Most people only need a plasterer every few years, so it's hard to know what good looks like or what a fair quote is. This guide covers what to check before you hire someone locally, what the work usually costs, and what's different about plastering Liverpool's older houses.
Plastering is messy and depends on timing. A plasterer based nearby can pop round to look at the job before quoting, come back to check a patch once it has dried, and fit around other trades like your electrician or kitchen fitter without charging extra for travel.
Local knowledge helps too. A lot of Liverpool's housing is Victorian and Edwardian terraces, in areas like Anfield, Kensington, Wavertree, Toxteth and Walton. Those walls are very different from a 1990s new build in Croxteth Park or a flat conversion in the city centre. A plasterer who works on these houses all the time will know what's likely to be behind the wallpaper before they start pulling it off.
A good plasterer won't mind being asked questions. Their answers tell you a lot about how carefully they work.
Prices depend on the size of the room, what state the walls are in, how easy it is to get in, and how much prep and clearing out is needed. As a rough guide, skimming the walls of a small bedroom often comes to somewhere between £300 and £550. An average living room with the ceiling included is more likely to be £550 to £900. Replastering a ceiling after taking down old lath and plaster is a bigger, dustier job and can run from £600 to over £1,000 once you add boarding and skip hire.
Small repairs, like filling around a new socket or patching a hole, are often charged as a half day or full day rather than by the square metre. Be wary of a quote that's much cheaper than the others. It usually means corners are being cut on prep, or the job has been underestimated and the price will go up halfway through.
Many pre-1920 Liverpool homes still have lime plaster on the walls and lath and plaster ceilings. Lime lets solid brick walls breathe. If it's patched with modern gypsum plaster, or the wall is sealed with the wrong materials, moisture gets trapped, and you can end up with bubbling paint, salts coming through, and plaster that goes soft and crumbly.
Merseyside's damp, windy weather makes this worse on exposed gable ends and bay fronts. Before replastering a damp wall, find out what's causing the damp. That might be a leaking gutter, bridged damp proof course, high ground levels outside or blocked air bricks. Plastering over the problem only hides it for a season or two. An honest plasterer will tell you when a wall needs sorting out before they touch it.
Once the plaster has dried, shine a torch flat along the wall. You'll always see some slight unevenness, but there shouldn't be obvious ridges, trowel marks or dips. Corners and window reveals should be straight, with beading that isn't showing through. There shouldn't be hairline cracks spreading from where the old and new plaster meet.
Put a thinned mist coat on first, then your normal emulsion. If the paint peels or the plaster starts shelling within the first few months, get in touch with the plasterer straight away. A reputable tradesperson will come back and look at it.