Period doors, architraves and ceilings

A Chester terrace built in the 1890s has settled for a century and a quarter, and nothing in it is at ninety degrees any more. Fit a door lining out of a catalogue and you get a 6mm gap at the top that no amount of filler will hide.

So second fix in a period property is done by scribing to what is there: architraves eased to follow the wall, skirtings cut to the floor rather than to a line, doors hung to the opening they are actually going into. It takes longer and it is the entire difference between 'renovated' and 'patched up'.

Then decoration, which is mostly preparation. New plaster gets a proper mist coat; old woodwork gets stripped, filled, sanded and undercoated. The top coat is the quick bit.