Plasterers in Worksop, Mansfield & North Derbyshire
Barbers Bathrooms & Kitchens carries out plastering, skimming, boarding and rendering repairs across North Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and South Yorkshire — as part of a full renovation or as a standalone job. Flat walls, clean lines, and a surface that is actually ready for paint.
- Est. 30+ years' trade experience
- NVQ Level 3 Carpentry & Joinery
- Fully insured
- All trades in-house
- Rated 5.0 on Google (6 reviews)
- Typical timescale
- One room in 1–2 days; a house in 1–2 weeks
- Drying time
- 5–7 days before painting, longer in winter
- Quotes
- Free, fixed, after we have tapped the actual walls
- Where we work
- Chesterfield, Staveley, Worksop, Bolsover & 30 miles of Creswell
What Does Plastering Involve?
Plastering is the application of a smooth finish coat to a wall or ceiling — either over existing sound plaster (skimming) or over new plasterboard (board and skim).
Where the original plaster has blown or is damp, it is stripped back to the brick and rebuilt in a backing coat and a finish coat. That is a re-plaster, not a skim.
The distinction matters because it is where quotes diverge. Skimming a sound wall is a day's work; a blown, damp or artex-covered wall in a solid-walled terrace needs preparation that doubles the labour.
- Skimming over sound existing plaster
- Board and skim over new or overboarded surfaces
- Full re-plaster where the original has blown or is damp
- Skimming over artex, stabilised and sealed first
- Lath and plaster ceilings in older property
- Making good after a wall removal, first fix or a knock-through
Why So Many Plastering Jobs Go Wrong
Plastering is the trade most often rushed. It sits between the messy work and the visible work, and everyone wants it over with.
Skim goes on over an unstable surface, or over artex that was never properly stabilised. Eighteen months later there is a hairline crack across the ceiling that reappears every time it is filled.
The other common failure is timing. Plaster needs drying time — a tiler booked too early tiles onto damp backing, and a decorator booked too early paints a wall that is still shrinking.
- We tap the wall before quoting, so skim-or-strip is decided on evidence
- Artex is scraped back and sealed properly, not skimmed straight over
- Plaster gets its full drying time because the next trade is ours to schedule
- Floors protected, doorways sealed and everything cleaned down daily
Planning plastering? A survey and a fixed written quote cost you nothing.
How We Work
Assessment
We check whether the existing surface is sound. Tapping a wall tells us in two minutes whether it can be skimmed or needs stripping — and that determines the price, so it is worth getting right before quoting.
Preparation and protection
Floors and fittings are covered, surfaces are stabilised or stripped, and artex is treated properly rather than skimmed straight over and hoped for.
Boarding or backing coat
Where walls have been stripped or studs formed, we board and tape, or apply a backing coat to solid walls, ensuring the substrate is flat before any finish goes near it.
Skim and finish
Two coats of finish plaster, trowelled up to a flat, polished surface ready for decorating. We clean up as we go and take the waste away with us.
A single room skim is usually a one to two day job. A full house re-plaster runs to one to three weeks depending on size and whether walls are being stripped back.
What We Cover
Quotes vary between companies mostly because of what they leave out. Here is exactly what is in ours, what counts as extra, and what you would normally supply.
What is included as standard?
- Skimming over existing sound plaster
- Skimming over artex, correctly stabilised first
- Board and skim to walls and ceilings
- Full re-plaster of stripped solid walls
- Ceiling repairs and overboarding
- Patching and making good after electrical and plumbing first fix
- Forming and boarding stud walls
- Bonding, dot-and-dab and floating coats
- External rendering repairs and making good
- Waste removal and clean down
What is quoted separately?
- Damp-proofing works where a wall is failing because of rising or penetrating damp
- Structural repairs to lath and plaster ceilings beyond normal overboarding
- Decoration — although we can price it alongside
What do you usually supply?
- Nothing. Materials, protection and waste removal are all included in the quotation.
How Much Does Plastering Cost?
Plastering is priced by area and by condition — and condition moves the figure far more than area does.
What moves the price
- Skim or full re-plaster. The same room stripped back to brick, backing-coated and skimmed can cost two to three times a straight skim.
- Ceilings versus walls. Ceilings cost more than walls of the same area. Working overhead is slower and harder.
- Access. A stairwell takes longer than a bedroom of identical square metres, because of the staging.
- Artex and old coverings. Stabilising and sealing before skimming is extra labour — and skipping it is why ceilings crack a year later.
- How much is in one visit. A whole house plastered in one go carries less setup cost per room than three separate visits.
We look at the actual walls before quoting, and we will tell you honestly if a skim will do rather than talking you into a re-plaster you do not need.
We publish price ranges only once they are current and accurate for this area, rather than quoting a national average that would not survive a home visit. Call or WhatsApp us on 07811 466054 and we will give you a realistic ballpark for your room over the phone, then a fixed written figure after we have seen it.
How do I get a fixed quote for plastering?
We visit, measure up, check what is behind the walls, and put a written price in your hands. No charge, no obligation, no follow-up sales visit.
Thanks — that's with us.
We read every enquiry ourselves and reply the same working day. If it is urgent, call 07811 466054 and you will get one of us, not a call centre.
Rather talk? Call 07811 466054 or message us on WhatsApp. Mon–Fri 7:30am–8:30pm.
