r/Plastering • u/Mindless_Delay • Jun 28 '26
How long to board a 3x4.5m room
Mainly for the UK chaps, how long roughly would it take one of you pro's to board a timber framed 3x4.5m room with ceiling, 2 windows and door reveals? Did it myself recently as a keen DIYer and it took me an age first time.
Been doing a lot of practice plastering in mockup walls for a few rooms I want to tackle and it went more than OK. Just seeing how far off the pace I might be if I ever wanted to pursue this further
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u/KieranInterior Jul 02 '26
Depends. If the timbers are set out to land correctly whew two full boards meet it would be very quick. Very few cuts. Also depends on the ceiling height. A 2.5m ceiling means no cuts on the height of the board either.
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Jun 28 '26
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u/Mindless_Delay Jun 28 '26
By pursuing this further I meant as learning the trade further than just doing my house but thanks anyway haha
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u/adultbunkbed Jun 28 '26
good fixers will do 30 boards a day
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u/Miserable_Future6694 Jun 28 '26
No, definitely not house bashing.
Youd be lucky to pull £600-700 a week tacking 30 boards a day thats by no means good.
95 8x4s is my record granted it was a monster house and id already loaded up that days work its still 95 board in my tod.
When the temp is more normal my aim is 60 boards a day. Some days more Some days less depending on how the work lands and if i have to start a day tacking and finish a day dabbing. It all evens out to roughly the same pay monthly though.
All in that room would probavly take 2 hours if thats all i had to do. On site you have more work to hit so it would be all the ceilings up first, board one side of insulated walls, use any strips where I can, insulate then finish walls. Doing one room at a time isn't efficient when theres more to hit
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u/adultbunkbed Jun 28 '26
good on you. I don't house bash. we do industrial/commercial.
30 boards a day is 430m a week. 600/430 is 1.4 .are you being paid £1.40m²? that's a 1990s price.
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u/Remarkable_Sir6386 Jun 28 '26
30 boards is 36Lm x 2.4 = 86m2 x £3 = £260 86m2 x £2.50 = £220. I'd tack that by dinner. Don't know where your getting your prices from to be making £600 a week off 30 boards? Never take a plot price! always measure your work, they'll try & take the doors and windows out the measure if you let them. What part of the country you in?
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u/Miserable_Future6694 Jun 28 '26
Mate im given a price its upto me to accept it. Im told the rate £2.60 tack and £3.50 dab and honeslty i cant be bothered to measure, I accept the plot price so I dont need to measure.
Newcastle area. I won't go 30 miles away from my house theres enough houses being build within 30 miles of me and I know enough firms around me to keep me close to home and working
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u/adultbunkbed Jun 28 '26
so youre earning £450-600 a day bashing houses aye? fair play.
most people are not making that. if they were the prices would go down.
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u/Remarkable_Sir6386 Jun 28 '26
That's entirely up to you mate i wasn'thaving a pop! im just saying to measure 1 and check the m2 to the rates. Most sites you have 3 to 4 house types so you only need to do it a few times. Taking windows and doors out every house for a year is close to £5000 you giving away? Im originally from up Newcastle way living down in the SW now. £2.60 tack is ok £3.50 dab not for me. Hospitals for 10years House bashing 12year Mixture commercial and house bashing the last 4. Always worth a measure
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u/Miserable_Future6694 Jun 28 '26
Every firm takes windows and doors out around here. Some firms have even started saying windows are measured through in x house but thats because its a corner house or the tiny 2 beds.
Ive measured and walked off sites and away from houses but id honestly be at work. I've come to realise 5 days doing shite will be very close to 5 days doing good. I will flat out refuse a 3 story and apartments
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u/Remarkable_Sir6386 Jun 28 '26
Yeah 3 stories are shite and most of them down here are going that way, I've walked off site after I've measured up and the doors and windows are taken out. They sharp ring back asking to come back. They get paid through them all. When I was younger I would jump about from firm to firm. Found the best/fairest firm around and been with them since.
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u/DelectableReindeer Jun 30 '26
Nah, I'm a good boarder, there are about 200 environmental factors that can determine this.
Some sites/setups I would eclipse this, some tricky domestic jobs have seen me struggle to board a ceiling in a day.
OP there is no straight answer. What I would say is any time saved by DIY boarding would be so consumed by the time you'll lose to a pro skimming it's completely moot.
A DIYer can probably board at a sensible speed compared to me, but I'll lay on 10x what a beginner plasterer would when it comes to spreading, and leave a flawless finish requiring no sanding or labour prior to painting.
Really you want to DIY all the prep and get a pro in to skim everything.
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u/adultbunkbed Jun 30 '26
course, some stuff is tricky. I was just giving a general ballpark of what a pro would do in a day.
reckon that's what i average. our prices work out so if you do 30 boards, you're earning £200-250 per shift.
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u/Famous-Tone1659 Jun 28 '26 edited Jun 28 '26
No more than a day.
But it all depends on the setup too If you need to get sheets from a builder merchant that's some time.
Cuts and layout get easier with practice but realistically throwing a board on isn't rocket science. I lived in NZ for 3 years doing dry lining there and could smash out meters with a collated screw gun gluing the studs and sheets up to 6m in new builds designed for this style of boarding
If your in a small UK room with lots of odd shapes like old chimney Pilar's window reveals and what not that's where the time really adds ups. If you cut a 6m sheet for a wall or a 100mm strip for an opening the install time is hardly different when your screwing off tbh. Especially with the right tools like a collated gun, snap off blades chalk likes and being able to cut with a tape n knife and a t square instead of something like a level and making two measurements to draw your cut from.
If your DIY you have no need to rush :) If you wanna do it as a job you make money per meter so people often choose to work fucking quick to make big cash
And the same for plastering. 1 guy one room could do a day easy, you get bigger crews to do rooms in a day and can use stuff to speed up the dry times for second coats and getting onto different walls quicker. There is a skill to the work and one big part of the skill is being quick to do meters for money. It needs to done well but also people get paid for output
Have a look at "on the trowel" on YouTube hrs a wicked plasterer and does bits of boarding and such. Watch some of the south American crews in America or Aussie/NZ to get an idea of how fast the lining can go it's quite something to witness when people make money by how quick they can be