decorative
Venetian and polished plaster
Venetian and polished plaster costs £90 to £220 per square metre depending on the finish and how many coats it takes. It is quoted per job rather than by the room, and rarely comes in below £900.
What this covers
What it costs. Venetian and polished plaster costs £90 to £220 per square metre. Full cost breakdown.
What the job covers
- Polished Venetian plaster to a feature wall in multiple thin coats
- Microcement to a bathroom wall or floor as a seamless finish
- Tadelakt to a wet area where the finish has to be waterproof
- Marmorino to a hallway or stairwell
- Sample boards in the actual light of the room before committing
What is involved
Polished plaster is a family of lime or acrylic finishes applied in very thin coats and burnished to a sheen. Marmorino is matte and stony, Venetian is glassy and deep, tadelakt is waterproof and is what a Moroccan hammam is lined with. All of them are built in three to six passes, each one tighter than the last, and the depth comes from the layers rather than from the material.
It is a decorating-adjacent specialism rather than everyday plastering, and the difference shows in how it is quoted: per job, after a site visit, with a sample board. Anybody quoting it per square metre over the phone has not understood what is being asked.
The substrate matters more than with any other finish on this site. Polished plaster is two millimetres thick at most, so every deviation, every joint and every patch in the wall behind it reads through. Most of the cost of a good job is the preparation nobody sees.
Polished Venetian plaster to a feature wall in multiple thin coats, one of the jobs a venetian and polished plaster specialist is hired for.
Choosing someone for the job
Ask which finish they mean, because the word polished covers several. Ask how many coats are in the price. Ask what preparation the wall needs and whether that is included, since it is usually the larger half of the work. And insist on a sample board in the room itself rather than a photograph.
Common questions
Is polished plaster waterproof?
Tadelakt is, which is why it is used in wet rooms, and it is sealed with olive oil soap to get there. Ordinary Venetian and marmorino are not waterproof and want a wax or sealer even in a splash zone.
Can it go in a bathroom?
Tadelakt yes, including in a shower. Other polished finishes are fine on bathroom walls away from direct water, sealed. Check which one is being quoted before assuming it will survive a shower.