Time taken to plaster

[jakester]

Hi

I am having a couple of rooms plastered and I can feel a possible row brewing with the plasters I think they are deliberately going slowly. It is a long story but we agreed a price and now I think they are going to claim the price quoted did not cover certain work and are perhaps dragging the work out a bit. The rooms where chipped back to brick they added a couple of coats of sand and cement and are now putting on the final skim. My question is this

How long should it take to skim a room say 10 feet by 10 feet on top of the cement base coats? How long should it take to skim a room say 10 feet by 10 feet on top of plaster board?

There probably is not a problem this is just in case.

thank you for your help in advance

Jake

[nick smith]

Well I am not a plasterer, but I do my own plastering and I would reckon a day per room this size, (either method) would not be difficult, especially for a professional.

Nick

[Andrew Gabriel]

For 2 skim coats, about 2 plasterers' days in both cases (9am-3pm;-). The number of fiddly bits makes much more difference than the room size, e.g. a couple of window enclosures and a chimney breast would easily add another day.

I'm surprised they used sand and cement scratch coat unless you had a penetrating damp problem.

[jakester]

I was told it required a DPC. Usual totally over the top nonsense as there was original skirting in house (80 years) with no rot. It did require some work in one place. But if you want a mortgage or you ever want to sell the house you tend to need a DPC but thats another arguement that I will not start again.

thanks for replies very helpful.

Jake

[Jules Marshall]

Hiya Jake,

I have just had a room skimmed. It measures 3 metres by 6 metres and I had all four walls and the ceiling done.

This took two guys 7 hours.

Hope this helps.

Jules

[RayDavis]

Did my living room a few weeks ago. 7.5m x 3.5m with some awkward bits + chimney breast took about 14 hours. Your rooms should each take about half that - especially for a 'professional'.

[Lobster]

But hang on; if (rightly or wrongly) they feel they've done more work than quoted for (presumably taking them more time than envisaged), why would they then deliberately waste time that they could spend earning more cash on another job? (I don't know any decent plasterers who aren't completely stacked out with work).

You're paying your guys by the job, not by the length of time it takes them, so I can't see any reason for them spinning it out as you suggest.

Whether they do argue the toss over the quote is a different matter, of course (though if they do, you could always try arguing that if doing task X was going to cost more for whatever reason, then they should have raised it with you before undertaking it).

David

[Mike]

A fixed price is a fixed price. If they want to claim items aren't covered they should do that before doing the work.

[jakester]

Hi dave and mike

You are quite right they should have pointed it out before they started. I think it is just a mix up with in the company doing it I got two quotes and they seem to have only one on file. I got one quote in writting I then changed what i wanted done and got another quote verbally. I agreed to the verbal quote. I then asked for a couple of small extras and got a huge quote for the extras back from another person in the company. I said - you must be joking it can cost that much he said - well the kitchen requires X I said - kitchen was included in second quote he said - he did not have the second quote on file but it far too cheap, i was talking nonsense and asked if I knew anything about building and so on

That was on friday and I have not heard anything back so I assume he has discovered I was right and is now sulking. The head guy inspect the premises on the first day when I was there and was happy enough and now they have not got back to me on the issue and continued work I assume further strengthens my case. hope all that made sense.

Any differences or problems they were unhappy about should have been pointed out and resolved before they started. I am just trying to arm myself with a bit of knowledge in case there is a row. They seem a bit slow so I assume they are moving people about from one job to another.

When getting quotes from people you really need to draw a diagram with a full description of the work and get both parties to sign it. Since this row has arisen I certainly put more effort into specifying extactly what work is required.

Thank you for your help - knowledge is power.

Jake

[Hamie]

Something I learnt from the crappy service I got when doing my loft conversion (Before I had to complete it myself).

1. Always get it in writing.
2. Always get it completely specified. Down to the last detail.
3. If it doesn't say something, you haven't a leg to stand on.
4. The BCO is a tosser.

H