Tool 1 of the Get Paid Kit · For plasterers

Plasterer hourly rate calculator

This free calculator works out the hourly rate a self-employed plasterer should charge for their time, starting from the income you need, then builds the per-room prices clients actually pay out of the hours a room really holds. Clients rarely buy “an hour of plastering”; they buy the finished room — walls flat enough to paint, a ceiling without a shadow line — priced by the room or the wall. Underneath that room price sits your hour: boarding and bonding where it is needed, the skim itself, the trowelling stages and the gaps while coats go off. With the honest presets below the rate lands near $78 an hour, $627 for a full day — and the room prices built from it: skimming a medium room, walls and ceiling, takes about twelve hours across a day and a half, $941 of labour — with a single wall at three hours, $235, and a ceiling on its own at four hours, $314. Plaster, boards and bonding are materials, billed as their own line; the rate prices your skill and your hours.

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The pricing reality for plasterers

A room is bought flat and earned across more hours than the smooth finish suggests. Inside the price sit the sheeting and masking, the boarding or bonding where the surface needs it, the skim, the trowel stages after it and the clean-down. A room rate copied from the plasterer across town carries all of that whether it covers it or not. Price the hour first, count the hours a room honestly takes, and the room price becomes arithmetic instead of folklore.

The room price is an honest unit with a condition attached: it assumes a room ready to skim. Boarding to do, artex to bond over, damp to investigate, a ceiling that needs overboarding first — that room is a different job, and its extra hours belong in the quote on top of the room price, named, not absorbed. The hour is what keeps the distinction clean.

The numbers below are starting presets, not a survey: a $50,000 target income, $11,600 a year of expenses — vehicle and fuel leads, with tools like the mixer, stilts, trowels and a scaffold tower, a workshop or storage share, liability insurance, consumables like tape, beads, sealant and sheeting, marketing and admin, waste disposal, and workwear — a 25% tax estimate, four weeks of vacation, a 40-hour week and 60% billable time. With those starting numbers the calculator lands near $78 an hour.

Your numbers — plasterer presets

Your recommended rate

$0 / hour
$0Day rate (8 hours)
0Billable hours per year
Income + expenses needed$0
Grossed up for tax$0
With profit margin$0
Working weeks0
Total working hours0
Billable hours0

Your rate is saved on this device only, so the Proposal Generator can show it when you price a project.

Easy to miss

Costs plasterers forget to put in the rate

  • The drying gaps. Plaster sets to its own clock: coats go on in sequence and between them you are waiting, not skimming. A well-run diary fills the gaps with the next room — but a lone small room still carries its return visits inside the job. Prices built only on trowel time donate every gap in between.
  • The protection. Sheeting floors, masking woodwork, covering what cannot move — and cleaning down at the end — is skilled care that clients notice only when it is skipped. It takes real time on every job and belongs inside the hours the room price is built from.
  • The consumables. Beads, scrim tape, sealant, bonding agent and dust sheets are eaten by every room and appear on no invoice as plaster. They are a cost of every billable hour and belong in the expenses line, estimated honestly from last year's receipts.
  • The waste run. Old plaster, failed coats and board offcuts cannot sit in a client's garden — bagging, loading and disposing of them costs time and fees on most jobs. If waste disposal is not in the expenses, it is coming out of the rate.
  • The kit's upkeep. Mixers burn out, stilts and towers wear, trowels lose their edge. Their servicing, repairs and eventual replacement are paid for by the rate or not at all — there is no third option. A rate that ignores depreciation is borrowing from next year's breakdown.
The maths

How this calculator works

Start with the hours you can genuinely sell. Take 52 weeks, subtract your vacation weeks, multiply by your hours per week, then multiply by your billable percentage. With the plasterer presets — four weeks off, 40 hours a week, 60% billable — that is 1,152 billable hours a year: the boarding, skimming and trowelling clients can pay for, once quoting, travel, protection and drying gaps have taken theirs.

Next, work out what those hours must bring in. Add your desired income and your annual business expenses together — $61,600 on the presets — gross the total up for tax by dividing by one minus your tax rate — at a 25% estimate, divide by 0.75 to get $82,133 — then add your profit margin to reach $90,347 and divide by your billable hours. That final number, $78, is the rate below which the year stops adding up.

Now translate the hour into the prices clients actually buy. Skimming a medium room — four walls and the ceiling, ready surfaces — takes about twelve working hours spread across a day and a half, because the coats set on their own schedule: $941 of labour. A single wall is about three hours, $235; a ceiling on its own about four hours, $314; a full day is the day rate, $627. Boarding, bonding coats and repairs are extra hours, named in the quote rather than absorbed into the room price. Plaster, boards and bonding sit on their own invoice line, agreed before the work starts.

