How Much Does Plastering Cost Per Room in the UK?

Typical prices per room in 2026

For a standard room, most plasterers in Cheshire, Merseyside and North Wales quote on a per-room basis rather than by the square metre, though the square metre figure is what sits behind the number. The ranges below assume walls only, with ceilings priced on top. Prices are a little lower in parts of Merseyside and North Wales than in south Cheshire towns like Wilmslow or Knutsford, where day rates run higher.

Skimming (a thin finish coat over existing plaster or new plasterboard) is the most common request. Full reboarding and skimming, or hacking off and float and set, cost considerably more because there is far more labour and material involved.

• Small room or box room, skim only: roughly £250 to £450
• Medium bedroom or lounge, skim only: roughly £400 to £700
• Large living room or open plan space, skim only: roughly £650 to £1,100
• Ceiling skim, per room: roughly £200 to £450 on top
• Plasterboard over existing walls then skim: add around 40 to 70 percent
• Hack off to brick and re-plaster: often £900 to £2,000 for a medium room

What pushes the price up or down

The biggest factor is the condition of what is already there. If the old plaster is hollow when tapped, damp, or covered in layers of textured paint or Artex, it usually needs removing or overboarding before a skim will hold. Artex applied before the mid 1980s may contain asbestos and should be tested before anyone disturbs it, which adds cost and time.

Access and preparation matter too. A stripped, empty room with the carpet up is quicker than one with furniture pushed to the middle and a laminate floor to protect. Rooms with lots of corners, alcoves, bay windows or coving take longer to get a crisp finish. Older stone cottages in North Wales and rural Cheshire often have uneven walls that need a bonding coat first, which is why quotes for those properties tend to sit at the upper end.

• Removing wallpaper, Artex or old tiles before work starts
• Damp that needs treating or a tanking system before plastering
• High ceilings, stairwells or landings needing scaffold towers
• Ornate coving or period features to work around
• Whether you want a mist coat applied afterwards

How plasterers actually price a job

Most plasterers work to a day rate, typically £180 to £280 a day in this region, plus materials. Multi finish plaster, plasterboard, scrim, beads and PVA are relatively cheap, so labour is the bulk of any quote. A competent plasterer can usually skim a medium room in a day, which is where the per-room figures above come from.

Where a quote looks unusually cheap, ask what has been left out. A price that assumes you strip the walls yourself, remove and refit radiators, and deal with any rubbish is not comparable to one that includes all of that. Drying time is also worth asking about, since freshly skimmed walls need a week or more before decorating, longer in a cold, poorly ventilated room in winter.

Getting a fair quote

Ask for a site visit rather than a price over the phone. Photos help, but nobody can judge whether plaster has blown or a ceiling is sagging from a picture. A written quote should state the areas covered, whether ceilings are included, what preparation is included, and who is responsible for clearing waste.

Grouping rooms together usually brings the per-room cost down, because set-up, travel and mixing time are shared across the job. If you are planning to do the whole upstairs eventually, it is often cheaper to have it done in one go than room by room over a year.