Plastering covers everything from a single wall in a Fulwell terrace to a whole house being refurbished. What changes between those jobs isn’t the finish — it’s what sits behind it. Old lime and sand plaster, gypsum from the 1970s, painted surfaces, modern plasterboard and bare masonry all behave differently, and each one changes how the job is priced and how long it takes.
Single walls, one room or several rooms at once. Where the existing plaster is sound, a skim coat is usually enough to leave a flat surface ready for decorating. Where it isn’t, the wall comes back further and is built up again properly.
Rooms being taken back to brick as part of a renovation are a slightly different job: backgrounds get prepared, beads and corners are set out, and coats are built up in sequence rather than rushed to get a smooth face.
Houses mid-refurbishment usually need plastering that fits around other trades. Chases from a rewire, new plumbing runs, replaced windows, removed fireplaces and new stud walls all need making good before any finish makes sense.
If the sequencing is clear, this part goes smoothly. If plastering is booked before first fix is finished, it usually means coming back.
This is the main decision on almost every internal job. A skim works over a background that’s firm, well bonded and reasonably flat. Replastering is for surfaces that are hollow, crumbling, badly patched or too far out to correct in a thin coat.
Tapping the wall tells us more than a photo of the paintwork does. A wall that sounds drummy over a large area rarely benefits from being skimmed over.
The finish is the part you see. The preparation underneath is the part that helps it stay there.
Depending on the property, that can involve removing loose material, repairing damage, bonding or priming as appropriate, reinforcing joints, fitting beads and getting plasterboard flat and properly fixed first. Methods vary between backgrounds, so nothing here is a universal recipe.
There’s no honest fixed price for plastering, because the same size room can be two very different jobs. What moves it: room size, wall condition, how much preparation is needed, whether ceilings are included, existing coatings, access, the number of areas, and whether plasterboard or repairs are involved.
Send a few details and photos if you have them, or ring and talk it through. Either way we’ll help you work out what the wall actually needs.
