Very different qoutes, advice needed...

Zjo

New Member
Hi, new here and would be grateful for some advice. Got a few quotes to overboard and skim or just skim some ceilings due to artex, tested all and are without asbestos.

Is overboarding a better option than skimming only? I managed to have quite detailed conversations with 2 plasterers and both said skimming could work but said it's polytex paint so the new plaster might not stick then we are back to overboarding. What are you opinions? Would overboarding be a better once and for all option? Would overboarding the whole of the first floor of a 3 bedroom property be too heavy for the joists? I have no idea if they hallway and the bathroom have been overboarded or not. It's a 1930s house and the loft is not used for storage or anything, just insulation.

Anyway, another question I have is the 2 plasterers gave me very different quotes, the job is for 4 rooms - 3 x 4mx3.5m and 1 x 2.5mx2m.

Plasterer A quoted £1640 for skim on exising ceilings and £2530 for overboarding and skim (He works with 1 other person, so expect this is to pay for 2 men day's rate)

Plasterer B quoted £1100 for skim exising ceilings and £1480 for overboarding and skim (He works by himself, but surely this would take longer hence more days to pay for?)

A seems to be a little on the high side but not over the top as I got a £6.5k quote and a £3.5k quote for skimming only, B seems to be very cheap for 2023, no? Both A and B have very good CheckATrade ratings. We are in the Midlands area not far from Birmingham.

Thanks
 
Hi, new here and would be grateful for some advice. Got a few quotes to overboard and skim or just skim some ceilings due to artex, tested all and are without asbestos.

Is overboarding a better option than skimming only? I managed to have quite detailed conversations with 2 plasterers and both said skimming could work but said it's polytex paint so the new plaster might not stick then we are back to overboarding. What are you opinions? Would overboarding be a better once and for all option? Would overboarding the whole of the first floor of a 3 bedroom property be too heavy for the joists? I have no idea if they hallway and the bathroom have been overboarded or not. It's a 1930s house and the loft is not used for storage or anything, just insulation.

Anyway, another question I have is the 2 plasterers gave me very different quotes, the job is for 4 rooms - 3 x 4mx3.5m and 1 x 2.5mx2m.

Plasterer A quoted £1640 for skim on exising ceilings and £2530 for overboarding and skim (He works with 1 other person, so expect this is to pay for 2 men day's rate)

Plasterer B quoted £1100 for skim exising ceilings and £1480 for overboarding and skim (He works by himself, but surely this would take longer hence more days to pay for?)

A seems to be a little on the high side but not over the top as I got a £6.5k quote and a £3.5k quote for skimming only, B seems to be very cheap for 2023, no? Both A and B have very good CheckATrade ratings. We are in the Midlands area not far from Birmingham.

Thanks

Overboard and skim the best. Be wary of checkatrade!
 
The prices for A and B are to cheap...although I'm based in the South we would come in at £3840 for x4 average size ceilings and the additional smaller one. Definitely overboard and skim...if you have 3x2 joists you won't be able to board out the loft and load it with stuff if you overboard with out strengthening first. If the existing ceilings are generally flat then the additional weight will not be an issue. Plasterer B the quote would barely cover the materials.
 
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The prices for A and B are to cheap...although I'm based in the South we would come in at £3840 for x4 average size ceilings and the additional smaller one. Definitely overboard and skim...if you have 3x2 joists you won't be able to board out the loft and load it with stuff if you overboard with out strengthening first. If the existing ceilings are generally flat then the additional weight will not be an issue. Plasterer B the quote would barely cover the materials.
How do you mean by "if you have 3x2 joists you won't be able to board out the loft and load it with stuff if you overboard with out strengthening first. If the existing ceilings are generally flat then the additional weight will not be an issue."?

I do want to look at turning the loft into a storage space in the future, but not for now and it's not high enough to be used as an extra room. The ceilings look perfectly fine to me, we just think th artex looks ugly.
 
