Plastering Cost Calculator
Plastering is priced per square metre, and the single biggest variable is what is already on the wall. Skimming over sound plaster is the cheap end; hacking off to brick and starting again is roughly double.
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4 steps. Job type, area, condition and region.
How this calculator works
Plasterers price per square metre of surface, and the rate depends on how much has to happen before the finish coat. A skim over sound plaster is £15–£25/m². The same room hacked back to brick and floated is £25–£45/m² — not because the plastering is different, but because of the day spent stripping.
Lime is the outlier. On a period or listed wall it is often the only correct answer, and at £50–£90/m² it costs more in both material and time, because it cannot be rushed between coats.
If the wall is damp: plastering is not the fix. Find the cause first — see our damp proofing costs. New plaster over active damp will blow, and you will pay for the room twice.
Plastering cost per m² (2026)
| Job | Typical 2026 cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Skim over existing plaster | £15–£25/m² | Needs a sound, flat background |
| Ceilings | £20–£35/m² | Overhead, slower |
| Dot-and-dab plasterboard | £25–£40/m² | Board bonded then skimmed |
| Full re-plaster (float and set) | £25–£45/m² | From bare masonry |
| Lime plaster | £50–£90/m² | Period and listed walls |
| Hack off and cart away | +£10–£16/m² | Where the old plaster is going |
| Patch repairs before skimming | +£5–£10/m² | Blown areas cut out |
Figures match our plastering cost guide.
Plastering calculator FAQs
If it is sound, flat and firmly stuck, yes — that is what skimming is for. Tap it: a hollow sound means it has blown off the masonry, and skimming over it will crack within a year.
Roughly a week per coat thickness, and longer in winter or an unheated room. It goes from dark brown to uniform pale pink when it is dry. Paint too early, or without a watered-down mist coat first, and the emulsion peels off in sheets.
Material cost is part of it, but mostly it is time: lime cannot be rushed between coats. On a solid-wall period house it is usually the right answer anyway, because it lets the wall breathe where gypsum and cement trap moisture.
No, and doing it first is a common and expensive mistake. Plaster over an active damp problem blows within a year. Find the cause — a leak, condensation, a bridged DPC — and fix that first.
Related cost guides
- Builder day rates — what a builder charges
- Find a builder — 3 free quotes
- Reading a quote — prime and provisional sums
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