Rendering prices

[Tubby2]

Hi all,
Just trying to get an idea of what it should cost to render my front retaining wall.
I have 2 quotes so far and both are more than double than what I had expected which is par for the course I spose.
My father is an estimator for a residential building company and he told me that his renderers charge $30 m2 for large jobs, ie a whole house. I expected to pay a higher rate than this as I have a small job (compared to a house) and its a one off job.

Anyway the 2 quotes that have come back so far are $1600 and $1300.

I've measured it all up and we have 20 l/m of wall that ranges from 600mm high to 900mm high and around the letterbox it gets to 1200 high.

Total area would be a tad over 21m2 including the face , 200mm top and 300mm down the back side of the wall.
In the photo below you can see a rendered column near my front door. I want the retaining wall to match it. I'm happy to paint it but I doubt that I could get anywhere near as good a finish as what is on the column which is why I'm not going to attempt this myself. I did the wall myself but little imperfections can be hidden with render

So what should I consider a rock bottom price? a good price? a normal price? a rip off?

Anyone got any ideas?

[namtrak]

We just had our whole house rendered at $15 per sqm including the render. Basically we found a plasterer/renderer who was a friend of a friend and happy to do the job on his own terms.

The quotes we received came in at around $90 per sqm. Your looking at $60 to $80 per sqm (including materials?) which seems exxie to me.

Maybe go along to some of the plaster/render supply mobs and see if they know anyone who wants a little bit of weekend work. Slab and cash type stuff, as it only a very small job. Of course you could have a crack yourself!! Photo below?

Cheers

[Tubby2]

Opps sorry, bloody photo didnt attach. should be there now.

Thanks for the help. I have 2 more guys going there today to give me a quote, I'll see how they compare.

Cheers

[namtrak]

Okay, thats at least two costs of render which may push the price up closer to $30 per sqm.

Why not have a crack yoruself? There's more than enough people on here that could give advice - you could do one coat across the back of the wall to see how it scrubs up.

[Tubby2]

I thought of giving it a go myself but being at the front of the house I didn't want it to be all over the place.
A mate has given me the name of a renderer that he knows and he thinks that he should be able to do it it 5-6 hrs. That seems a bit rough to me as I thought it would take at least 2 days, 1 day for each coat.
If I'm after a good finish should I steer clear from anyone that says they can do it in a day?
In the short time I've been investigating renderers I've also heard about galvanised corner thingy's, someone said not to use them.

[namtrak]

The external corners are to stop chipping and so on, we didn't use them here.

Our lad did 90 sqm in about 60 hours. So 20 sqm in say 15 hours?, maybe 2 days.

Look, if it was me, I'd get my mates renderer to do it. Cash job. No problems. But I'm also happy to bear the risk inherent in doing that. Why not have chat with the lad and if you still feel uncomfortable with it, then let it slide and run with a more formal contractor.

[myla]

hello,

are they doing 3 coats for that price, ie. 2 basecoat and 1 coloured coat? (note this is probably whats on the pier)

if so, I think the prices are reasonable

say one day to skim coat, one day to base coat + materials

say one day to colour coat + materials

give or take a third of a day somewhere

thankyou myla

[Tubby2]

Gday Myla,
Thanks for the feedback. I was there kept looking in on the place during construction and noticed that the column were painted and will be painting them myself once the renders are finished. I've had 3 more quotes $1100, $1450 and $1600 so it seems to be going rate at the moment for renderers. I would stretch the budget to $1100 as I;ve heard very good reports about the quality of his work but he isnt available for 4 weeks at least.

Nothin is ever easy

Cheers guys