Plastering · Rendering · Skimming · Interior & Exterior Painting
Smooth walls, sound render and paintwork that copes with the Spanish sun. Dragon Reforms plasters, renders and paints homes across the north Costa Blanca, and has done since 1999.
Plastering and painting are the last things you see in a finished room, and the first things you notice when they have been done badly. A wall that looks flat in the morning shows every ripple when the evening light rakes across it. A render that looks perfect in spring can be cracked and chalky after a couple of summers if the preparation was rushed.
Dragon Reforms is a renovation firm working across the north Costa Blanca since 1999. Our plasterers and painters handle whole-house jobs and single rooms: new plaster over boarded walls, skim coats over tired surfaces, external rendering on villas and town houses, repairs to cracked or blown plaster, cornices and coving, and the painting that finishes it all.
Many of our customers live elsewhere for part of the year, or manage a holiday home from the UK, Scandinavia, the Netherlands or Germany. We are used to working from photographs and a clear written quotation, to agreeing a start date around your visit, and to leaving the property clean and ready to use.
Whatever the size of the job, the approach is the same: look at the surface properly, say what needs doing and why, give you a written quotation, and then do the work to a standard we are happy to guarantee. The scope of the guarantee is set out in the quotation. Work is carried out Monday to Saturday, 9am to 8pm.
What is included
Most of the quality in this trade is in the work nobody photographs. These are the stages we build into every quotation where they apply.
Why it matters here
The same wall behaves differently on the coast than it would in northern Europe.
The Costa Blanca has strong sun for much of the year, and exterior paint and render take the brunt of it. Dark colours fade, cheap paint chalks, and render that has dried too fast or been applied over an unprepared surface can craze and crack. Facades that face south or west tend to show the problem first.
Close to the sea there is also salt in the air, which attacks poorly sealed surfaces and metal fittings, and in many homes there is simply a lot of humidity in the cooler months. A finish that ignores this will bubble, flake or stain. Choosing the right primer, the right paint system and the right moment to apply it matters as much as the skill with the brush or trowel.
Then there is the way homes here are used. A holiday property may sit closed for weeks, then be filled with guests; a rental needs to be turned round quickly and look fresh; a family villa takes years of terrace use and sun. And the building stock varies enormously, from modern apartment blocks and urbanisation villas to old village houses and fincas with thick stone or lime walls.
That variety is why we do not apply one standard method to everything. We look at the property, the orientation, the existing walls and how the house will be used, then recommend what will hold up.
Internal plastering
Flat, true walls and ceilings that take paint well.
Internal plastering covers new walls after building work, replastering after strip-out or services have been moved, and bringing old, uneven walls back to a smooth surface. We prepare the background, apply the plaster in coats suited to the wall, and work it flat so that it is ready for decoration once it has dried.
Skimming is the thin finishing coat that gives a smooth, even surface. It is often the right answer when walls are sound but marked, patched or rough, and it can transform a room without the cost and mess of full replastering. Where the existing surface is not good enough to skim, we will say so and explain what is needed instead.
If you want a particularly sharp, modern look, such as plain white walls with no visible joints and crisp corners, the quality of the plastering is what makes or breaks it. Paint does not hide a poor surface; it highlights it. We take the time over the final coat for that reason.
Drying time matters too. Plaster that is painted before it is ready can give patchy results or trap moisture. We schedule the work so the finish has time to cure before decorating begins.
External rendering
A render that protects the building as well as finishing it.
External render is both the face of the house and a protective layer. It sheds rain, shields the masonry from sun and wind, and gives the property its character. When it fails, the wall behind it is exposed, and small cracks often become bigger problems if left alone.
We render villas, town houses and boundary walls, and we also repair and patch existing render where only part of a facade is affected. Preparation comes first: loose or hollow sections are removed, the background is cleaned and dampened or primed as needed, and reinforcement is added where cracking is likely, such as around openings and at changes of material.
Finishes range from smooth to textured, and the final colour can be integral to the render or applied as a paint system. For the Costa Blanca we favour combinations that cope with strong sun and salt air, and we will talk you through the options and their upkeep before you decide.
Rendering is weather-dependent. We plan around temperature and wind, because render that dries too quickly in direct sun is more likely to crack, and we protect fresh work where we need to.
