Plastering Quote

abankerbutnotafatcat

Hi,

We have a 3m x 3.7m room with 2.2m ceilings. About half of the wall surface needs re-skimming (the other half is either ok will be behind kitchen units). We also need a new ceiling in the room.

We've had two quotes; one for £920 to just do half the walls, the other for £1100 to do them all.

We're in the Gatwick area.

Any thoughts? All advice appreciated as it's scary money!

irishcol

abankerbutnotafatcat wrote: »

Hi,

We have a 3m x 3.7m room with 2.2m ceilings. About half of the wall surface needs re-skimming (the other half is either ok will be behind kitchen units). We also need a new ceiling in the room.

We've had two quotes; one for c£1000 to just do half the walls, the other for c£1200 to do them all.

We're in the Gatwick area.

Any thoughts? All advice appreciated as it's scary money!

Sounds a lot. Wouldn't expect to pay more than £120 - £150 per day. Have they said how long it will take?

abankerbutnotafatcat

No, they haven't mentioned how long it will take. I've just checked the quotes (OH had them) and they are not quite is high as I stated originally and I will edit my OP with the exact amounts.

Just to clarify, the ceiling needs replacing not just skimming. We currently just have bare joists etc.

Happy-Days_3

Bare joinsts doesn't make it more expensive. All they do is whack up some plaster board and then skim the room. That sounds too high. Get some more quotes. Materials for that is going to be something like £50. Everythign else is labour.

To board and then skim the whole room, I would have thought closer to £500-£600.

Also, because they have to spend time waiting for it to dry, it probably takes pretty much the same time to do a whole room as it does to do 2 walls and a ceiling, so I would just ask for quotes for the full room.

abankerbutnotafatcat

Out of interest, is there any point negotiating with the two guys who have already provided quotes or should I just seek one or two more? Given Happy-Days helpful comments I'm considering approaching the cheaper of the two and asking if he'll do the whole lot for that price.

Gra76

That's expensive. I don't know what the 'London premium' is but you'd be looking at a shade under £700 incl VAT to put up a plasterboard ceiling, skim it and then skim all the walls in a room that size if it was around here.

There's a lot of plasterers out of work at the moment, I'm sure you could get a better price.

Procrastinator333

abankerbutnotafatcat wrote: »

Out of interest, is there any point negotiating with the two guys who have already provided quotes or should I just seek be or two more? Given Happy-Days helpful comments I'm considering approaching the cheaper of the two and asking if he'll do the whole lot for that price.

In my opinion the reason you will sometimes get inflated quotes is either a) they think you are stupid,loaded or both, or more likely they are fairly busy and so only want the work if at top price.

I personally would try for more quotes. And aim for 1 man bands who should be under the vat threshold...

clewis1573

I just PM'd you with some guys who have done some plastering for me in the past.

abankerbutnotafatcat

Thank you to everyone for all your thoughts and advice and to clewis for the recommendation.

Funnily enough, given Procrastinator's comments, I was going to mention (but thought it might sound off) that I thought there was an element that we live in a relatively wealthy area (not our area specifically but the wider area) and that there are probably a lot of people who just say 'yes' without thinking about quotes. Unfortunately, this does mean that tradespeople can base their businesses/pricing on these people if they choose to.

GRA76: we're not in London (outside of M25 by a few miles) so although there will be a SE/Home Counties premium over other parts of the country it shouldn't be as much as in London. I know a lot of trades people understandly don't like the traffic or parking problems of going into London and they won't get that with us particularly as we alway try and work with people from a 5ish mile radius.

Right, well based on all your advice I'll try a two-pronged approach of asking if the existing quotes can be re-negotiated and approaching one or two more including the recommendations.

nickj_2

where are all these out of work plasterers ?

osian

That seems a lot - we are having a similar sized room plastered. The ceiling needs boarding over. Our quote which we have gone with is £450. Not in London though.

I'd get a couple more quotes.