Fair costing of a plastering job

[sven7]

What a great site Wish I'd found it sooner. I have a question for plastering experts: what is a fair price for the following job :

- remove woodchip paper from hallway, stairwell and landing of a decent sized semi
- skim walls

I have no idea about the sq. footage but but this is a reasonable sized area (no shoebox but not a mansion either) and some sort of structure would be needed to reach the upper parts of the wall in the stairwell.

I estimate that it would take two guys a day or day and a half to strip the woodchip (but stand to be corrected if it's as much of a b*tch as it seems) and a couple of days to plaster.

My good lady has had a quote from two guys "in between jobs" which nearly made me faint after I stopped laughing but I need an honest professional opinion.

Cheers!

Sven

 

[FredFlintstone]

You'd be best taking the woodchip of yourselves.

A plasterer, who specialises in plastering, will not want to be doing anything other than what he is good at and which makes him the most money. Stripping woodchip presents two problems. The first is it's time consuming and boring. The second is that he doesn't know what's under there. There's every chance that he could strip the paper and half the plaster could come off with it. The onus is then on him to repair the damage so perhaps he's factored this in "just in case".

The other reason you've probably been quoted a heart stopping price is because they don't really want the job due to the stripping paper aspect but if they get it at the inflated price then they'd be happy woth the bonus.

Difficult to say how much such a job would cost without more detailed info but I'd charge £600 - £700 to skim the hall stairs and landing of my in-laws house which I'd say is a decent size semi. I wouldn't even quote for stripping the paper. I'd ask them to have it done before I give a final price.

Regards

Fred

 

[sven7]

Appreciate the reply Fred. I agree, the woodchip strip down is the killer feature but since my wife has rendered herself a virtual invalid in doing all the low level woodchip stripping from the landing down to the ground floor herself I think the time has come to get in help

Upon reflection the sq. footage is greater than I thought as this bloody stuff is on every wall and the is perhaps it's larger job than I originally indicated.

The 2nd and unrelated plasterer came in at exactly the same price plus £100 for materials so perhaps the crazy price is 'market' - that's unless London plasterers are operating a price fixing cartel down the 'Sweaty Sailor' pub

Double your family rate to account for the wood chip hassle and you have their quote

sven (now looking at penury )

 

[slow fade]

I back up "what Fred said"

I mean...why not pay a plasterer £20 an hour to dig up the back garden,babysit or wash the windows as well?

Theres no great skill to taking woodchip off.Just scratch off all the chips of wood then ....soak...soak...soak and strip.It aint brain surgery.

Usually when Im doing a decorating job for someone I do recommend they at least attempt to strip and do the preparation themselves tho usually its only 80-90% done right but It saves me charging them a huge amount for something that they could do themselves.

 

[sven7]

thanks for the reply slowfade - interesting analogy of having your plasterer dig the garden and babysit but having done the 'site survey' when i got home (funny how you only REALLY look at things when they cost money ) and the stripping is not a DIY job unless you are unemployed, 9 foot tall, under 25 and enjoy getting sweaty with a steamer. That means someone has to do it and it ain't me or Mrs. Sven

As it happens the guys did a deal - unlimited tea, biscuits and cake whilst doing the stripping and 20% discount on their plastering rate. This saved me finding some young lad (who i don't know from Adam) and letting them roam about my house whereas these guys are well known locally.

I'm just crossing my fingers there is nothing dodgy under the woodchip

 

[davy_owen_88]

As it happens the guys did a deal - unlimited tea, biscuits and cake whilst doing the stripping and 20% discount on their plastering rate.

Are you sure he's stripping the wall?

 

[brist]

ID CHARGE £1000 FOR THE ENTIRE JOB

 

[Zampa]

I've got a decent sized semi too

 

[sven7]

davey-owen 88

Well I bloody well hope so as there are actually 3 of them

brist

typical - now i find out there are all these welshman willing to do it for much less. Plus Mrs. Sven is a Port Talbot woman and in the presence of fellow taffs goes hard core Welsh on me and I don't undertsand a word - but the singing is nice

Zampa

there are more appropriate forums for that kind of potty talk - ask Leslie Grantham


Anyway 3 of them managed the entire woodchip strip in 8 hours and we're back to two plasterers for an estimated day and a half.

Stripping clean up after they left was a 3 hr. job for Mrs. Sven and two sons so not best pleased but genuine sounding surprise when confronted about it this a.m as hadn't realised the wet chippy had turned to cement on the tiled hallway floor . Will check out first plastering tonight and will report how good (if anyone's arsed about it