Is it me or is this really expensive?

[Bluesky32]

I have just had a quote from a specialist lime plaster company to plaster our 4 bedroom house in lime for all the internal walls and using hemp and lime for the internal external walls (for insulation) plus ceilings. I realise that lime is more expensive and requires someone who knows what they are doing but the quote came in at £45k!! Is it me or is that really expensive, I mean its only a cottage and a small granary combined its not buckingham palace. I think I may have a career change and go into lime plastering myself!

 

[skier-hughes]

Hard to tell as we don't know the size, but I paid £12k for two rooms being plastered and 3 external walls pointing, so that makes £45k quite reasonable, as I expect I'll be up to £60k by the time I've done it all.

 

[Bluesky32]

Wow! I thought it would be a lot more than normal plastering but I definitely didn't realise just how much more it would cost, I'd better get saving.

 

[robgil]

I would shop around if I were you , you might be surprised.
If you have a posh motor on the drive hide it. :wink: :lol:

 

[biffvernon]

Ask how long it will take to do the job and how many people will be doing the work.

£45k at, say, £20 per hour, pays for 2250 hours or over about a year's work for one person including materials.

Get somebody on the minimum wage and they could spread the job over three years, every square inch polished to a mirror finish.

 

[AMc]

Contractors have been known to put in very high prices for work they don't want or can't schedule - if you're already stacked then you push the price up - if the customer bites then you reschedule less lucrative work. I heard of a local thatching job that went from "start in two years" to "start in two weeks" when the owner offered to pay double - it's probably a rural myth but it isn't that implausible to me. Supply and demand I guess.

Yes, it's really expensive - is it value for money though?

It's reasonable with a quote that large to ask for a breakdown and proposed time schedule - if for example the contractor is having to travel excessively or stay in a B&B during the job that will obviously push the price up very fast.

I'd want to know (at least) what the proportions of labour to materials are and I would definitely get at least 2 more competitive quotes.

As Biff points out £45K pays for a hell of a lot of time. If you can't reduce the quote(s) then it might be worth looking at purchasing/hiring tools and materials and employing someone direct and sending them on a course or going DIY.

 

[piper]

We paid £1013 for a ceiling and a tiny bit of one wall (above the picture rail). The laths and about half of the scratch coat were already done by me, before I decided I had to get in professionals to finish it. They did a beautiful job, which involved a lot of coming back at odd times, sometimes evening, to compact and finish plaster laid on that morning. Then I had to keep spraying it for a few days until they came and did the next coat. A ceiling is more difficult than walls, but at £1000 for one surface, have you got 45 surfaces in your house?

 

[JoceAndChris]

Same as above post.

You might find a good lime plasterer to work for £20 an hour, but, if there's a company - an office - a van - a secretary - a website - double or triple that. They all come out of the fee you pay. Personally, without knowing someone's work first hand, I want a glossy website, proven expertise. I've experienced cheap tradesmen with no company behind them and the consequent undoing of bad workmanship is just plain annoying. It's better to pay more and be really confident in who you employ.

We're saving up 25k for the exterior of the house - a 4 bed cottage. That includes hacking off cement.

I can't believe how meaningless 000s have become, what's needed are 0000s. Lots of them.

 

[robgil]

You know a web site , the wife answering the phone and a vauxhal astra does not make a good trades man. :wink:

 

[MatthewC]

It's not cheap but it's not far off!

We paid £1013 for a ceiling and a tiny bit of one wall (above the picture rail)....

That's probably compatible with my experience. They would do two or three surfaces (3 or 4 metre rooms) each day (@£240), and four coats are needed; then there''s materials at >£100 per surface. It all adds up. I used pre-mixed mortar and plaster from Mike Wye; you could save by buying putty and mixing yourself but that introduces more variables (wrong mix, wrong sand...).

I think our total for a 3 bed house was about £18k (over 45 days work for 2 men), and we didn't replace all the old plaster (although we did skim everything with new).

Matthew
http://houseintheenchantedforest.blogspot.com/

 

[biffvernon]

£18k (over 45 days work for 2 men)

So they each earned, gross, £200 per day.

Makes you think.

 

[jocelyn plummer]

Well, the going rate is about £180 net per day per person.

 

[Me!]

Plastering, ......loadsamoney - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ON-7v4qnHP8

 

[Moo]

Which, based on 300 working days per year, brings in £54,000pa.

Why on earth does anyone bother with getting a degree?

 

[Me!]

Which, based on 300 working days per year, brings in £54,000pa.

Why on earth does anyone bother with getting a degree?

Hmmm, I feel a mid-life crisis career change coming on!

 

[Feltwell]

Why on earth does anyone bother with getting a degree?

Because it's a good way to avoid having to work for a living for at least 3 years, meeting lots of single members of the opposite sex of much the same age as you, drinking beer and enjoying the odd relaxing smoke. Ohh yeah, I did manage to learn a bit as well.

Well, it used to be that way anyway. Now they all seem to be very serious about the whole university thing. No respect for tradition, some people :wink:

 

[Sue Wilkinson]

Oh my goodness! I am laughing. A few years ago when I had no job, I was doing work as a painter and decorator and plaster repairer of old houses around the area. I plastered a really tricky curved wall for a very fussy couple who insisted the place were left totally spotless every day and who would not spray it down but insisted I go up and do it every evening and at weekends and stuff. I also had to hack off the cement render first. It wasn't a huge wall, part of a hall. But it must have been 8-10' long and 6' high. I also did some spot repairs of plaster on other walls.

Being timid of my ability even though I knew I could do it properly, I charged - wait for it - £250 + materials!

Yes, still laughing. Pass me a beer someone.

You can see why I'm not still doing that line of work for others. I was mad.

 

[robgil]

Plastering is tough work, I dont think I could do it all day long every day.

 

[MatthewC]

£18k (over 45 days work for 2 men)

So they each earned, gross, £200 per day.

Makes you think.

No. One was the skilled plasterer who gets £170 per day and the other was his labourer who gets £70 per day. The rest of my costs were materials.

Which, based on 300 working days per year, brings in £54,000pa.

300 days per year? I only do that now I'm retired and renovating an old property!

 

[FamilyWiggs]

Plastering is tough work, I dont think I could do it all day long every day.

Work is tough. I dont think I could do it all day long every day. 8)