Plastering & Decorating 2 bed house

Hosgo

Hi,

My girlfriend and I are in the process of buying a 2 bed Victorian house (in good condition) in Iver (just outside the M25). We want to do some work to the house to update it including plastering (skimming), painting and new skirting and architraves and have been given the quote below. As it's our first property we've no real experience but from researching online it seems expensive. We'd really appreciate any advice as this is at least a couple of grand over our budget.

It totals £10,175 ex VAT
Dining room (3m by 3m):
• Prepare wall to receive plaster
• Remove existing coving
• Apply multifinish plaster
• Supply and install new coving
• Sand down ceilings, repair as necessary
Price: £660

• Apply 3no. coat of emulsion for walls and ceiling
• Sand down woodwork, repair where necessary and apply 3 coats of paint
Price: £530

Living room (3.5m by 3.4m):
• Prepare wall to receive plaster
• Remove existing coving
• Apply multifinish plaster
• Supply and install new coving
• Sand down ceilings, repair as necessary
Price: £750

• Apply 3no. coat of emulsion for walls and ceiling
• Sand down woodwork, repair where necessary and apply 3 coat of paint
Price: £600

• Hack off render up to 1m height from floor level
• Apply sand cement render with Sika waterproofer
Price: £1470

Hallway:
• Prepare wall to receive plaster
• Remove existing coving
• Apply multifinish plaster
• Supply and install new coving
• Sand down ceilings, repair as necessary
• Supply and install plasterboard for wall between hallway and master bedroom
Price: £ 820

• Apply 3no. coat of emulsion for walls and ceiling
• Sand down woodwork, repair where necessary and apply 3 coats of paint
Price: £ 580

Master bedroom (3.6m by 3.4m):
• Prepare wall to receive plaster
• Remove existing coving
• Apply multifinish plaster
• Supply and install new coving
• Sand down ceilings, repair as necessary
Price: £ 780

• Apply 3no. coat of emulsion for walls and ceiling
• Sand down woodwork, repair where necessary and apply 3 coat of paint
Price: £ 620

2nd bedroom (3.3m by 3.2m):
• Prepare wall to receive plaster
• Apply multifinish plaster
• Sand down ceilings, repair as necessary
Price: £ 440

• Apply 3no. coat of emulsion for walls and ceiling
• Sand down woodwork, repair where necessary and apply 3 coat of paint
Price: £ 370

Kitchen:
• Apply 3no. coat of emulsion for walls and ceiling
• Sand down woodwork, repair where necessary and apply 3 coat of paint
Price: £ 430

Carpentry:
• Supply and install skirting and architraves
Price: £ 1880

General:
• Provide 8 yrds skip
Price: £ 245

jakemillspaek

Surely you would want to do a lot of this yourself.Do all the prep and get your plastering/rendering done(maybe).
Skirtings/architraves straight forward.
The skip is bloody massive!!!!
You are paying VAT on top of all this!!!I can get 4yd skips for £120 inc VAT.
You can get advice by just googling items and save £8k+

Geordie_Ahmed

That seems ridiculously overpriced, admittedly I'm in the North but I'm set to spend that amount but I'm getting a full rewire, new combi boiler and a new central heating system, plasterboard where necessary and then skim elsewhere, new kitchen and new bathroom, also new skirtings and doors, pained throughout. Mines a 3 bedroom flat

It's worth getting 3-5 quotes and ideally get separate trades rather than a all in one job

Procrastinator333

Those jobs you should be able to find 1 man band outfits who are under the vat threshold. And get seperate quotes. You dobr want a plasteter doing the decorating. Or a decorater doing the plastering.

If it is in good condition does it need skimming? Decent decorator will make good most damage as long as plaster isnt falling off.

If you do decide to get it skinmed. Think about electrics and rads first. I bet being victorain it doesnt have enough plugs. The mess they make of walls doing those jobs will then be repaired, skinmed and decorated as part of the process.

somethingcorporate

I am in the north but pay half that for painting and decorating costs and the archivtriving costs (gulp!).

cattie

I'm in a London suburb, where prices tend to be pretty high, but that sounds like a huge amount to me!

