the new finish will not key.

None of this is exotic. It is just the order things have to happen in, and it is the difference between a redecoration that lasts ten years and one that looks tired in eighteen months.