Plasterers Quote!

[John]

A relative has bought a 'new' house and doesn't like the artex pattern on the living room ceiling, it is "too spikey". She has had a plasterer in to quote for a skim coat to make it flat again. He has told her that there are too many different levels, even after a "good scrape", the new surface would be lower that the lip of the coving. He has suggested removing the coving (plaster), scrape, reboard, skim and re-cove with new. For this he has quoted two men a day and a half and £450. She has asked me if this sounds reasonable, this is where you guys come in, does it? I have no experience of plasterers but to quote Harry Enfiels they make "Loadsamoney". Does this quote, and timescale, seem reasonable? If it helps she lives in Leeds.

Cheers

John

[George]

Heh! " He has told her that there are too many different levels, even after a "good scrape", the new surface would be lower than the lip of the coving."

And...

Heh! " He has suggested removing the coving (plaster), scrape, reboard, skim and re-cove with new. "

Sounds to me he's twisting more money(loadsamoney)out of her.

So why cant he just remove coving,skim and fit new coving ie he doesn't have to reboard.

[r.bartlett]

His time will come...and very soon judging by how the economy is going

Cheers

Richard

[ecacguard-goog]

My experience, based on work and quotes I've had some work done recently - there's no short answer to this :-)

=A3450 for 3 man day's work doesn't sound too far off to me. The question is more is there really 3 man days work to do there, and does what they're suggesting actually needed to fix it? Depends on the size of the ceiling, how bad the artex actually is rather than how bad they say it is. The price also depends a bit on geography since prices are higher in London area (which I am near) to other places. Ripping of the coving sounds quite extreme to me, but I've not seen it.

HTH (a bit, at least!),

Ed

[DIY]

Impossible to say without seeing the job. Reboarding sounds a bit OTT. As with any work it is advisable to get several quotes, preferably from firms that have good reputation in your area.

[Arthur2]

I've had numerous ceilings skimmed over artex. My regular plasterer used a scraper or something to remove any high spots and skiimed it superbly. Even did one room that has a the original 100 year old cornice and no detail of the cornice was lost. I think he charged me less than 130 and the room is about 4m x 4m taking room shape into account. Did it all in less than 3 hours.

Arthur

[Al]

I live in Wakefield, that's excessive! It should take one plasterer and a "lad" one day for a large ceiling, and I wouldn't even contemplate re-boarding. As a previous poster put it, rip down coving, scrape, skim and if wanted re-cove.

Get two more quotes, and compare. It's the only way to get a fair assessment.

Al

[AT]

Arthur, which area are you in?

I'm in the process of having the house re-wired and will need a plasterer soon to skim over remaining artex.

AT

[Mogga]

Ring your local trading standards and see if they do the trade safe scheme and if they have any plasterers on their list. Get another quote or two and compare.

[Mr Sandman]

I've recently paid £500 for a complete ceiling removal and reboard/skim. I paid separately for the plaster and boards, so in all circa £550. Whether you need complete new ceiling is debatable!

Steve

[Arthur2]

Liverpool.

Arthur

[John Rumm]

Worth bearing in mind that "rip down coving..." and "re-cove" might be easy enough for modern 110mm scotia coving, but is not quite as trivial for a more elaborate plastered in situ victorian cove.

[Paul Matthews]

That does depend on the state of the existing board, I moved house 6 months ago, and all our ceilings are artexed. Looking around, replacing the boards looks the best idea, as there have been leaks in the bathroom (hall ceiling saggy) en-suite (living room ceiling saggy), there are hideous downlighters in the bathroom, utility and kitchen that use rather large holes...

[Terry D]

I really don't see any problem with Artexed ceilings. All my ceilings have an Artex finish (but not spikey) and I even matched a sloping ceiling area of my hall using Artex. Unfortunately, It's very messy to work with, I wouldn't dream of having my ceilings replastered - it's all just a question of stupid fashion. The same applies to bathrooms - it seems to be almost a crime these days to have anything other than white, although coloured suites were all the rage 25 years ago. I'll be keeping my peach coloured suite for a few years (at least it's not avocado!). However, I do draw the line at woodchip wallpaper, plastic baths, electric showers and combi boilers.

Terry D.