Plastering quote

Lungboy

We are renovating a 3 bed 30s end terrace and are trying to decide between skimming everything or lining the walls. A plasterer had a look the other day and gave rough quotes per room depending on size and amount of work as some rooms need old plaster hacked off first. It ranges from £280 for a smallish room needing everything to £650 for Hall and landing which just need a skim. Total would be ~£2500. That sounds like a lot to us. This is in Devon. Any opinions?

967stuart

Get some more quotes.
If you're looking at spending that sort of money, I'd be getting 3 or 4 quotes minimum.

Lungboy

They were recommended by someone I trust, and I'm struggling to find anyone else via recommendations. Mostly it's just "don't use so and so" rather than "he's great" which doesn't really help. I'll keep trying though.

brightontraveller

Generally those in the domestic market on day rate would do two/three hits a day (a room would take 2 -3 days Prices depend on demand but anything from £100 -200 per day for plasterer and £50 – 100 for a labourer to knock up, clean etc ( some do knock up clean themselves but not often ) Most don’t like smaller areas, corners, around windows, doors, hallways etc You also need to take into account rooms need to be completely empty?? If there working around furniture etc or moving it don’t expect them to do it quickly and you’ll end up paying high for them to move it ?
Its often hard to tell how good they are ( Flat, level straight the finish etc until you paint it ) If you don’t know them get them to do one room entirely first let it dry and paint before getting them to do the entire house.
Many other trades have been inundated with lower priced foreign “tradesmen” plasterering methods used in the uk is pretty unique so you’ll unlikely find that or if you do there not that good its pretty labour intensive and you also need the knack to do it well so they tend to avoid it ?

Lungboy

They are happy to do it a room here and a room there as and when they are ready, so we're thinking, as you suggested, of getting one room fully done to see if they are good

Lungboy

Second quote came in at £3650 :-(

phil24_7

Where in Devon? That first quote didn't seem too bad to be honest.

Lungboy

Plymouth. Going to go with the 1st one, the blokes were nice and their work was recommended by a painter as being good.

phil24_7

Plymouth here too. I can give you a couple of recommends if you are interested. One did my brother in laws lounge to a good standard, the other did my basement to a good standard. Neither were astronomically priced either.

Regards
Phil

Lungboy

Thanks very much for the offer. We have the 1st chap coming tomorrow to do the bathroom, and he's working on a room by room basis, so if he's rubbish I may well need those names

DRP

I think the original quote sounds decent versus what we have paid for individual rooms (Bristol).