Repairs
Not every job is a full replaster. Often the real need is repairing damaged areas: plaster that has blown or come loose, cracks that keep returning, patches left after electricians, plumbers or window fitters have finished, or old render that has broken away in places.
A crack needs understanding before it is filled. Some are simply shrinkage or a join between two materials; others are movement, or a sign that water is getting in. Filling a crack and painting over it without finding the cause usually means seeing it again within months. We look at the pattern and position and tell you what we think is happening.
Where there is damp, we say so plainly. Staining, salts, bubbling paint and plaster that crumbles at the base of a wall can all point to moisture, and the damp needs to be dealt with first, otherwise new plaster will simply fail. Our damp proofing service can look at the cause, and we then replaster and redecorate once the wall is dry.
When repairs are done well, the patch should not be visible. We blend new plaster into the existing surface, reinstate texture where there is one, and match the paint so the area looks as though it was never touched.
Plasterboard & details
Plasterboard is a quick, clean way to build a new partition, line a wall that is too uneven to plaster directly, create a boxed-in section for pipes and cables, or form a lowered ceiling. Dry lining can also give you a flatter, more consistent surface than the original masonry, ready to be jointed and skimmed.
The boarding itself is only half the job. Joints must be taped and finished so that they do not show through the paint, corners need to be square and straight, and openings for lights, sockets and access panels have to be planned in advance. We coordinate with other trades so the boarding goes up once, correctly.
Cornices and coving add definition where wall meets ceiling, and they are one of the details that make a room feel finished. We fit and finish them so that mitres are tight and the line is straight, and we can repair or replace damaged lengths in older properties.
If you are not sure whether boarding, plastering or a mixture of both suits your walls, we are happy to advise on site. The right choice depends on the condition of the wall, the use of the room and what is behind it.
Older properties
Old walls need materials that let them breathe.
Many properties in the hills and old town centres have thick stone, rubble or lime-based walls. These buildings were designed to manage moisture by letting it move through the wall and evaporate. Covering them with the wrong material, such as a dense cement render or an impermeable paint, can trap moisture and cause the very problems people are trying to avoid.
For these walls we take a more careful approach. We look at what is there, remove only what has failed, and use plasters, renders and paints that suit the building. Breathable finishes are often the better choice, and in some cases lime-based products make the most sense. We will explain what we recommend and why before work starts.
Uneven surfaces and irregular openings are part of the character of an old house, and we do not try to flatten everything into a modern box unless that is what you want. The aim is a sound, attractive finish that respects the building and will last.
If an old wall has persistent damp, address that first. Fresh plaster over a damp wall will not stay on it, no matter how good the plastering is.
Painting & decorating
Good painting is mostly preparation. Surfaces are cleaned, filled, sanded and primed, edges are masked or cut in by hand, and the coats are applied in the right order with the right drying times between them. Rushing any step shows in the finished result.
Indoors, we paint walls, ceilings, woodwork and doors, in whole houses or single rooms. We can advise on finishes for kitchens, bathrooms and damp-prone rooms, where a more resistant paint helps, and on colours that work with the strong natural light many Costa Blanca homes enjoy.
Outdoors, paint has a harder life. We use exterior systems suited to sun and salt air, prepare the surface properly, and recommend colours that are less likely to fade quickly. We also paint boundary walls, gates, shutters and railings where required.
If you are planning to sell, let or simply refresh a home, repainting is one of the most effective ways to lift the whole property. We can work to a timetable that suits your visits and rental calendar.
Finishing & refreshes
After an extension, a bathroom or kitchen refit, or a larger reform, the walls usually need to be made good and finished. Plastering and painting are the final stage, and they work best when planned alongside the rest of the project. Because Dragon Reforms is a full renovation firm, we can coordinate this with the other trades involved, so that the finish is not held up or damaged by later work.
Holiday homes have their own pattern. They are often used heavily for short periods, then left shut. Walls pick up scuffs, ceilings show marks, and sun-exposed paintwork ages quickly. A refresh, with repairs, a skim where needed and a full repaint, can bring a tired property back without a major reform.
