Lian Construction provides plastering, painting and decorating for London homes, rentals and commercial premises. We re-skim tired walls and ceilings, prepare surfaces properly and finish with a clean, durable decoration that is ready to hand over. Work ranges from a single room refresh to a full internal redecoration alongside plaster repairs, and we cover properties from Victorian terraces with original cornicing through to ex-council flats, matching preparation and paint system to what the building actually needs rather than the same approach on every job.
Camden overview
Painting and decorating in Camden
Period conversions and mansion blocks across Camden and Bloomsbury, with conservation area rules that shape most refurbishment scopes. Camden falls well within the North London ground Lian Construction covers on a regular basis. For painting and decorating work in Camden, that local knowledge means fewer surprises once work is on site and a team that already understands the borough's typical property stock.
Camden's housing stock is dominated by period conversions and purpose-built mansion blocks, spread across areas such as Bloomsbury, Primrose Hill, Belsize Park and Camden Town. Many of the borough's Georgian and Victorian terraces have been split into flats over the decades, so refurbishment work here often has to account for shared freeholds, communal areas and lease conditions rather than a single owner making decisions for the whole building. Mansion blocks add another layer, typically with strict management company rules on what can be altered, when work can take place and which contractors need to be approved before starting. Original features such as sash windows, decorative cornicing, timber floors and period fireplaces are common, and conservation area status across much of the borough means these details are frequently protected rather than optional extras. Solid brick construction without a cavity is standard on the older stock, which has implications for damp management and insulation upgrades.
Where a Camden property hasn't already been converted, it tends to be a larger single-family Victorian or Edwardian house, often needing the same period-property considerations as the flats around it.
Camden's blurb points to conservation area rules shaping most refurbishment scopes in the borough, and that's the practical reality for most jobs here: a large share of Camden's residential streets sit within a conservation area, so external changes, window replacements and anything altering the street-facing appearance of a building typically need planning permission rather than falling under permitted development. For flats within mansion blocks or converted period houses, there's usually a second layer of approval needed from a freeholder or management company on top of any planning requirement, covering things like noise hours, protecting communal areas during work and using contractors who carry the right insurance. This tends to lengthen the run-up to a project compared with a straightforward house extension elsewhere in London, even where the work itself is fairly standard once it starts. Property values in Camden are high, which supports demand for higher-specification refurbishment and finishing work, but it also means mistakes or unpermitted alterations are more likely to be picked up during a future sale or lease renewal, so getting consents right from the outset matters more here than in less regulated boroughs.
Typical painting and decorating prices in London
Item
Typical range
Bedroom repaint
£350–£700
Full house repaint
£2,500–£6,000
Exterior painting
£1,200–£3,500
Exterior/communal/insurance decoration, per flat
£1,200–£2,500
General London market guidance, not a fixed quote — actual pricing depends on a site survey. Full breakdown: cost guide.
Common problems we find in London properties
London's housing stock throws up a fairly predictable set of decorating problems. In Victorian and Edwardian terraces with solid brick walls, damp staining on external and chimney breast walls is common, and painting straight over it without addressing the cause just means the stain bleeds back through within weeks, so we use a stain-blocking primer where the underlying damp has already been resolved by someone else rather than as a substitute for actually fixing it. Ex-council flats and 1960s-70s conversions often still have woodchip wallpaper or a textured coating hiding under later layers of paint, and this has to be stripped or skimmed over rather than painted directly, as fresh paint doesn't disguise the texture and repeated painting over it just makes eventual removal harder. Many older ceilings have artex, and if it needs removing rather than being skimmed over or worked around, that surface has to be checked for asbestos content before anyone starts sanding or scraping it, given textured coatings applied before the early 1980s can contain it, and any suspect material needs proper testing and safe handling rather than being disturbed on assumption. Nicotine and old smoke staining will bleed straight through ordinary emulsion within days unless it's sealed first with a dedicated stain block. In rental properties and older stock generally we regularly find blown or cracked plaster around window reveals, chimney breasts and ceiling roses from historic leaks or building movement, which is why plastering and decorating are usually priced and carried out together on period properties rather than treated as separate, unrelated jobs. Hairline cracking along the junction between ceiling and wall, or running along the length of a ceiling, is another common finding in Victorian houses with timber joists, caused by seasonal movement and shrinkage rather than any structural fault, and it's usually filled and scrimmed rather than fully re-skimmed unless it keeps reopening. Bathrooms without decent extraction are a recurring problem too, since paint applied over a wall that's regularly damp from showering without ventilation will bubble and peel within a year or two regardless of the paint quality used, so we'll flag a ventilation issue before decorating over it rather than guaranteeing a finish that condensation is likely to undermine. Patchy previous DIY repairs, where a different plaster mix or a filler was used to skim over a small area, often show through paint as a slightly different texture or sheen once dry, and telling a client about that risk before starting saves an awkward conversation at handover.
