What's your per sq metre rate for skimming?

cjard · 25 Jun 2015

Hi all

Just wondering, for a new build site in north west of England, and a plasterer who turns up to a site with a water supply, a pallet full of board finish and ready plasterboarded walls throughout the entire house, what's the metre rate (or hourly rate) for throwing it on? If you work hourly, how many square metres do you do in a day? And are ceilings costed at more? If you're doing tape n fill do you work hourly?

Just curious what sort of ballpark money my quotes should be coming in at..

Cheers guys
CJ

joe-90 · 25 Jun 2015

I'd say about 20p per square foot.

roy c · 25 Jun 2015

You wont get the bills paid at that rate joe

.. I myself only work on an hourly rate, gettin' too old for price work...

cjard · 25 Jun 2015

So what's your rate Roy? I'm trying to work out what to expect as a quote, got a site with two 3 storey houses on that need plastering.. Total area of plastering per house is about 10,000 sqft and that's approx 55% walls, 10%ceilings less than 2.4 high, 15% more than 2.4 high, 20% sloping ceilings in the roof..
Joe, if you do it at 20p a foot, you can have the job right now.. You'd have to throw 100sqm a day on to make it worthwhile surely?

roy c · 26 Jun 2015

My hourly rate is somewhere between £10 -£30..

stevethespreader · 26 Jun 2015

I used to work for a partition company skimming there boards that was my main bread and butter for 5-6 years they used to pay £4 a m2 and £1 a linear m for beading I done quite well as areas were usually big sometimes you could earn almost £200 a hit lids would be same money but if you come across tricky jobs where the meterage wouldent make it worth while (these would often be on same jobs) you would ask for day rate this was a couple of years ago knowing them the rate is still the same, I'm not sure I would skim houses at £4 a m2 though as the big hits arnt there

stevethespreader · 26 Jun 2015

You must also know who is going to do the snagging when you quote you or the decorator

cjard · 27 Jun 2015

Was that for things like offices, Steve? What do you class as a big hit in terms of square metres? I presume that a single wall of 50sqm is a bigger hit than a 200sqm wall with 10 windows in it, and this is why houses are a pain in the arse and have a higher metreage rate?
£4 a metre is what my brother said he reckoned it would be from past experience, but that was a similar time ago

Had one quote back so far, £16 a metre to fit the boards and then skim them. I supply materials. 'Twas a bit more than I was expecting

cjard · 27 Jun 2015

roy c said:
My hourly rate is somewhere between £10 -£30..

Not outrageous, how many metres do you do in an hour/day?

roy c · 27 Jun 2015

I don't do price work now, and have never worked on sites most of my work has been renovation work and I now work for a guy who owns a lot of properties and me and another guy work together .When I was in partnership with a couple of guys (very rare that a three way partnership works!) we had to price jobs but now I couldn't tell you any figures. I now work seven hours a day and four on Fridays (32 hrs a week) and still come home knackered . But the work we do is varied and I can honestly say I enjoy my job and comin' up to retiring age but cant see myself retiring until I can't get any satisfaction (as Mick would say)...

stevethespreader · 27 Jun 2015

cjard said:
Was that for things like offices, Steve? What do you class as a big hit in terms of square metres? I presume that a single wall of 50sqm is a bigger hit than a 200sqm wall with 10 windows in it, and this is why houses are a pain in the arse and have a higher metreage rate?
£4 a consider what my brother said he reckoned it would be from past experience, but that was a similar time ago

Had one quote back so far, £16 a metre to fit the boards and then skim them. I supply materials. 'Twas a bit more than I was expecting

cjard said:
Was that for things like offices, Steve? What do you class as a big hit in terms of square metres? I presume that a single wall of 50sqm is a bigger hit than a 200sqm wall with 10 windows in it, and this is why houses are a pain in the arse and have a higher metreage rate?
£4 a metre is what my brother said he reckoned it would be from past experience, but that was a similar time ago

Had one quote back so far, £16 a metre to fit the boards and then skim them. I supply materials. 'Twas a bit more than I was expecting

Yes offices hospitals shco
ols ect i read your post wrong i thought you was quoting so your recieving quotes? Whats your role in this? Are you a builder? Anyway what do i consider a big hit? Tbh evryone got there views on what a big hit is i remember when i was daunted with a 30m2 hit but that soon become my standard hit i consider anything over 35m2+ to be a big hit on walls and on lids anything over 25m2+ to be big as its suprising how big a small ceiling can look when its up high and your on stilts now u say you have a quote for £16 a m2? How are they fixing the boards? The partitioners would get 15 am2 to fit useing metal stud and i would get £4 am2 to skim it how are your boards going to be fixed? Now dont forget the company i worked for would pay all materails on top of that price such as boards studding and plaster and beads i dont plaster anymore because of I'll health , but got a phone call the otherday do i want to help skim out 90 flats? Off my mate i said cant do it but in that convo he said hes responsible for snagging them all as well , rather him than me make sure who you pick for the job will snag it within the same price they quote

cjard · 29 Jun 2015

Aye, I have a couple of houses of reasonable size on a site and I'm looking at getting plastering quotes now.. I'm actually a software engineer, but I'm building this as a house for myself. I'm practical enough for most stuff, the timber framing, insulating, floor laying etc, but plastering is a skill that I don't have any intention at the moment to try my hand at

No idea now the boards are fixed, could be an air powered staple gun for all I care so long as they stay up! Collated screws I expect..

So the partition boys would get £15 a metre for fitting the boards and you'd get £4 a metre for the skim? Sounds like the plasterers get ****ed on that one, cos if a plasterboard is 2.88 sq metres, that's like me taking one off the pile, standing it up, taking a few minutes to buzz a load of screws in and then going to the gaffer and saying "£45 quid cash plz", then getting another sheet, screwing it up, going to the gaffer and saying "another £45 quid plz" - no skill in it, and it's gotta be 10x faster than skimming it flat

In which case, i'm in the wrong job. I'd supply and stand plasterboards up all day and fire screws in em if there was a £50 note attached to each one and I got to pocket it right after

Are you sure that £15 wasn't for erecting the entire wall, studs, insulation and fitting boards both sides? I jsut can't see the value in paying someone near 50 notes to screw a single sheet of 8x4 up you see.. Not compared to giving someone a tenner to spread a perfect finish on it

stevethespreader · 29 Jun 2015

yes of course they would be fitting the stud wall not just boards and the £15 would be shared between 2 father and son team some of the boarding was atrocious there thinking was Steve could get round it sometimes the gaps in the board was nearly as wide as the scrim I was told I could charge them for the snagging of there work but I never did

stevethespreader · 29 Jun 2015

Also once the boards were up and I had a clear run I could bag myself between £150 - £200 for 3 hours work when I had one of those hits they would say something like you've just made how much? To make £150 they would have to erect 10m2 of stud walls and split it between them , now they may not have been telling me the truth how much they were on but I had a feeling I was on more

stevethespreader · 29 Jun 2015

I've just done some sums and the figures they told me just don't add up over 2000 m2 they would be on 30000 they wasent on that much

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What's your per sq metre rate for skimming?

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