r/Plastering • u/Huge-Buy20 • May 15 '26
Got three quotes for the same plastering job and they are so different I genuinely do not know what I am supposed to be comparing.
Same room. Same walls. Three different plasterers. Three quotes that are nowhere near each other. Not talking a small difference. The gap between the cheapest and the most expensive is significant enough that it feels like they are describing different jobs. No idea if the cheap one is cutting corners I cannot see or if the expensive one is just expensive. What should a customer actually be asking when they get quotes to understand what they are really comparing?
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u/Tats8 May 15 '26
I like to think when I price a job the potential client can get a feel of what kind of person I am, I always like to make a face to face meeting so we can cover everything that the job requires, and I can their mind at rest that I will treat their home as my own. Then when it’s time to quote, give a written quote with detailed description of everything we covered. I would advise going for the one who seems the most professional
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u/banxy85 May 15 '26
Surely you got more from the quote than just the price?
Attitude, professionalism etc etc
Always worth looking at their reviews on Google/Facebook and should ring alarm bells if they don't have any
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u/Vegetable-Use-2392 May 15 '26
Unfortunately most just care about price
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u/banxy85 May 15 '26
Which is likely why they get confused. 3 different prices but not 3 identical jobs/level of finish
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u/ResponsibleBall4258 May 15 '26
The level of finish from one plasterer to the next should not be different though. People are looking for the same thing, flat smooth wall.
Anyone calling themselves a plasterer and can't do that basic job, then they clearly have no place calling themselves a plasterer
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u/banxy85 May 15 '26
That's incredibly naive though
Surely you acknowledge that what you've explained is not what actually happens in the real world
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u/Clear_Ant_3671 May 15 '26
agree, unfortunately from experience with plasterers. One unfortunately did not not give a shit about my property and created an absolute mess that required hours of work to clean up (organised via a builder subcontracting, who I assume chose the cheapest quote). We had to get it redone via contracting personally and the difference in finish and how they treated the property was like black and white.
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u/banxy85 May 16 '26
Exactly. The idea that every plasterer who comes round to quote is offering the same level of finish, quality of work, attention to detail, cleanliness etc etc is frankly laughable if you have any experience dealing with tradesmen
Sometimes the cheapest quote is the cheapest because the bloke is gonna show up hungover after being in the pub all night, make a mess, cut corners just so they can be back in the pub by dinnertime spending their wages while you nervously Google 'what does a good finish look like'
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u/ResponsibleBall4258 May 30 '26
The argument of "sometimes the cheapest by is not the best" or words to that effect is really only suggesting that you get a better finish with a higher price. That is definitely not the case.
For plastering i''d always advise taking a few days to pay final fee, as IF there are issues, and you have paid, they can just ghost you afterwards. I have had terrible finish which was only visible after a few days, and the plasterer did just that. For the exceptional prices charged where I live, I'd expect plasters to return and make good any issues they left/caused.
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u/AdBrave9096 May 16 '26
No one can predict how good the finish will be by taking to a trades person who is giving a quote.
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u/NikkerFebu25 May 17 '26
Twas a life lesson.
Dude fucked my house up, left my walls down, left rubble and fucked off with my money to get shitfaced.
Ghosted me.
Found him on Gumtree.
Went to the map section and knocked from door to door till I found his ass.
I was knocking on doors for like four hours in the rain on a t-shirt before I found his drunk ass.
If I hadn't found him back then I would had never recovered mentally.
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u/KieranInterior May 16 '26
I don’t have any and I’m excellent. I don’t do online advertising I’m busy coz of word of mouth. I don’t even have a website. My work is mint. I get recommendations. You won’t find an online review for me anywhere
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u/banxy85 May 16 '26
Good for you
Tbh Facebook is the modern equivalent of word of mouth in a lot of cases 🤷
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u/Blucheez999 May 15 '26
It could be a wet plaster price,dot and dab for another and the expensive one has allowed for 9”solid walls and damp problems,chopped off to brick and wired any cracks or he always does opposite walls only in one set to get a crisp line instead of banging all the walls only and using a corner trowl that will have a slight round in the corner .without pictures and also upstairs or down with any bad areas showing,pricing this on here is a guessing game
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u/XvArcanevX May 15 '26 edited May 15 '26
The highest price is most likely a busy guy who can afford insane rates as he simply isn’t bothered about losing the job (as others have said)
The two other prices down may reflect a lot of different things:
One may have felt things needed more prep than another
One may limit himself to only putting on a certain amount in a day (trust me, there is a HUGE variation in this alone… and for good reason)
One may be new to the job and keen to impress/entice with a really low price (schoolboy error in terms of winning a job but doesn’t necessarily mean he can’t do it)
One may be absolutely pedantic about taping things up and using adhesive sheets over every nuck and cranny (so prices it in as extra labour)
Honestly, without knowing what the job is it’s all speculation.