Always, Always overboard. Why waste time speculating on what might be better. Overboarding creates a new permanent ceiling eliminating any possible compromises at a later date. Its not as expensive in the long run and gives 100% peace of mind. Over skimming is for people looking for a quick earner whereas professionalism doesn't care if He/She wins the job, reputation matters. Also never trust Checkatrade!! They actively encourage and suggest creating fake reviews!!
 
Hi, new here and would be grateful for some advice. Got a few quotes to overboard and skim or just skim some ceilings due to artex, tested all and are without asbestos.

Is overboarding a better option than skimming only? I managed to have quite detailed conversations with 2 plasterers and both said skimming could work but said it's polytex paint so the new plaster might not stick then we are back to overboarding. What are you opinions? Would overboarding be a better once and for all option? Would overboarding the whole of the first floor of a 3 bedroom property be too heavy for the joists? I have no idea if they hallway and the bathroom have been overboarded or not. It's a 1930s house and the loft is not used for storage or anything, just insulation.

Anyway, another question I have is the 2 plasterers gave me very different quotes, the job is for 4 rooms - 3 x 4mx3.5m and 1 x 2.5mx2m.

Plasterer A quoted £1640 for skim on exising ceilings and £2530 for overboarding and skim (He works with 1 other person, so expect this is to pay for 2 men day's rate)

Plasterer B quoted £1100 for skim exising ceilings and £1480 for overboarding and skim (He works by himself, but surely this would take longer hence more days to pay for?)

A seems to be a little on the high side but not over the top as I got a £6.5k quote and a £3.5k quote for skimming only, B seems to be very cheap for 2023, no? Both A and B have very good CheckATrade ratings. We are in the Midlands area not far from Birmingham.

Thanks
Google reviews are the most accurate. The rest is smoke and mirrors.
 
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Whereabouts exactly are you? May find someone on here
Cheers mate, just asked before replied but that post was waiting to be released. It's Northampton. Plenty of plasterers found on google etc, but few have more than a handful of decent google reivews, have spoken to 3 more today, so hopefully can get more quotes, but if anyone here wants to help?
 
I think your being hard on checkatrade. I've been on it for about 13 years . It's worked very well for me. About 2years ago I had this wally slander me on their site. Total nonsense. I replied. It's still on there. My argument with checkatrade is they should pay a independent body to check your work after a complaint to check it's genuine. Before putting it on their site. All I did was shag his wife.
 
Cheers mate, just asked before replied but that post was waiting to be released. It's Northampton. Plenty of plasterers found on google etc, but few have more than a handful of decent google reivews, have spoken to 3 more today, so hopefully can get more quotes, but if anyone here wants to help?

Quality plasterers will be able to sniff out someone getting 10 quotes....unfortunately there are many cheap poor quality plasterers out there...probably one out of 10 will be high quality.
 
How do you mean by "if you have 3x2 joists you won't be able to board out the loft and load it with stuff if you overboard with out strengthening first. If the existing ceilings are generally flat then the additional weight will not be an issue."?

I do want to look at turning the loft into a storage space in the future, but not for now and it's not high enough to be used as an extra room. The ceilings look perfectly fine to me, we just think th artex looks ugly.

Add weight overboarding...then board out the loft and store junk up there then the timbers will start to bow and over time you will end up with heavily 'dished' ceilings.
 
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Add weight overboarding...then board out the loft and store junk up there then the timbers will start to bow and over time you will end up with heavily 'dished' ceilings.
I see, as long as the timber frame isn't going to all of a sudden collape then I am fine. I say I want to board the loft, but I think it's one of those jobs that I will never get round to getting done.

I got another quote today from a local plasterer, £1800, 2 men 2 days. Not sure why when searching for "plasterer" that isn't showing up, but "plastering" it does. Anyway, They have 5 stars google reviews and 5 stars facebook reviews. Some examples here, I have no idea what I am looking at...
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I see, as long as the timber frame isn't going to all of a sudden collape then I am fine. I say I want to board the loft, but I think it's one of those jobs that I will never get round to getting done.

