Plastering in Cyprus.Compare several quotes at once.

The rate is the smallest variable

Three plastering quotes for one apartment can vary widely, and the rate per square metre is rarely the reason.

Four other things move the total more, and none of them is visible in a headline figure.

How many coats, and onto what. A skim finish over sound existing plaster and a full render onto bare blockwork are different jobs. Both may be described as plastering.

How the area was measured. Openings, reveals and the split between wall and ceiling all follow conventions that differ between firms.

What preparation was assumed. A sound, flat, clean substrate needs almost none. A wall that has been chased, patched and left uneven needs a great deal, and the assumption is usually unstated.

Whether material is supplied. Labour-only and supply-and-fix quotes are not comparable until the material quantity is agreed.

A client comparing four quotes without pinning these down is comparing four different assessments of what the walls are like.

Coats, and what each one is for

The build-up is the specification, and asking for it in writing is the single most useful step.

A skim is a thin finish coat over a sound surface, giving a smooth plane ready for decoration. It corrects small imperfections and does not correct a wall that is out of true.

A two-coat render applies a base and a finish, and it is what bare blockwork generally needs. The base coat does the flattening; the finish coat does the surface.

Three coats appear where the substrate is poor, where the wall is significantly out of plane, or where an external render is specified to a particular performance.

Dubbing out is filling hollows before the coats proper begin, and it is the item most often absent from a quote and most often necessary on an older Cypriot wall.

Where a firm proposes fewer coats than another, that is a specification difference to resolve rather than a saving to accept. The wall does not become flatter because a quote assumed it was.

Measurement conventions, and how to neutralise them

Because the trade is priced by area, the definition of area matters as much as the rate.

The variables are openings, reveals, ceilings and any surfaces treated differently — a bathroom wall behind tiling may be finished to a lower standard, for instance, and priced accordingly.

The way to neutralise the differences is to state the convention in the enquiry rather than to reconcile it afterwards. A scope that says openings are deducted above a stated size, that reveals are measured by the linear metre, and that ceilings are itemised separately produces quotes that can be laid side by side.

Where quotes have already been received on different conventions, asking each firm for their measured area alongside their rate usually explains most of the gap without any renegotiation.

Preparation is where the low quote hides

The lowest quote in a set is frequently the one that assumed the best substrate.

The items that separate them:

Removal of existing material. Whether failed or hollow plaster is being taken off, and how much of it. This is dirty, slow work with a waste component.

Filling chases. After a rewire or a replumb, the chases cut by other trades have to be filled before plastering. Whose scope that sits in is frequently assumed by both parties to be the other's.

Substrate treatment. Bonding agents, primers and any treatment where the background is dusty, previously painted or of mixed materials.

Beads and stops. External corners, edges at openings and any junction requiring a bead are usually measured by the linear metre and are easy to leave out of an area-only quote.

Protection. Floors, joinery and anything staying in the room. On a property being lived in this is a real cost, and its absence from a quote is noticeable on the first day.

Asking every firm to state the substrate condition they assumed, and the rate for work beyond it, turns the largest unknown into an agreed number.

Access, waste and the things around the job

Three items that sit outside the plastering itself and appear on some quotes only.

Access. Stairwells, double-height spaces and high ceilings need towers or scaffold rather than trestles, and that is a hire cost with a duration.

Waste. A full strip-out of old plaster produces a substantial volume of construction waste, which goes to a licensed facility and is charged accordingly. On a skim job it is negligible; on a strip and re-render it is not.

Water and power. Mixing needs both, and on a property without a live supply somebody has to provide them.

None of these is large individually. Together they explain a fair share of the difference between a quote written after a site visit and one written from a description.

Day rates and measured work

Small jobs are frequently quoted as day rates, and that is reasonable — measuring a set of patches costs more time than filling them.

The comparison problem is that day rates conceal productivity. A firm quoting a lower daily figure and assuming more days is more expensive than one quoting a higher figure and fewer days, and the client sees only the two numbers.

Where day rates are used, the useful question is how many days are assumed and what is expected to be complete at the end of them. That converts an open-ended arrangement into something with a shape, and it makes two day-rate quotes comparable in the only way they can be.

For anything larger than a few patches, measured work is the better basis, because it puts the productivity risk with the firm that controls it.

Internal and external quotes are not the same trade

A firm may offer both, and the two should be read as separate quotes with separate risks.

Internal work is finish-led. The client judges it on flatness, on corners and on how the surface takes paint, and the conditions are controlled. The principal variables are the ones above: coats, area and preparation.

External render is performance-led. It sits in sun, weather and, near the coast, salt-laden air, and it is expected to survive that for years. The specification therefore includes things an internal quote never mentions — the mix or system, reinforcement where movement is expected, how it is detailed at openings and at the base of a wall, and how it terminates where it meets something else.

External work also carries access, which internal work rarely does, and it carries weather risk in a programme. A quote for an external elevation that does not mention access or the season is a quote written without those in it.

Where both appear on one document, the useful step is to ask for them separated with their own scopes. It is common for the internal figure to be competitive and the external one to be assembled quickly, and separating them shows which is which.

What the finished job should be inspected against

Comparing quotes is half of the exercise; knowing what is being accepted at the end is the other half, and agreeing it in advance changes the quotes themselves.

Three checks are worth naming in the enquiry, because a firm pricing against them prices differently from one that is not.

Flatness across the surface, checked with a straightedge of an agreed length rather than judged by eye from the middle of the room.

Corners and edges, straight and consistent, with beads set true.

Inspection in raking light, with a lamp held close to the surface, which shows waves and trowel marks that frontal light conceals entirely.

Stating that these are the acceptance criteria does two things. It tells the careful firms that care will be recognised, and it removes the argument that happens when a client inspects that way and a contractor did not expect it.

Writing a scope three firms can price equally

State the rooms, and for each: walls, ceilings, and any surface treated differently.

State the build-up required — skim, two coat, three coat — and whether dubbing out is included.

State the measurement convention for openings and reveals, and itemise ceilings separately.

State the assumed substrate condition, and require a rate for work beyond it.

Require beads and stops by the linear metre.

Confirm whether the quote is labour-only or supply and fix, and if the former, who buys and who counts.

Name who fills chases, who protects the property, who provides water and power, and who removes waste.

State the drying period expected before decoration, so it appears in the programme rather than in an argument.

Quotes returned against that document differ on price. Quotes returned against a walk-round differ on what each firm decided the job was, and the lowest of them is generally the one that decided it was the smallest.