Nobody in this trade publishes a price list and the reason usually given - "every project is different" - is true but sounds evasive. So here is the version from the inside: what a square metre rate is actually built from, why two quotes for the same room can differ by double and what you can do to move the number in your favour.
Read this and you will be able to tell a fair quote from a thin one, which is more useful than a headline figure anyway.
There is no rate. There is a rate for your room.
When we price a job we are not looking up a number and multiplying by area. We are working out how many days a team is on site, how many of those days produce finished surface and what it costs to get there and be able to work properly. The square metre figure is the output of that, not the input.
That is why a quote given down the phone is worth nothing and why anyone who offers you one has either not understood the room or is going to revisit the price later.
What actually sets the number
1. Whether the substrate is ready - and who is making it ready
The single largest variable and the one that most often explains a gap between two quotes. These finishes have no levelling capacity. A burnished lime surface reads every undulation the light can find and at under a millimetre it corrects nothing.
So the question is not whether the walls get prepared - they always do - but whether that work is in our price or someone else's. A quote that assumes walls arrive flat, dry and sound is cheaper on paper than one that includes correcting them and identical in the end. Ask every company the same question: is substrate preparation included or excluded? The spread usually explains itself in one sentence.
2. Whether we can have the room
This one never appears on anyone's website and it is one of the biggest. These are wet, multi-coat finishes with cure time between coats. We need a clean, controlled, protected space and we need it for consecutive days.
If we can have the room to ourselves and work through, a job runs at its efficient rate. If we are working around an electrician second-fixing, a joiner cutting, a tiler in the next room throwing dust, then we are protecting, un-protecting, waiting, returning and re-mobilising. The same wall area can take half again as long and the risk of damage to a finish that has not fully cured goes up sharply.
Where a programme genuinely requires phased or out-of-hours working, we will do it and price it honestly. What we will not do is price it as though the room were empty and then argue about it later.
3. Coat count and polish level
The largest variable within the finish itself and it is almost entirely labour. A four-coat honed Marmorino and a seven-coat burnished stucco use comparable materials; what differs is days of skilled hand work. Both get sold as "Venetian plaster".
If budget is the constraint, dropping the polish level is nearly always a better decision than dropping the area. A smaller run of the finish you actually wanted reads better than a whole room of a compromise.
4. Access, height and protection
Anything above about three metres means towers or scaffold, slower working and a second person for safety. A double-height stairwell is not the same job as a hallway with identical wall area. Add to that the cost of protecting everything we are not finishing - floors, joinery, glazing, a client's furniture that cannot be moved out.
5. Where the site is and what it costs to be there
Genuinely material and worth being open about because clients rarely think of it. Getting a team and materials to a site every day for a week means transport and in London it means more than fuel:
- Parking. A permit, a suspended bay, or a daily meter charge - on a five-day job in a controlled zone this is not trivial and there is often nowhere to unload at all.
- Congestion and emission charges for every vehicle, every day.
- Access logistics. Concierge hours, booked service lifts, restricted delivery windows, a fourth-floor flat with no lift and forty bags of material.
- Distance. An hour each way is two hours a day per person that produces no finished surface.
None of this changes the finish and all of it changes the cost. It is also why the same room in a Zone 1 flat and a house with a driveway are not the same job.
6. Area and the mobilisation floor
Rates per square metre fall as area rises and below a certain size they stop meaning anything. One chimney breast still needs a survey, a sample panel, materials opened, protection and a team across several days. Small jobs carry a minimum charge rather than a rate - so if you are pricing one small wall, expect the per-metre figure to look high. You are paying for mobilisation, not material.
7. Detail and cut-in
Flat, uninterrupted walls are quick. Cornices, dado rails, panelling, arched openings, deep reveals, alcoves and fitted shelving all mean cutting in by hand. A room with heavy Victorian mouldings can take half again as long as a plain room of identical area.