Why Choose Barbers for Plastering
Part of the sequence, not a gap in it
When plastering is part of a bathroom, kitchen or refurbishment we are already running, it happens the day it should happen. No waiting for a plasterer to have a window free.
Honest about what the wall needs
We will tell you if a wall can be skimmed rather than stripped, which is the cheaper answer. We will also tell you when a skim will crack within a year, which is the more expensive one.
Older housing stock experience
Solid-walled colliery terraces, lath and plaster ceilings and 1930s semis with original render all behave differently. Thirty years in this specific housing stock is worth more here than anywhere else.
Tidy work in occupied homes
Plastering is the messiest trade in the house. Floors are protected, doorways sealed, and everything cleaned down at the end of each day.
Barbers Bathrooms & Kitchens is run by Dan Barber, Master Joiner & Director. About us and how we work · Our workmanship guarantee and complaints route · Rated 5.0 on Google from 6 reviews (October 2026)
Plasterers Across Worksop, Mansfield & Chesterfield
We plaster across the whole radius, and the work changes noticeably from town to town.
In Chesterfield and Staveley, where much of the housing is 1950s to 1970s, the common request is skimming over artex ceilings across a whole house.
In Creswell, Whitwell and Bolsover, solid-walled stone and brick terraces more often need stripping back and rebuilding in backing coat.
In Barlborough, Dronfield and the newer estates, plastering is usually making good after a layout change — a removed wall, a new opening, or a knock-through into a kitchen-diner.
- Plasterers in Chesterfield
- Plasterer Staveley
- Worksop plasterers
- Plasterers in Bolsover
- Plasterer Clowne
- Plasterers in Mansfield
- Plasterers in Whitwell
- Plasterer Dronfield
- Barlborough plasterers
- Plasterers in Rotherham
- Plasterers in Sheffield
- Plasterers in Nottingham
- Plasterers in Derby
See the full list of areas we cover — no travel charge anywhere within 30 miles of Creswell.
Frequently Asked Questions About Plastering
Can you plaster over artex?
How long does plaster take to dry before I can paint it?
Do I need to move out while a room is plastered?
Can you plaster just one wall or one ceiling?
How long does it take a plasterer to skim a room?
Can you plaster over old plaster?
Do you do the making good after a wall is removed?
Still deciding? A survey costs nothing and you will know exactly what the job involves.
What Should You Read Before You Start?
How Much Do Plasterers Cost? Day Rates and Room Prices for 2026
Published 2026 UK cost guides put a plasterer's day rate at roughly £180 to £300, and skimming the walls of a medium-sized room at about £425 to £625 including materials. A full re-plaster, where the old plaster is hacked off, costs considerably more. Prices are lower in the north of England and the Midlands than in London and the South East. The condition of the wall, not its size, is what separates a cheap job from an expensive one.
Read the guideSkimming Over Artex: What Works, What Does Not, and the Asbestos Question
Artex — the textured coating swirled, stippled or combed onto the ceilings of most British houses between the 1960s and the 1990s — can be plastered over, and skimming is the usual way to get rid of it. There are three approaches: skim directly over the texture, overboard the ceiling with plasterboard and skim that, or remove the coating and skim what is underneath. Which is right depends on how heavy the texture is, how sound the ceiling behind it is, and — before anything else — whether the coating contains asbestos, which textured coatings applied before the mid-1980s often do. Nothing gets scraped or sanded until that question is answered.
Read the guideHow to Prepare Your Home for a Renovation
Before a renovation starts: clear the room and the route to it, agree access and parking, plan a temporary kitchen or bathroom, sort pets and deliveries, and confirm which days will be most disruptive. An hour of preparation saves days of interruption.
Read the guideWhat Order Should a Bathroom Be Renovated In?
A bathroom remodel should be done in this order: design and order the materials, strip out, first-fix plumbing and electrics, floor preparation, boarding and plastering, tanking, floor tiling, wall tiling, second fix, silicone and snagging. Getting the sequence wrong is the most common cause of a bathroom renovation that has to be partly redone.
Read the guideYou Might Also Need
Home Refurbishment
Barbers Bathrooms & Kitchens carries out whole-house and multi-room refurbishments across North Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and South Yorkshire.
Learn moreWall & Floor Tiling
Barbers Bathrooms & Kitchens carries out wall and floor tiling across North Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and South Yorkshire — bathrooms, wet rooms, kitchens, hallways and utility rooms.
Learn moreBathroom Installation
Barbers Bathrooms & Kitchens installs complete bathrooms for homeowners across North Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and South Yorkshire.
Learn morePlanning plastering? Get a fixed quote.
We visit, measure up, check what's behind the walls and give you a written price with the exclusions stated plainly. No obligation, no charge, no sales visit.
Much of our work comes from repeat customers and recommendations, reflecting the standard we work to.
Barbers Bathrooms & Kitchens
Creswell, Derbyshire Service area business — we work in your home
We cover a 30-mile radius of Creswell, including Worksop, Clowne, Bolsover, Mansfield, Chesterfield, Retford, Sheffield and Nottingham. There is no travel charge anywhere within that area.
- Phone
- 07811 466054
- Message us on WhatsApp
- Hours
- Monday to Friday: 7:30am – 8:30pm