Could you give me a rough idea of price for skimming 3 walls please?

Each 250 high x 260 wide, one has a chimney breast. One has mostly french doors on it.

The quote we have been given seems a little on the high side and he wanted cash.

just had a hallway, staircase and landing done. 3 days work £350

3 standard walls will take a day £150ish.
any man wanting to earn more in the present climate does not deserve the work.

Last year, had the entire downstairs of the house replastered. Ceilings down and new boards up, all walls and ceilings re-plastered. Think it was £1250/1500 ish all-in.

prob around £8 sqm so say 20sqm @ £8 = £160, typical day rate if he/she’s any good.

Whats been quoted??

Thanks.

Mmmm. My friend was correct, she thought we’d paid too much. He wanted £330 cash. It’s already been done and it took him a day. However there was the squaring off of the chimney breast.

Problem is he’s coming back ‘cos it’s coming off the wall.

One very unhappy bunny here.

Quote – He wanted £330 cash.

That reads like you’ve not paid yet.

No, we have paid.
He came as part of a package (putting a wood burning stove in).
So each chap was paid separately for the work they did, as they are all freelance.

Ahh, well you definatley paid over the odds (you already know that now so not helpful) I suppose as long as it’s put right and stops falling off the wall you’ll have to put it down to experience.

Not much more you can do I’m afraid. if you ask for money back he’ll prob just walk and not repair it either.

If you fed me, homed me and showed me a good time(riding)and i’d of done it for next to nothing, ie, uber cheepo.

If they were separate walls they would only take a few hrs max, longer if there was any prep work involved.

In what way and what is coming off the wall?

Sharkie – I wish I had got in touch with you now!
The wall that’s not too bad just has the paint (plaster paint and one coat of matt) flaking off in certain areas, but one wall has actual half centimetre deep bits coming off it.

I feel a bit peeved ‘cos last week I helped an STWer save some money when he was being ripped off with an estimate for buyin curtains.

Cest la vie.

Does it feel hollow in places when you tap it and/or a crazed appearance to the plastering.

The paint may be peeling off if you painted too soon after it was plastered.

Sounds to me the walls weren’t preped in an appropriate way before being plastered.

Yep – it does feel slightly hollow. Hubby said it’s a skim coat that hasn’t bonded.

We’ve waited 2 weeks before painting. Plasterer is coming back on Wednesday, if he asks for any more money, I’ll throw my ‘In bred’ at him.

It’s the last room in our house to be sorted after 3 odd years, so we are familiar with building work, plastering and painting, but very naive for getting taken for a big wad of cash.

Sounds very much the case, he SHOULD remove it all and start again.

The only time i’ve had issues like that even with proper surface preparation, was when the client wacked the heating on the moment we left the property. He’d been told. 🙄

sharki – Member

Sounds very much the case, he SHOULD remove it all and start again.

Mr Bunnyhop here. I’ll be bloody annoyed if he does as there’s £50 worth of paint on there as well – a full coat of paint for new plaster, then a coat of the colour that’s been chosen for the main walls. It is only the skim coat that’s coming away. We’ll see what he says 👿

How close to the stove is the skim? It will pop off it the temp gets much over 80 degrees. Inside the fireplace should be rendered, I used polished porcalain tiles in mine and for the hearth too, i cast it in concrete first.

But yeah, a day rate is about right, 140-150ish max as it wouldn’t be a long day.

50 quids worth of paint?!

I meant to remove all the skim…

He’s done a substandard job, so he should rectify it properly.
He could just remove the loose stuff and patch it in, which is not too professional IMHO and it’ll never look as good and as when it was fully skimmed.

All the best with it.

Sorry to hear your problems and apologies for the hi-jack but I need a plasterer in the Macclesfield area -anyone on here? Only a small job – skim of kitchen ceiling but hearing this makes me realise the pitfalls of what could be if I don’t get someone decent in!

TheFunkyMonkey- I am really confused now, as the inside of the fireplace isn’t rendered, the builder (stove man) just put fireboard in, which we are going to paint. Is this correct or not?

Sharki – it never occured to me to get you to do the job, I really wish I had now.

