Plastering Costs

reilig

After 12 months of evenings, saturdays and sundays working on my house, I'm finally ready for plastering. Actually it snuck up on me very fast. I called the plasterer last friday, he came to look at the house on sunday and he told me that he can start it next monday (bank holiday and all) or if I'm not ready, it would be 6 weeks after this when he could come. So I'm going all out this week to have it ready for monday.

I'm just trying to get a feel for costs on here if anyone has plastered lately. I know that my plasterer is the best around. During the building boom, people often waited 6 months for this guy because of his reputation and I always told myself that I would not scimp on plastering.

The house is 2000 square foot, two storey with dormer style windows coming up from the wallplate. It is quite high and has a lot of corners - both inside and outside. There's also a good sized garage (500 square ft) The price I got was €14k.

So I'm wondering if anyone has plastered a house lately and if so what size is it and how much did you pay? Am I getting a poor deal?

I know I could have got it done by 20 other plasterers for less, but I'm happy to pay the extra for the quality.



Any feedback would be appreciated.

newname

Hi Reilig

You seem to have asked the question and justified it to yourself already. I think the price is a little on the high side. It would have been a standard enough price in 2006 or so.
My house is 2450 approx, cost me 8500 labour to plaster.

bladespin

Sounds very steep, auld lad's a plasterer by trade, I'll ask him and put up his responce.

rob308

sounds way too high to me as well. i'd wouldn't let him inside the door. shop around. surely some of the other guys you know of do quality work too. check out with friends who they have gotten and their quality. like newname says it seems like someone still thinks the building boom is still going on

gman2k

Sounds very expensive, my plasterer cost 8k for external and internal for 2700sq ft. (doesn't include materials)
Does your quote include materials?
Whilst he may come recommended, it's not as skillful as say - brain surgery? :-)
Get a few more quotes, especially if your programme is under major pressure now.

mayoman00

where in the country are you

reilig

The house is a pretty complicated plaster. There are a lot of corners, quoins, circular bits and mouldings around the windows. I'm in Leitrim, and I did ask a lot of people around here for advice on plasterers. There are a lot of plasterers around here, but everyone kept telling me about this one guy. The rule of thumb, I believe, is that the plastering of the house is roughly the same cost as the blocklaying. Well its exactly that for me. I do think its a high price for a house, but it also includes the garage (500 sqft).

I think I'm going to go with it anyway. Thanks all for the feedback.

You know what they say, "its hard to pick out good plastering, but its very easy to spot bad plastering". Its a lifetime job and I'm happy to sacrifice something else in the finishing of the build which can be left until cash flow is better and I can do it properly.

40701085

Does the quote include bands around the windows, & at the wall edges (or those block-effect mouldings)? This can often raise the price by 10-15% due to the extra work.

Quote still seems pretty high, I'd be getting all the above plus any patching required afterwards for that money - & not an inch of mapping inside! (except you won't know that until he's gone...)

rebellad

I paid 14k for a 2700sq foot house and a 500 sq foot garage inside and out. They did use the spray on plaster on the outside which I am told is a bit more expensive labour wise because of the machine involved. I had a few other quotes of around 12k-13k but the guy who did it is well recommended and I saw a lot of his work before hand

reilig

The price includes all bands around windows. There are 7 corners on the outside of the house and 4 on the garage for quoin decorations. There are also decorative mouldings over and around the windows.

The same guy could do the outside of the house with the spray on render for €4k less because it takes much less labour, but I'm not a fan of that. I'd prefer the traditional finish.

The price also includes any patching afterwards.

newname

Reilig

Go for it if your happy enough to pay the money for a very good job.
But i'd recommend ringing 1 or 2 more plasterers and get them to price the job. You'll have a dilemma on your hands when someone comes in with a quote for 8 or 9 K.

Where's your nearest big town, price a few from there.

ctrl-alt-delete

You have answered your own question in a way,

Go for the price you have if you can afford it, sometimes you have to ask yourself can you afford not to, plastering is the finish, it doesn't matter how you have prepared it, how much time you have put in, if you get a bad plasterer you will be looking at it for the rest of your life.

It is nice to see someone who doesn't put an emphasis on price for once,

Yeah you could get it done for half that price, considering the times that are in it, but you know yourself you are not going to be getting the same job.

What doesn't change even in times like this is that you will always have to pay for quality.