We can work while you are away. With a clear written quotation, photos at agreed stages and a key arrangement that suits you, many owners have the work done between visits and arrive to a finished, clean property.
Whether it is one room or the whole house, we agree the scope, the sequence and the finish with you at the start, so there are no surprises on the day.
Before you hire
Some of these are cosmetic and some are early warnings. Either way, they are worth having looked at.
If you recognise one or more of these, send us a few photos and we can tell you what we think is going on and what it would take to put it right.
The work
A selection of finished walls, facades and rooms. Every job starts with a look at the surface and ends with a clean, finished result.
Images are for illustration purposes only.
Areas
Eleven towns with their own pages, each with different building types and different demands on the trade.
From high-rise apartments in Benidorm to hillside villas in Finestrat and old village houses in Polop, the right plastering and painting approach depends on the building. Choose your town to read more.
Skimming, ceilings and repaints for Benidorm apartments, holiday lets and old-town houses.
View Benidorm →Old-town repairs, breathable finishes and exterior render and paint for Altea villas.
View Altea →Facade repaints, render repairs and interior finishing for La Nucía villas.
View La Nucía →Render, repairs and repainting for sun-exposed Finestrat hillside villas.
View Finestrat →Salt-air exterior paint, render repairs and interior finishing for Calpe homes.
View Calpe →Repaints, rental refreshes and render repairs in Alfaz del Pi and Albir.
View Alfaz del Pi & Albir →Breathable repairs, replastering and repainting for Polop village houses and villas.
View Polop →Lime-friendly repairs, finca plastering and exterior paint for Benissa homes.
View Benissa →Painting & Plastering Villajoyosa: facade repainting, render repair and plastering for colourful seafront and old-town homes. Dragon Reforms. Free quotation.
View Villajoyosa →Painting & Plastering Callosa d'en Sarrià by a team based in town: stone and render walls, interiors, damp-prone rooms and fincas. Free quotation.
View Callosa d'en Sarrià →Questions
Plastering builds up a wall or ceiling surface in one or more coats, often on bare masonry or boarding. Skimming is a thin finishing coat over an existing sound surface to make it smooth and ready to paint. We will tell you which one your walls need.
Often, yes. If the cracks are limited and the render around them is sound, we can cut out and repair the affected areas and blend them in. If the cracking is widespread or the render is loose, a larger repair or new render may be the better option.
We use exterior systems intended for strong sun and coastal conditions, with the right primer for the surface. We will explain the options and expected upkeep in the quotation rather than promise a fixed lifespan.
Yes. Plaster and paint will fail on a wall that is still damp. If we see signs of moisture, we will say so, and our damp proofing service can investigate the cause. We then plaster and decorate once the wall is dry.
Yes. These walls generally need breathable materials rather than dense cement or sealing paints. We look at the wall first and recommend a suitable approach before starting.
Many customers arrange this. We agree the scope in writing, share photos as the job progresses and leave the property clean. Dates are planned around your visits.
Yes, materials are normally included in the quotation, and we will tell you if you want to choose particular paint colours or finishes yourself.
We work across the north Costa Blanca, including Benidorm, Altea, La Nucía, Finestrat, Calpe, Alfaz del Pi and Albir, Polop, Benissa, Villajoyosa and Callosa d'en Sarrià.
The quotation is free. Our work is guaranteed, and the scope of the guarantee is set out in the quotation.
Get in touch
Tell us what needs doing, send a few photos if you have them, and we will come back with a clear written quotation. The quotation is free.
Customer reviews
Genuine Google reviews from Dragon Reforms customers.
Apartment Renovation
Original Spanish review
“Hace poco reformó el apartamento. Ha quedado espectacular. Además sin imprevistos, cumpliendo los plazos y muy formal.”
English translation
“They recently renovated the apartment. It looks spectacular. What's more, there were no unexpected problems, the agreed timescales were met, and they were very professional.”
Two-Bedroom Apartment Renovation – Benidorm
“We would like to say thank you to Nico and the team at Dragonreforms for an excellent job in renovating our two bedroom apartment in Benidorm very clean and punctual and everything we asked for was done without any problems, excellent project management so no worries all aspects of work were communicated to us as we were in the UK, could not ask for more.”
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