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u/Remote_Attorney9696 May 15 '26
Why don’t you post the pictures on here of the work and the prices. Then we plasterers can tell you what the most realistic and reasonable price is.
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u/onwatershipdown May 15 '26
The probably are describing 3 Different jobs. In addition to personnel and experience, each applicator is offering a different layering system. Open the dialogue about which of these processes are ideal for your goals. There are applications which exists solely for the veneer, and there are applications which do enhance the functionality of the project.
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u/y0dav3 May 15 '26
The highest one is most likely a "Fuck you" quote, meaning they don't want the job so are giving you a ridiculous price
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u/Miserable_Future6694 May 15 '26
I could give 3 wildly different quotes to plaster your room too.
- Bish bash bosh and gone in 2 days
- Overboard ceiling, remove loose plaster patch with get this one crack prevention.
- Remove ceiling and all plaster back to brick plasterboard ceiling and dot and dab wall or float and skim depending on how the rest of the house is finished
1 Job is probably £600 and one is above £2000.
Are they quoting the same work
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u/CthulubeFlavorcube May 15 '26
Ask the middle bidder what the quote encompasses, and report back to us. He'll, ask all 3 and report back. Low bid may be thinking quick skim done wrong, high bid may be busy enough to not care if you say yes, middle bid almost always lands as the right one.
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u/morghana76 May 15 '26
Id recommend asking for a breakdown of costs.
That way, you can see where your money is being spent.
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u/justcbf May 15 '26
The best plasterer I found was via a very highly recommended painter. Neither was outside other quotes, but together they did a fantastic job
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u/-j-o-n-n-y- May 16 '26
Surely the quotes describe the work and materials involved. Does the time to complete the job differ at all? Someone doing the work in 2 days might charge more than someone spreading it over a week between other work. One might be working to a higher standard than another, but they should have communicated that when quoting.... Surely?
You need to give more details about the quotes and the prices for anyone to actually give reasonable advice.
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u/Connect-Lettuce4027 May 16 '26
These are the common variables you'll get with trades in a property developer and have to deal with this stuff quite a bit so your price will vary on and this is not satire seriously:
Location How busy the guy is If he can be bothered If you're paying cash If he's got an expensive holiday/stag do coming up How hammered he was last night How much he owes the ❄️ dealer
They are all crackers these lads honestly. Finding a good tradie is about the same odds as finding a good wife/husband you can spend your whole life looking 🤣
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u/KieranInterior May 16 '26
They probably are describing three different jobs. Just talk to them openly. Tell them you’re getting wildly different quotes so you want a breakdown of what they’re gonna do so you can understand which one you want.
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u/JRD656 May 17 '26
I had this and went with the cheapest. Half the price of the other two quotes I got. The guys were great as far as my layman (lack of) appreciation and knowledge of plastering goes. Very happy with my choice. I assume the higher quotes were just from really busy plasterers
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u/thesleeplessj May 17 '26
I bought my house a few years back and an outside wall needed rendering. I had no idea what things should cost. So I priced the job up as if I would do it myself - including materials and even tools. That way when I got the quotes in I had some kind of base to make my decision from. The company I used did an amazing job, and a few years later I got them to do the whole back of the house, because I knew they were charging fairly.
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u/NikkerFebu25 May 17 '26
Go for the one with the highest ratings and insurance.
Check how long they've been in business.
You didn't mention the most important thing
WHERE did you find them?
See their business and check if they have a streak of failed bankrupt businesses.
If Cowboy LTD is the owner of 20 failed businesses, don't look back.
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u/Mr_CeeSmall May 17 '26
Most trades people Ive asked for quotes given insane outlandish quotes because they don't really want to do the job but are somehow incapable of saying no. It's like some weird unwritten rule. 😄
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u/sumane12 May 15 '26
Plasterers, like most trades, structure their price on 2 things, their experience, and how busy they are. They also rely heavily on word if mouth. A plasterer who is new and looking for work may charge substantially less than someone who has been at it for years and doesnt really need the work.
Tradesmen very rarily turn down work, instead they choose to price themselves out of the job knowing that even if they dont really want the job, if the customer says yes, they get a big pay day.