Coving vs Cornice – Which Style Fits Your Bedfordshire Home?
What is coving? Well, the first thing to say is that it’s not the same as cornice work. They both do the same job – bridging the raw joint where your wall meets the ceiling – but they look completely different.
Coving uses a uniform, arc-shaped profile that curves inwards. It is minimalist, understated, and follows a clean “C” shape. A cornice, by contrast, is decorative, ornate, and often features details like dentils, steps, or floral motifs.
If your Bedfordshire home is a modern build or a mid-century renovation, you need coving. If you are restoring an Edwardian or Victorian terrace with high ceilings, you want a cornice.
Plaster vs. Plastic – Choosing Long-Lasting Coving Materials
Modern coving comes in a range of different materials, all designed to suit different budgets. Be aware, though – the material your coving is made of will determine whether it lasts five years or half a century.
- Polystyrene coving looks good and is easy to install, but fails the longevity test; over time it shrinks, warps, and degrades.
- Polyurethane coving works well in high-moisture zones like kitchens or bathrooms where raw plaster might struggle with steam.
- Traditional plaster coving is the Logic team’s recommendation for your main living areas. It handles the natural structural movement of your home without popping off the wall, and it carries the structural weight that gives you a premium finish.
Here’s a table for quick reference when making your choice of coving material:
The Golden Rule for Sizing Coving in Your Home
Sizing coving is all about correcting architectural proportions. In an older property with high ceilings, you need a deep vertical drop to anchor the room. In a modern flat with a standard 2.3-metre ceiling height, that same heavy drop will cut the room in half visually.
Here’s how the Logic Plastering team ensures you get the right proportions to your room.
1. Checking the room’s structural obstructions
This means measuring the top of your window casings, tall wardrobes, and curtain tracks. The projected vertical drop should leave at least 50mm of ‘breathing room’ above these to stop the room looking crowded.
2. Calculating the room’s volume ratio
For large rooms with ceilings above 2.7 metres, we would advise selecting a coving where the vertical drop exceeds the horizontal projection. For compact, modern spaces, we reverse this guidance, recommending a short drop with a long projection.
3. Creating a physical corner template
We create a cardboard template to your chosen profile’s exact drop and projection dimensions. This allows us to hold it up in the corners of the room to preview how the shadows will cast during different times of day.
4. Calculating your perimeter run
For ordering purposes, we measure the full perimeter of the room in linear metres. To this we’ll add a strict 10% margin for standard square rooms, or 15% if the room has multiple chimney breasts or complex architectural recesses.
How Logic Plastering Eliminates Ceiling Joint Cracks
When coving cracks, you’re looking at a structural failure, not a cosmetic one. It’s down to the fact that the junction between your walls and ceiling is a high-stress zone which is subject to constant building settlement. As a result, coving installation needs an expert touch to avoid it.
In order to guarantee that your ceiling lines stay perfectly straight and seamless, a member of the Logic Plastering team will fuse the coving directly to the background plasterboard, using high-density, gypsum-based compounds that cure to the exact structural density of your walls.
This step creates a uniform, single structure that absorbs natural house movement without causing your coving to split or flake.
Your Coving and Plastering Questions Answered
Here are some questions we’re asked frequently by clients across Bedfordshire.
The previous owners put up coving over layers of old wallpaper. Can you just install the new profile over the top of it?
No. If you stick new plaster or polyurethane coving over old wallpaper, the adhesive will liquefy the old paste underneath. In a few weeks, the weight of the coving will pull the wallpaper away from the plaster, causing the entire run to sag or crash down. We strip all papers back to the bare, raw masonry or plasterboard and score the surface to guarantee a solid grip.
We are having our walls re-skimmed as well as getting coving. Which job should your plasterers do first?
The coving always goes up before the final wall skim. We install the coving blocks directly onto the raw plasterboard or backing coats. Once the coving is mechanically anchored and the adhesive sets, our plasterers skim the walls right up to the crisp bottom edge of the coving line.
Can we run electrical cables or internet wires behind the coving to hide them without digging channels into the walls?
Yes. Just a note of caution; if you’re running 230V mains wiring or integrated LED lighting strips, the cables need to be housed within fire-retardant conduit or clip-fixed securely to the wall masonry before the coving covers them. They mustn’t lie loose on top of the coving profile where a future fixing screw could pierce through them.
How do you handle the joints where two lengths of coving meet in the middle of a long wall? Don’t the seams show?
Logic installers use mitred splices. We cut the meeting ends at a matching 45-degree angle across the face rather than a straight 90-degree cut. This doubles the surface area for the adhesive adhesive to grip and makes sure that if the wall expands, the two pieces slide together rather than pushing each other off the wall.
Ready to transform your home with durable coving?
Logic Plastering is your trusted partner for expert coving installation in Bedfordshire. We bring years of experience, a passion for craftsmanship, and a commitment to quality.
Contact us today for a free, no-obligation quote – 07809 228328