How decorating fits around other trades and the wider programme
Decoration is normally one of the last trades on site, and getting the sequencing right avoids redoing finished work. Plastering needs time to dry out fully before painting, typically around a week per coat of skim in good conditions and considerably longer in cold, damp or poorly ventilated rooms, so we won't rush a mist coat onto plaster that's still curing, as it leads to visible flashing, blistering or a patchy sheen appearing weeks later once the wall has fully dried out. On refurbishment projects we coordinate with the other trades on site so decoration happens after first-fix electrics, plumbing and any flooring subfloor work, but before carpets, engineered wood or other delicate flooring goes down, since paint spatter, sanding dust and plaster dust are far easier to manage before finishes are laid rather than after. Where a job involves knocking through a wall, removing a chimney breast, or fitting a new ceiling after water damage, we usually pick up the plastering and decorating once the structural work and first fix are signed off, so the client isn't managing separate contractors and separate access visits for each stage of what is really one project. For occupied homes we plan the work room by room so at least part of the property stays usable throughout rather than the whole place being out of action at once, and for landlords managing a turnaround between tenancies we can compress the overall programme by running plastering, drying time and decoration back to back with minimal gaps, rather than leaving the property empty and unlet for longer than necessary between each trade. We also work around trades finishing at the same time as decoration starts, such as electricians who need to remove and refit socket and switch plates around freshly painted walls, or kitchen fitters where it's usually better to paint the walls before units go in rather than cutting in awkwardly around finished cabinetry afterwards. On jobs needing external scaffold, we coordinate access with the scaffolding contractor so the tower goes up once and covers both any exterior repair work and the decoration, rather than two separate hire periods. Before handover we do a final snag walk-through with the client to pick up any missed cutting-in, touch-ups or marks left by other trades during the final stages, so the property is genuinely ready rather than needing a follow-up visit for small items.
Plastering, re-skimming and surface preparationInterior and exterior painting and decoratingEnd-of-tenancy and rental redecorationRegular coverage of Camden and the wider North London area
Signs to look for
Do you need painting and decorating in Camden?
Ceilings or walls show a brown or yellow tide mark left behind from a past leak that was never redecorated over properly.
Plaster sounds hollow when tapped, or has visible cracking, bulging or crumbling patches near window reveals and chimney breasts.
Nicotine or old smoke staining keeps bleeding back through freshly applied emulsion within days of a previous redecoration attempt.
Rooms still have old woodchip wallpaper or dated textured artex ceilings that need addressing before a sale or new tenancy.
How the work is handled in Camden
Step 1Inspect walls, ceilings and woodwork
Step 2Prepare and re-skim where needed
Step 3Apply the agreed paint system
Step 4Clean down and snag before handover
Questions
Painting and decorating questions in Camden
How quickly can Lian start painting and decorating work in Camden?
Camden is part of our regular North London coverage, so once we've surveyed the property we can usually confirm a start date quickly. Send the address and scope and we'll arrange the next step.
Do you cover all of Camden?
Yes. Camden falls within the area Lian Construction serves across Greater London.
Do I need planning permission to renovate a flat in a Camden mansion block?
Internal work that doesn't affect the building's structure or exterior often doesn't need planning permission itself, but most mansion blocks have their own management company rules requiring approval before work starts, covering things like permitted working hours, protecting shared areas and using contractors with adequate insurance. It's worth checking your lease and getting management company sign-off alongside any planning consideration, since the two are separate requirements.
If we're only redecorating one room or touching up part of a wall, can you match the existing colour and finish?
Usually, yes. If you still have the original paint reference, tin, or a code from a previous job, we'll match to that directly. Without a reference, we can colour-match from a sample taken off the wall in most cases, though very old or heavily faded paint can be harder to match exactly under different lighting, and a slight difference in sheen level between an old and new coat can sometimes show even when the colour itself is spot on. We'll flag any risk of a visible join or sheen mismatch before starting so it's not a surprise once the work is done. On feature walls or areas that get direct sun through a window, older paint can fade unevenly compared with a stored tin of the same colour, so matching by eye against the faded wall sometimes gives a truer result on the day than matching strictly to the original code.
Do you supply the paint and materials, or do we need to choose and provide them ourselves?
We generally supply trade paint and materials as part of the job and price it into the quote, using ranges such as Dulux Trade, Crown Trade or Johnstone's depending on the finish required. If you've already chosen a specific colour, brand or eco-friendly range and would rather supply it yourself, that's fine too, we'll just confirm quantities and sheen level in advance so there's enough to complete the job in one go without a mid-job trip to match a part-used tin. One thing worth knowing either way is that trade paint and retail paint from the same brand aren't always identical in formulation, so if you're supplying your own tins bought from a DIY shed rather than a trade counter, coverage and number of coats needed can differ slightly from what we'd normally expect, and we'll adjust the labour estimate once we know which you're using.
Can you repair plaster before decorating?
Yes. Plastering and re-skimming are part of the same job where surfaces need repair before painting.
Talk to Lian Construction about Camden
Send the site address in Camden, photos if available, and the painting and decorating work you need. We can review the scope and arrange the next step.