I got another quote today from a local plasterer, £1800, 2 men 2 days. Not sure why when searching for "plasterer" that isn't showing up, but "plastering" it does. Anyway, They have 5 stars google reviews and 5 stars facebook reviews. Some examples here, I have no idea what I am looking at...

The Jockey Wilson room
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I see, as long as the timber frame isn't going to all of a sudden collape then I am fine. I say I want to board the loft, but I think it's one of those jobs that I will never get round to getting done.

I got another quote today from a local plasterer, £1800, 2 men 2 days. Not sure why when searching for "plasterer" that isn't showing up, but "plastering" it does. Anyway, They have 5 stars google reviews and 5 stars facebook reviews. Some examples here, I have no idea what I am looking at...View attachment 74649

Tapered 9.5mm boards and look how many screws are holding those boards up!! Would you be able to sleep knowing there was only a few screws holding the board up above you bed!! Any quotes around £3K?
 
Tapered 9.5mm boards and look how many screws are holding those boards up!! Would you be able to sleep knowing there was only a few screws holding the board up above you bed!! Any quotes around £3K?
That'd be the £2.5k guys in my OP. In all fairness to them, they were the only one who, without asking, told how they intend to keep mess to the min etc. They will use 9.5mm plasterboard and 2/3 coats of multifiish platster "to a smooth paint ready finish". Let me see if I can find some examples from them.

There is a £3.5k one but that's skimming only as is the £6.5k one.
 
That'd be the £2.5k guys in my OP. In all fairness to them, they were the only one who, without asking, told how they intend to keep mess to the min etc. They will use 9.5mm plasterboard and 2/3 coats of multifiish platster "to a smooth paint ready finish". Let me see if I can find some examples from them.

There is a £3.5k one but that's skimming only as is the £6.5k one.

Mess to a minimum is a given. 9.5mm boards not for over boarding ceilings IMO.
Smooth paint ready finish is also a given.
 
Mess to a minimum is a given. 9.5mm boards not for over boarding ceilings IMO.
Smooth paint ready finish is also a given.
Everyone I have gotten quote from said they use 9.5mm... I really don't know what to do now. In reality, how dirty does thie job really get? We are trying to take advantage of an empty house and trying to do as much as we can afford, but maybe we should go with 1 or 2 rooms first then see what happens... Sorry for so many questions, you can probably guess we are FTB.
 
Found some pics from the £2.5k guys.. they have loads of videos on youtube.
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Ring lurpak up
He did. £6.5k
Whereabouts exactly are you? May find someone on here
Someone from the west midlands with weird thumbs perhaps?

I hear Jaws music playing.
Everyone I have gotten quote from said they use 9.5mm... I really don't know what to do now. In reality, how dirty does thie job really get? We are trying to take advantage of an empty house and trying to do as much as we can afford, but maybe we should go with 1 or 2 rooms first then see what happens... Sorry for so many questions, you can probably guess we are FTB.
Yes but they were only plasterers.

This man is a BASSIST.
 
See if the guys who charged you 2.5k have any pictures with the plaster fully dried out it all looks nice and professional once it’s on and troweled up but the real detail is when it’s dried,the guys who charged 1800 quid must of thought there was a water shortage all I see is water and fat marks,don’t go with them and don’t worry about the mess made any professionals worth there own salt and clean and tidy and you won’t have to clean up after them
 
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Found some pics from the £2.5k guys.. they have loads of videos on youtube.
View attachment 74655

Mate is this a windup? Look how many screws they have used in the ceiling..they didn't even bother to locate/chalk line the joists most of those screws are probably into the laths...and the plasterboards or at least dabs are touching that damp concrete floor in places....going to be a soggy mess.

You need a decent job...can you spare an extra grand...1.5 grand...we can get it done for you. PM me.
 
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Mate is this a windup? Look how many screws they have used in the ceiling..they didn't even bother to locate/chalk line the joists most of those screws are probably into the laths...and the plasterboards or at least dabs are touching that damp concrete floor in places....going to be a soggy mess.

You need a decent job...can you spare an extra grand...1.5 grand...we can get it done for you. PM me.
I think I have, still getting used to this forum... :)
 
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