What do you mean by fireboard? Pink plasterboard or a cement board like masterboard(very thin sheet, looks and feels like cement)?

The pink plasterboards are not really suitable for it. They are fire resistant but certainly not fire proof and won’t last a long time exposed to intense heat. Masterboard is fine, but I wouldn’t use it myself. It’s perfect for the register plate though

The tiles around mine get very hot

Mr BH here.The opening for the stove has been lined with fireboard (much heavier than plasterboard). The outside of the chimney breast and surrounding walls were plasterboarded to repair the opening where the original fire was removed and plastered, then the breast and surrounding walls were skimmed. It’s the skim coat that hasn’t bonded properly in a couple of places.

I’ve put a full coat of paint for new plaster on the new stuff to seal it all, then painted everything except the chimney breast in the final colour – the chimney breast is being done in another colour. The main pot of paint for the walls was £30 and I’ve used about 4.5 litres of the 5 litre tub – I’ve also used about 4 litres of paint to seal the plaster, so easily 50 quids worth of paint.

cb – will mail you details of a recommendation for a guy in Disley that we’ve had from a friend who saw this thread. bit late for us, sadly. Alternatively mail Sharki and see what he can do for you. Sharki if you end up coming up this way then let us know and we’ll sort you some hopsitality and guiding 🙂

Still don’t know what you mean by fireboard. Is it skamolex or similar? Costs about 35 quid a sheet.

Normally i’d render with 4 sand, 1 cement and 1.5 lime mix for flexibility.

There is no season I can think of for skim not to bond with fresh plasterboard. Have you had the stove on? Maybe the heat has got to it and popped off. Skim is not in the slightest heat resistant.

Next time though, best thing to seal new plaster is 2 coats of cheap white emulsion diluted 50/50 with water

Still don’t know what you mean by fireboard. Is it skamolex or similar? Costs about 35 quid a sheet.

Neither do I, it’s what the fitter called it. It’s about as thick as plasterboard but a much darker colour and about three times the weight.

There is no season I can think of for skim not to bond with fresh plasterboard. Have you had the stove on? Maybe the heat has got to it and popped off. Skim is not in the slightest heat resistant.

😳 We may have lit the stove for a few hours a couple of days after the plastering was done (plastered Friday, lit the stove Sunday I htink). However in our defence the plaster around the stove is fine as that was more or less dry anyway by the time we lit the stove. I didn’t paint the plaster until the majority was dry, and as one wall had been filled up to an inch in places to make it level, it took a week to dry properly! To seal it I used a tub of “paint for new plaster” which is ready mixed /diluted, it was on offer and as cheap as buying and mixing it myself 🙂

As for the bonding, it’s fine on the new plasterboard, it’s where he’s skimmed over existing painted plaster that it’s not bonded properly, and none of the bits that are flaking are near the fire

Ah, now it becomes clearer.

Sounds like he has used skamolex board in the surround, which is probably the best thing to use after render.

The paint likely hasn’t been cleaned properly and is slightly greasy, which is why it’s coming away. Or maybe it’s that durable repellent paint that mucky fingers and kids pens won’t stick to?
PVA wouldn’t have helped it stick much better anyway. Only thing to do is scrape all the stuff off that’s not on plasterboard and redo it. It will come off anyway, so may as well do the lot. I suggest you do it before he gets there then he has no choice but to do it properly. Give is a clean with a microfibre cloth and some kitchen cleaner, them either a very quick sand with very coarse sand paper(40 grit or somethin) or a stiff wire brush.
Try and peel some of the paint off first, he it comes away, get a scraper under it and pull the lot off.
Most diyers will just paint vinyl emulsion right on new plaster and it doesn’t stick properly, peels off like paper.

Do you have one of these?

http://www.screwfix.com/prods/16530/Decorating-Sundries/Decorators-Knives/Heavy-Duty-Scraper;jsessionid=0RXRJWVM2ZQTOCSTHZOSFEY

Do you have one of these?

http://www.screwfix.com/prods/16530/Decorating-Sundries/Decorators-Knives/Heavy-Duty-Scraper;jsessionid=0RXRJWVM2ZQTOCSTHZOSFEY

No, but I’ve got one of these

😀