This is a question where being honest about the limits of the data matters more than producing a confident number.
Why we build it up rather than quote it
Cost guides publish per-room and per-square-metre figures because those are what plasterers actually price. Whole-house figures are far rarer, and the ones that circulate are usually someone's arithmetic presented as a measurement.
So here is the arithmetic, done openly, using MyJobQuote's July 2026 room figures.
The build-up
A typical South London three-bed terrace: two double bedrooms at £600 to £850, one single at £450 to £650, a living room at £850 to £1,150, a kitchen at £600 to £950, a bathroom at £300 to £500, plus a hall, stairs and landing.
Walls alone come to roughly £3,400 to £5,100 before the hall. The hall, stairs and landing is awkward to price, since the stairwell needs a tower or staged scaffold, and £700 to £1,200 is a reasonable allowance.
Ceilings are the part people forget. At around £390 each across six or seven rooms plus the landing, add £2,300 to £3,000.
That lands the total at roughly £6,400 to £9,300. Round it to £6,000 to £10,000 and you have a planning figure.
What pushes it to the top of the range, or past it
If the house needs hacking off rather than skimming, you move from the £15 to £25 band to the £35 to £55 band and the whole number can approach double. In a Victorian terrace with original blown plaster, that is a real possibility rather than a worst case.
Lath and plaster ceilings that need overboarding rather than skimming add materially, as does any lime plaster work required by a conservation area or listing.
Damp is the wildcard. If a solid wall is drawing moisture, plastering is the last step, not the first, and the cost of fixing the cause sits entirely outside this figure.
What brings it down
Doing the whole house at once is significantly cheaper per room than doing rooms piecemeal, for the same reason a single wall costs more per square metre than four. The plasterer sets up once, the materials are bought in bulk, and there is no repeated travel.
An empty house is cheaper than an occupied one. No furniture to work around, no need to make each room habitable each evening, no protecting finished floors.
If you are planning a whole-house renovation, get the plastering priced as one job and sequenced after first fix and before decorating. Plasterers will often price a whole house keenly because it is several uninterrupted weeks of work.
Treat any round number with suspicion
If someone quotes a three-bed house at a confident single figure without measuring, they are guessing. Ask for it broken down room by room, with the ceilings itemised separately and a stated assumption about whether it is a skim or a replaster.
That breakdown is also what lets you phase the work if the total is more than you want to spend at once.