Plasterers run from £160 to £350 a day across the guides. Like tiling, a lot of this work is priced by the square metre rather than by the day, so the day rate is a way to sense check a quote rather than the way you are likely to be billed.
Day rate
£160 to £350 a day
Hourly rate
£25 to £37.50 an hour
All figures are labour only, before materials. Whether VAT comes on top depends on whether the trade is VAT registered, so ask. The band is the widest span across the guides listed, not an average, and not a price anyone is committed to.
Skimming, boarding, rendering and making good after the trades that came before.
These are the published figures, copied as they stand rather than averaged into one number. Read down the column and you can see how far apart they sit.
Checkatrade, How much do tradespeople cost in the UK in 2026
Day: £300
Hour: £37.50
Last updated April 2026, checked 13 August 2026.
MyBuilder, How much is a builder day rate in 2026
Day: £250 to £350
Hour: Not given in this table
No date on the page, 2026 in the title, checked 13 August 2026.
Superscript, What are tradesperson pay rates for 2026
Day: £160 to £240
Hour: £25 to £35
Published 16 February 2026, checked 13 August 2026.
These are three publishers, not three surveys of what people actually paid. Four ranges are identical in the Checkatrade and MyBuilder trade tables, and Superscript names Checkatrade as one of its own inputs. Where the guides agree, that agreement carries less weight than it looks like it does. The day rates overview sets out which ranges overlap and what each publisher says it used.
Superscript prints a London plasterer rate of £220 to £300 a day and £30 to £40 an hour against its own national £160 to £240 and £25 to £35. Compare the same ends of those bands and London runs between a quarter and roughly two fifths higher. Its Birmingham figure is £180 to £250 a day. That is one publisher on one trade, so read it as an indication rather than a rule that transfers to the other trades on this page.
Source: Superscript, What are tradesperson pay rates for 2026 (Published 16 February 2026), checked 13 August 2026.
No published London uplift survives its own source. MyBuilder claims 20 to 40% above the national average and then prints a regional table on the same page showing London at £233 against Manchester at £196, a gap of about 19%. That is why this site publishes no single London percentage.
Source: MyBuilder, How much is a builder day rate in 2026 (No date on the page, 2026 in the title), checked 13 August 2026.
The full contradiction, with the regional table it rests on, is on the day rates overview. Regional differences across project types are set out in renovation costs by region.
On a day rate the risk that the job runs long sits with you; on a fixed price it sits with the trade. Ask for a fixed price wherever the scope can be written down, and keep the day rate for work where nobody can say what is behind the wall until it is open.
Get a price per room or per square metre for anything you can measure, and keep a day rate for making good, where the work is scattered and nobody can count it in advance. Agree who fills, sands and preps, because that is the classic gap between the plasterer and the decorator.
Whichever model you agree, put it in writing before the first morning. The contract checklist lists what a written agreement needs to cover, why quotes differ explains the gaps that make two prices for the same job look nothing alike, and the day rates overview sets out when each model is the honest one.
A day rate is labour and nothing else. Materials, VAT, waste, scaffolding, the other trades on site, the minimum charge on a short visit and a contingency for what nobody priced all sit on top of it, and together they routinely add more than the labour band itself.
Each of those is priced out, with its source, on the day rates overview. The buffer has a page of its own in renovation contingency, and skips are priced in skip hire cost.
A day rate on its own tells you very little, because the number that matters is days multiplied by rate, plus everything above. Price the whole job first, then use the day rate to sense check the labour line inside it.
Most projects need several of these on site, each on their own rate. The day rates overview puts all six side by side.
Rate guides are republished without notice, so every figure here carries the date it was checked. Where a guide contradicts itself, this page shows both numbers rather than picking the flattering one. A written quote from a local trade beats all of it.
Cost guides written about one job print their own trade rates for that job, taken from the guide that priced it, so a figure on a project page here can sit inside the band above or a little outside it. The band on this page is the widest span across three general rate guides; a project page reads the guide that priced that project, which sets its own rates on its own date. Where two pages differ, each says which guide it read and on what date. The rates behind a single job are worked out in DIY savings and in load-bearing wall removal cost.
How this site handles prices and sources is set out in how we price.
The published figures run from £160 to £350 a day for labour only. Superscript sits at the bottom with £160 to £240, MyBuilder gives £250 to £350, and Checkatrade prints a single average of £300 a day and £37.50 an hour.
A lot of it goes by area, because the square metres can be measured before anyone starts, and a specialist finish such as polished or Venetian plaster sits in a bracket of its own well above a standard skim. Where you can measure the work, ask for a price per room or per square metre and keep the day rate for making good, which is scattered and hard to count in advance.
Superscript is the only guide in this set to publish a London plasterer rate alongside its own national one: £220 to £300 a day and £30 to £40 an hour against a national £160 to £240 and £25 to £35. Compare the same ends of those bands and London runs between a quarter and roughly two fifths higher. Its Birmingham figure is £180 to £250 a day. That is one publisher on one trade, so read it as an indication rather than a rule that transfers to the other trades.
Settle this before either trade starts, because it is the classic gap between a plasterer and a painter and decorator. The plaster also has to dry before decorating, which means the plasterer sets the pace for whoever follows. Write down who patches after the electrician and plumber, who fills and sands, and whose price includes it.