Shop around & get lots of quotes & the suggestion to look for a one man tradesman is a very good one. Also, sourcing your own materials such as paint should save you money too. OK, some trades people don't like you doing this, but if they want the work & are not in the habit of hiking up the price they paid for materials, they should be fine with it.

phil24_7

Is the coving, skirting and architrave in a bad way? Does it need all of the walls skimming?

If you skim over lath and lime based plaster, the gypsum skim will crack over time as the lath and lime plaster with expand and contract more over time than gypsum will.

Try not to remove original features as it will devalue the house and you will never find good quality, like-for-like replacements without spending a fortune (I have 1 room in my house that has a modern copy of Victorian coving and it stands out like a sore thumb compared to the originals).

bmthmark

I'm from down south and I was in the same situation as you.
What I did was I prepared each room (e.g removed any plaster that was falling off). I then got the plasterer to quote an one room at a time. Most of the time he was able to skim over the existing plaster. Once he was complete I would do the miscoat and paint.
It worked out a lot cheaper than getting him to do it all and it is really easy.
I also prepared and painted all the wood work, this was also easy but a little time consuming.

The price was about £250 a room (approx as some rooms are bigger and needed more work). But this is slightly higher for me because I have kept the curved ceilings and walls (not coving)

So far this has worked out well. I have had 3 bedrooms, hallway, dining room and kitchen done.
I'm getting living room done in a couple of weeks.

So far I have paid approx £2k so your £10k is way over priced. If you want to save money try and do some yourself even if you try it on one room first.

Its also strangely satisfying knowing that you have done most of it yourself.

Good luck with it all

PaintNDec

I have a 2 bedroom upper flat that I'm looking to have painted throughout before selling later down line.

Got this quote off a so called local specialist/handyman.
Dining room £250,Living room,£300,Kitchen £200,hall staircase & landing £445,front bedroom £300,back bedroom£225 -All in a extra tough durable matt finish by Jonstones.

To me this sounds pretty high?

Ps if your guy happens to be in the Newcastle area please let me know his details?!!

Your thoughts would be really appreciated?

Cheers
Nick

Ps: he broke down the 445 for passageway hall and stairs plus both bedrooms into following text message ...

full passageway ,staircase&landing-walls in jonstones endurace paint(matt finish)any colour-ceilings in brilliant white (matt)all woodwork fully undercoated and gloss brilliant white(jonstones professional paints)all labour paints and materials supplied by us (2-3 days to fully complete )£445-all work fully insured and guaranteed-written quote on request.

bedroom x2 -- walls given 2 coats of jonstones durable paint (10,000 scrubs) ceiling given x2 coats of brilliant white matt emulsion-all woodwork fully undercoated&glossed (brilliant white) -total £475



really appreciated?

Cheers
Nick

Ps: he broke down the 445 for passageway hall and stairs plus both bedrooms into following text message ...

full passageway ,staircase&landing-walls in jonstones endurace paint(matt finish)any colour-ceilings in brilliant white (matt)all woodwork fully undercoated and gloss brilliant white(jonstones professional paints)all labour paints and materials supplied by us (2-3 days to fully complete )£445-all work fully insured and guaranteed-written quote on request.

bedroom x2 -- walls given 2 coats of jonstones durable paint (10,000 scrubs) ceiling given x2 coats of brilliant white matt emulsion-all woodwork fully undercoated&glossed (brilliant white) -total £475

longwalks1

my plasterer (just outside the M25 in Herts) charges a standard £250 per room, thats walls and ceilings and his finish is as smooth as a pane of glass, used him in 2 houses and will use him again. He will also do small repairs if needed for that price, such as patching up hole in ceiling or chunks out of the walls

longwalks1

Also, i found a decorator on Facebook (came recommended on a local page by several people)who charged me £50 per room (I supplied the paint) and he worked 2 x evenings to get it done to fit in around my working hours, really impressed with him too. The £50 per room was just walls and ceilings, no skirting as the rooms had just been plastered (I done the miscoats in prep for him) Will use him again too