The square-metre rate is the number that actually generates most plastering quotes. A plasterer measures the surface, applies a rate, and adjusts for access and preparation. Understanding the bands lets you check a quote in about two minutes.
The four bands
MyJobQuote's July 2026 figures break down as follows.
A skim coat over existing sound plasterboard is £15 to £25 per square metre. This is the cheapest case: a thin finish coat on a surface that is already flat and stable.
A full replaster using a two-coat system is £30 to £40. Here the plasterer applies a backing coat to build out and level the wall before skimming, which is roughly twice the material and considerably more time.
Plastering over old or uneven walls, where extra preparation is needed, runs £35 to £55. This is the Victorian terrace case, and much of South London's stock falls into it.
Specialist finishes sit apart at £60 to £120 and above per square metre. Lime plaster on a solid wall that needs to breathe, Venetian or polished plaster, and decorative mouldings are all different trades in practice.
Measuring your own walls
Multiply the length of each wall by the ceiling height, add them together, then subtract windows and door openings. For a 4m by 3m room with a 2.4m ceiling, the perimeter is 14m, so the wall area is about 33.6 square metres before deductions, or roughly 30 after a door and a window.
At the £15 to £25 skim rate that is £450 to £750, which lands squarely in the published room ranges. If a quote comes back at double your rough calculation, the plasterer is probably pricing a replaster rather than a skim, and it is worth asking which.
Add the ceiling separately: floor area rather than wall area, so 12 square metres in the same room.
Why South London usually sits in the higher bands
The area is dominated by Victorian and Edwardian terraces with solid walls and original lime plaster. That plaster is often a century old, keyed into brick, and either sound or badly blown with very little in between.
Where it has blown, there is no skimming over it. The old plaster has to come off, the wall has to be dubbed out and levelled, and you are into the £35 to £55 band whether you budgeted for it or not.
Higher ceilings compound it. A 2.7m Edwardian room has around twelve per cent more wall than a 2.4m modern one, and the top of that wall is worked off a trestle rather than from the floor.
The lime question
If your property is listed or in a conservation area, and many South London streets are, replacing lime plaster with modern gypsum can be both a planning problem and a building one.
Solid walls without a damp-proof course rely on lime's permeability to let moisture move through and evaporate. Seal that with gypsum and cement and the moisture finds another route, usually up the wall or into the timber. The specialist rate is genuinely warranted here rather than an upsell.
What the rate does not include
Scaffolding or tower hire for stairwells and double-height spaces, waste disposal for the old plaster, damp treatment, and making good the floor are all normally separate. On a hack-off-and-replaster job the skip alone can add a few hundred pounds, so ask whether it is in the number.