Disclaimer: This is a planning estimate, not tax advice. Tax rates, deductions and allowances vary by country, state and business structure. Enter the rate you expect to pay, and check significant decisions with a qualified accountant.
Next: build a proposal with this rate Use the general rate calculator
Questions

Plasterer rate questions

Price the room — from your hours. The client buys a finished room, so the room is the unit they understand; but the figure should be the room's honest hours at your rate, not a number borrowed from another plasterer. Where the room is not ready to skim — boarding, bonding, crack repairs, damp to sort first — those hours sit on top of the room price, named in the quote. The room price and the hourly build should never disagree about the same job.
Either arrangement works; ambiguity does not. If you supply, materials go on their own invoice line — plaster, boards and bonding at cost or with a stated mark-up agreed in advance — and leftovers and waste disposal are part of the same conversation. If the client supplies, say in writing what happens when a bag runs out mid-ceiling or the wrong board arrives: the delay is real either way, and the quote should have decided whose it is.
For an established solo plasterer with steady work, yes, as a starting point: quoting, travel, protection, drying gaps, invoicing and the hunt for the next job take the rest — and exterior work loses days to weather that no diary can bill. In your first year, or in a quiet market, set it lower and let the rate rise to tell you the truth — the calculator is not being unkind, it is showing what the year needs. As the diary fills, the same expenses spread over more billable hours and the rate can ease, or the income can grow.

Rates differ by trade — the same maths runs with different presets for graphic designer rates, freelance writer rates, web developer rates, marketing consultant rates, photographer rates, video editor rates, virtual assistant rates, social media manager rates, bookkeeper rates, translator rates, business coach rates, illustrator rates, copywriter rates, UX designer rates, SEO consultant rates, data analyst rates, motion designer rates, technical writer rates, podcast editor rates, email marketer rates, life coach rates, proofreader rates, event planner rates, voice actor rates, online tutor rates, personal trainer rates, interior designer rates, music producer rates, grant writer rates, UX researcher rates, book editor rates, transcriptionist rates, presentation designer rates, brand strategist rates, video producer rates, art director rates, WordPress developer rates, mobile app developer rates, 3D artist rates, game developer rates, Shopify developer rates, online business manager rates, podcast producer rates, data entry specialist rates, UX writer rates, copy editor rates, wedding photographer rates, resume writer rates, data scientist rates, instructional designer rates, business analyst rates, email designer rates, interpreter rates, audiobook narrator rates, landscape designer rates, wedding planner rates, wedding videographer rates, personal chef rates, dog trainer rates, music teacher rates, florist rates, cake baker rates, tour guide rates, pet groomer rates, house painter rates, handyman rates, locksmith rates, home organizer rates, pressure washer rates, carpet cleaner rates, chimney sweep rates, pool cleaner rates, window cleaner rates, tattoo artist rates, massage therapist rates, barber rates, makeup artist rates, hairstylist rates, nail technician rates, tailor rates, house cleaner rates, electrician rates, plumber rates, pest control technician rates, ppc specialist rates, content strategist rates, wedding DJ rates, dog walker rates, audio engineer rates, caterer rates, mover rates, appliance repair technician rates, nanny rates, piano tuner rates, garage door technician rates, bicycle mechanic rates, house sitter rates, upholsterer rates, jeweller rates, cobbler rates, blacksmith rates, sign writer rates, farrier rates, mobile car detailer rates, genealogist rates, saddler rates, arborist rates, travel agent rates, watch repairer rates, doula rates, sleep consultant rates, home stager rates, wedding officiant rates, college admissions consultant rates, mobile notary rates, personal shopper rates, welder rates, carpenter rates, glazier rates, tiler rates, roofer rates, bricklayer rates, HVAC technician rates, dressmaker rates, concrete finisher rates, drywall installer rates, flooring installer rates, gardener rates, fence installer rates, gutter installer rates, solar installer rates, stonemason rates, deck builder rates, insulation installer rates, cabinet maker rates, paving installer rates, furniture restorer rates, blind installer rates, driving instructor rates, picture framer rates, aerial installer rates, car mechanic rates, clock repairer rates, oven cleaner rates, smart home installer rates, alarm installer rates, drain cleaner rates, curtain installer rates, irrigation installer rates, shutter installer rates, artificial grass installer rates, fireplace installer rates, bathtub refinisher rates, snow removal professional rates, landscape lighting installer rates and radon mitigation specialist rates, or start from the general freelance hourly rate calculator.