Project of the Month

A Thompson Plastering, Decorating & Paint Spraying, a 5-man team of plasterers, ames tapers, and decorators in Scotland have just completed phase 1 on Ronachan House on the West coast Of Scotland on the Kintyre Peninsula.

Ronachan House, is a 13-bedroom estate house. Formerly a drugs and alcohol rehabilitation centre, owned and run by the Church of Scotland, it was sold due to dwindling numbers approximately 7 years ago and is now under renovation for a change of use. The owner is proud to be restoring the building to its former glory.

The owners, one of whom is an architect, specified Farrow & Ball Estate emulsion for the ceilings and Farrow & Ball Modern Emulsion for the walls, as this is quite durable and hard wearing. All the woodwork was finished in Farrow & Ball Estate Eggshell. Approximately 80% of the entire job was applied via airless spraying with Graco Spray Machines. 

Andrew Thompson, Managing Director of A Thompson Plastering, Decorating & Paint Spraying said, “There was huge effort that went into filling with fine surface filler and sanding the original woodwork, most of which was very badly damaged. This was a hard task as when spraying, it shows up even the tiniest of defects!”

Some woodwork was renewed but the owners felt they wanted to retain as much originality as possible.

Andrew and his team took great joy in spraying the original Cornices throughout the property, and again, by spraying they were able to keep as much of the fine detailing as possible.

A couple of the ceilings still featured original 1910 wallpaper and Andrew was asked to source and match it. Unfortunately, he was unable to do so as that specific one had been discontinued. However, they were fortunate enough to find a pretty close match with a similar one from the 1930’s.

The owner is extremely pleased with the work so far and is proud to be the main driving force in bringing this property back to its original beauty!

Phase 1 has now completed and Andrew and his team are due to carry out phase 2 in the coming weeks.

Andrew said, “It is a sheer privilege and pleasure to work on a property of this beauty and I personally classify this as the job of a lifetime for myself. I am extremely proud of my team and couldn’t ask for better, more dedicated workers”. 

About A Thompson Plastering, Decorating & Paint Spraying: 

Andrew Thompson served his time straight out of school with Gregor MacGregor, originally from the Isle of Islay, an island off the west coast of Scotland, World famous for its prize-winning whiskies. A place the team now acquaint quite frequently for work. 

Andrew says, he “Owes a lot to his old boss and is lucky to have been part of a small squad, which was a maximum of 5 decorators. Allowing him to have very hands on training and attention”. 

Andrew’s skills and ambitions evolved greatly and before he knew it, at the age of 25, he had taken the plunge to become self-employed. For the first 3 years he worked solo as a Painter & Decorator, Ames taper and plasterer, in his hometown of Campbeltown, in the Mull of Kintyre.

In his 4th year Andrew took on an apprentice and sent him off to college. Realising his workload was too much to deal with alone, he then employed an old colleague. The workload grew and therefore so did the business and before he knew it, Andrew’s team had grown to 4 employees, 2 of which are apprentices. 

A Thompson Plastering, Decorating & Paint Spraying now cover a huge area, even reaching the Isle of Skye, which is an 8-hour drive from Andrew’s hometown, specialising in new build developments from the plastering/ames taping stage up to completion of decoration. 

Constantly thriving for more success and better quality, They became members of the ”British Gypsum Certified Plasterers Scheme”, They are in the process of becoming members of ”Dulux Select Decorators” and also ”The Scottish Decorators Federation‘‘.

Andrew has huge aspirations for his 2 apprentices, who he aims to send on specialist courses in various subjects, and provide the area which he grew up in, with more than just Painters & Decorators.

As the business expanded, Andrew went from working out of the back of a little rickety van, to now owning 3 vans and having his very own dedicated Spraying workshop and 2 storage spaces in the heart of the Campbeltown. 

Andrew said, “From 18 months ago when I was working on my own, to now this, is quite the achievement If I don’t say so myself! The business and its expansion is therefore in its infancy, and we look forward to where we may be in 18 months’ time from now. Watch this space!”