How much does dot and dab cost per m²?
Updated 6 October 2026 · prices for 2026
Typical cost to dot and dab and skim a room
£1,150–£2,240
for 30 to 60 m² of wall, boarded and skimmed, including VAT (£960–£1,870 + VAT)
About £31 a m² before VAT. Standard 12.5 mm plasterboard on drywall adhesive, PVA, and a multi-finish skim, ready to paint.
Dot and dab plasterboard with a skim finish costs about £37 a m² including VAT (about £31 before VAT) in 2026. For a typical living room with 45 m² of wall, that's about £1,671 including VAT (£1,393 before VAT). Boarded and taped without the skim, it's about £23 a m² including VAT. The price per m² hardly changes with the size of the room, because almost all of it is materials and hours that scale with the area.
What's in the price
We priced 45 m² of wall, about a 5.5 × 4.5 m living room. This is where the money goes, before VAT.
- Plasterboard: 16 sheets of standard 12.5 mm board, 2400 × 1200, about £251.
- Drywall adhesive: the "dabs", about 9 bags of 25 kg (a bag does about 5 m²), about £155.
- Boarding: fixing the boards on dabs, 13.5 hours, about £437.
- Priming: PVA over the boards, just over 2 hours.
- Skim: five bags of multi-finish (a bag does about 9 m²) and scrim tape over the joints, then the skim itself, about 12 hours and £397 of labour.
Labour is about two thirds of the price. That's why the hourly rate you use matters more than the merchant you buy from.
Price by wall area
| Wall area | Before VAT | With VAT | A m² |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30 m² (a bedroom) | £959 | £1,151 | £31.98 |
| 45 m² (a living room) | £1,393 | £1,671 | £30.95 |
| 60 m² (a large open-plan room) | £1,869 | £2,243 | £31.16 |
Pricing it as a builder
The figures use 0.3 hours a m² for boarding and 0.27 hours a m² for the skim (about 30 m² a day, a typical domestic skim), plus priming. At £24 an hour for a plasterer, before markup, that's about £15 a m² of labour on every m² of wall. If your plasterer is on a day rate, divide the day rate by 8 and check it against that.
Two things catch people out. First, the old finish. If plaster has to come off before the boards go on, that's another 30 or so hours on a 45 m² room, plus a skip. Second, reveals and corners. Windows and doors need cutting, beads and careful skimming, so a room with three windows takes longer than the m² suggests. Add hours for them rather than raising the rate per m². Priced on its own, a job like this carries a small premium for travel, setting up, a minimum charge and part-used materials. Done as an extra while you're already on site, the same work usually costs a bit less.
Dot and dab, skim or battens?
- Skim only: when the old plaster is sound. About £12 a m² before VAT.
- Dot and dab and skim: when the plaster is blown, cracked or gone, and the wall is reasonably flat. About £31 a m².
- Board on battens: when the wall is badly out, or there's a cable or pipe run to hide. About £41 a m² for 45 m².
How we priced it
We built the job in Bricken, the quoting app for UK builders, item by item. Merchant prices for the board, adhesive and plaster, typical hourly rates for each trade, and a typical builder's markup of 30% on materials and 35% on labour. Your plasterer will price it at their own rates, so get a few quotes.
Priced in Bricken at standard UK rates (30 m² of wall for the low figure, 60 m² for the high). Each figure is then multiplied by Bricken's regional factor, from 0.90 in the North East to 1.30 in inner London. The factors come from public 2025-26 build-cost guides and our own quotes. Where a region covers two areas, the low uses the lower factor and the high the higher. The factors are set for whole building jobs, so treat small differences as a guide.
Cost by region
| Region | 30 m² of wall | 60 m² of wall |
|---|---|---|
| London | £1,380£1,151 | £2,920£2,430 |
| South East | £1,290£1,074 | £2,510£2,094 |
| East of England | £1,210£1,007 | £2,360£1,963 |
| Midlands | £1,120£930 | £2,240£1,869 |
| North West | £1,090£911 | £2,130£1,776 |
| North East and Yorkshire | £1,040£863 | £2,130£1,776 |
| South West | £1,210£1,007 | £2,360£1,963 |
| Wales | £1,060£883 | £2,060£1,720 |
| Scotland | £1,150£959 | £2,240£1,869 |
What pushes the price up or down
Up
- Old plaster to hack off first: on 45 m² that added about £790 before VAT in our pricing, mostly labour, plus a skip.
- Uneven or bowed walls: more adhesive, more time, and sometimes battens instead of dabs. Boarding 45 m² on battens priced at £1,850, about £457 more than dot and dab.
- Special boards: moisture-resistant, acoustic or fire-rated boards cost more than standard.
- Lots of corners, reveals and beads: window and door reveals are slow work.
- London: labour and parking cost more.
Down
- Boarded and taped only: if the decorator fills and sands the joints, or a skim goes on later. The 45 m² room came to £849 without the skim.
- Big, plain walls: the price per m² barely moves with size, but fewer reveals means fewer slow hours.
- Walls that only need a skim: if the old plaster is sound, a skim alone on 45 m² priced at £549, about £12 a m².
Questions
Is dot and dab cheaper than plastering?
Than a full re-plaster on bare brick, usually yes, because boarding is faster than two wet coats. Than a skim over sound plaster, no: in our pricing a skim alone was about £12 a m² against about £31 for dot and dab with a skim.
How long does it take to dot and dab a room?
Our 45 m² room has about 28 hours in it: 13.5 hours boarding, just over 2 hours priming and about 12 hours skimming. So about three days for one plasterer, plus drying time before painting.
Do you need to skim dot and dab?
Not always. Taped and filled joints can be painted, but the finish is never as even as a skim. Most builders skim, and our main figures include it.
How many m² of wall is a room?
Measure round the room, multiply by the ceiling height and take off the doors and windows. A 4 × 3.5 m bedroom with 2.4 m ceilings is about 30 m² of wall. A 5.5 × 4.5 m living room is about 45 m².
Is VAT included?
The big figures include VAT at 20%. If your plasterer isn't VAT-registered, the price before VAT is closer to what you'll pay.
How we price: each figure is a Bricken quote built from the sizes, at standard UK merchant prices and day rates, with a typical builder’s markup. Your builder’s price will differ: get quotes.