8. Colour and matching
A colour from our own range is included. Matching a physical reference - a fabric, a stone sample, another supplier's product - means studio time, trial panels and iteration. Usually modest, occasionally not and always agreed before we start rather than after.
How to make your job cheaper
Not tricks - these are the things that genuinely reduce what we have to charge and we would rather you knew them.
- Give us the room. Consecutive days, nobody else in it. This is the biggest single saving available to you and it costs nothing but sequencing.
- Have the substrate signed off before we arrive. If another trade is preparing the walls, get us to inspect and accept them first. Discovering a problem on day one costs more than fixing it in advance.
- Book several areas in one visit. Two bathrooms and a hallway done in one mobilisation is meaningfully cheaper than three separate visits.
- Don't compress the programme. Cure time is not float. Working around it costs money; ignoring it costs the finish.
- Sort access in advance. A parking permit or a suspended bay arranged by you is cheaper than us solving it daily.
- Choose the polish level honestly. Burnished on one wall beats satin on four if the budget is fixed and drama is the goal.
Why quotes differ so much
Collect three prices for the same room and you will very likely see a two-to-one spread. Before choosing on price, understand what causes it:
- Material. "Polished plaster" covers authentic lime systems and acrylic imitations costing a fraction as much. Ask what the binder is. Lime, or acrylic? That one question explains more price difference than any other.
- Coat count. Four coats and seven coats, both described identically.
- Preparation. Included, or excluded and billed later as a variation.
- Access and site conditions. Priced in, or discovered on day one.
- Who applies it. Trained applicators working to a system, or a general plasterer attempting a decorative finish. Both are legitimate businesses. They are not the same purchase.
Five questions to ask anyone quoting you
- What is the binder - lime, or acrylic?
- How many coats and to what sheen?
- Is substrate preparation included and who signs it off?
- Do you need exclusive access to the room and is that assumed in this price?
- Will you leave a physical sample panel before starting?
Any company that will not answer those in writing has told you something useful.
Getting a real figure
Tell us about the room in four steps, or send us dimensions and a few photographs - the whole room, the walls close up and anything that looks damaged or uneven. We will come back with a range and the assumptions behind it, usually within two working days and we will tell you where we think the risks are rather than discovering them on site.
Ask us for a price, or read which finish suits which room before you do.
Questions we get asked about price
Why will nobody quote Venetian plaster over the phone?
Because the square metre rate is an output, not an input. A price is built from how many days a team is on site, how many of those days produce finished surface and what it costs to get there and work properly - which depends on the substrate, the access, the height and whether the room is available to us. Anyone who gives you a figure without seeing the room has either not understood it or will revisit the price later.
Is substrate preparation included in a polished plaster quote?
Sometimes and it is the most common reason two quotes differ. These finishes have no levelling capacity, so the walls always get prepared - the only question is whose price it sits in. A quote that assumes walls arrive flat, dry and sound looks cheaper and ends up the same. Ask every company directly whether preparation is included or excluded.
Why is one quote double another for the same room?
Usually one of five things: the binder (authentic lime versus a much cheaper acrylic imitation, both sold as "polished plaster"), the coat count (four coats versus seven), whether substrate preparation is included, whether site access and working conditions have been priced in and whether the applicators are trained to the system. Ask what the binder is first - that single question explains more price difference than any other.
Does it cost more if other trades are working in the room?
Yes and it is one of the larger factors people do not expect. These are wet, multi-coat finishes needing a clean, protected space for consecutive days. Working around other trades means protecting, un-protecting, waiting and re-mobilising and it raises the risk of damage to a finish that has not fully cured. Giving us exclusive use of the room for a run of days is the single biggest saving available to a client and it costs nothing but sequencing.
Does location affect the price?
It does, particularly in London. Daily parking permits or suspended bays, congestion and emission charges for every vehicle, booked service lifts, restricted delivery windows and long carries all cost money without producing any finished surface. The same room in a central flat and in a house with a driveway are not the same job.