Nine jobs, nine starting prices. Published, before you message me.
Every figure on this page is a starting price. Six of the nine are labour only — materials on top. The three biggest jobs are priced per job, and you get a written breakdown of what is and is not in the figure before anything is agreed.
A cracked patch after a leak: from €150. The room painted after it: from €250 — from €400 for both. Small jobs by the hour: €50/hour, two-hour minimum. A bathroom taken on as one job: from €6,500. A kitchen as one job: from €10,000. The other four are in the list below.
Send photos of your job on WhatsApp and you get my read of it back in writing, with a figure for what I can see — free, before anything is agreed.
WhatsApp. Photos in, a written price back with a start date.
All nine, from
| Job | From |
|---|---|
| Plaster repairs and skimming | €150 |
| General repairs, small jobs | €50/hour2-hour minimum |
| Room painting | €250 |
| Flooring — laminate, LVT and wood | €25/m²labour only |
| Built-in carpentry — wardrobes, shelving | €850 |
| Exterior painting | €2,500priced per job |
| Kitchen fitting | €2,500installation only |
| Full kitchen renovation | €10,000priced per job |
| Full bathroom renovation | €6,500priced per job |
Tiling is the one I do not put a number on. Wall and floor tiling is priced per job, because the rate turns on the tile itself — format, finish, how much of it has to be cut — and a per-m² figure here would be wrong often enough to be useless. Send photos and the measurements and you get a figure for your job in writing, same as everything else.
Emergency jobs taken. I am based in Carlow and work within 150 km — Carlow, Kilkenny, Wexford, Waterford, Wicklow, Kildare, Laois, Tipperary, Dublin and the counties in between. Every job carries a 6-month guarantee on my work. Gas work, and electrical work that needs a certificate, are not mine.
Plaster repairs and skimming — from €150 (labour)
Plastering is the work I ask for first, so it is the work this page explains properly. €150 is my starting figure for a small repair.
Patch or full skim — they are different jobs
A patch is local: the damage cut back, filled, and the patch skimmed into the wall around it. It is the cheaper of the two.
A full skim is the whole wall or the whole ceiling in one pass, so there is no join to catch the light. It costs more than a patch, and it comes out looking like one surface instead of a repair.
If you are not sure which one you need, that is the normal position to be in. Send the photos and the answer comes back with which of the two I would do, and why — free, before any figure is agreed.
What I look at before I give you a figure
- Size of the damaged area
- A hand-sized patch and half a wall are not the same work
- Whether it is still wet
- I will not skim a wall that is still wet — it has to dry first
- How deep it goes
- A surface crack, or plaster off the block and back to bare wall
- What is on the wall now
- Whatever has to come off before anything goes on
Four things I will ask you
Your answers tell me more than the photos do.
- 1Is the area still damp, or has it dried out?
- 2Do you know what caused it — a leak, a burst pipe, condensation, movement, or nobody knows?
- 3Has that cause been dealt with, or is it still live?
- 4Are you painting it yourself afterwards, or do you want it painted too?
What comes back
One figure for what I can see in your photos, in writing on WhatsApp, with what could move it named alongside. If the photos show a wall that is still wet or still leaking, you hear that back before you have spent anything — along with what the job would take once it is dry, so you get a plan and not just a no.
Free read, then a price.
Most jobs are two of these, not one — so here are the totals
Every total here is built from the six labour-only figures, and every one is a starting figure.
After a leak — the patch, then the room painted
Plaster repair from €150 + room painting from €250
from €400
A list of small things, one visit
General repairs at €50/hour, two-hour minimum
from €100
One room taken further — patch, paint, new floor
Plaster repair from €150 + room painting from €250 + flooring from €25/m²
from €400, plus €25 per m² of floor
A room and a fitted wardrobe or shelving in it
Room painting from €250 + built-in carpentry from €850
from €1,100
Send photos of the whole job — every part of it — and you get one figure for what I can see, free, before anything is agreed.
What is not in the price, and how paying works
- Materials
- On the six labour-only jobs, paint, plaster, boards, flooring and fixings are not in the figure. On the three priced per job — bathrooms, full kitchens and exterior painting — ask, and you get in writing what the figure covers and what it does not, before anything is agreed.
- The two-hour minimum on hourly work
- General repairs are €50/hour with a two-hour minimum, so €100 of labour is the smallest booking.
- What €25/m² covers on flooring
- That rate is labour only, and it is for laminate, LVT and wood. A tiled floor is different work and is quoted per job.
- Certified electrical work and gas work
- Not mine. If your job needs either, you hear it from me in my reply.
- Paying
- 30% to book. Every job carries a 6-month guarantee on my work.
Bathrooms from €6,500. Kitchens from €2,500 fitted, from €10,000 as one job.
€6,500 is a bathroom taken on as one job and €10,000 is a kitchen taken on as one job — both priced per job, and you get in writing what the figure covers and what it does not before anything is agreed. €2,500 is installing a kitchen you have already bought: that one is installation labour, and the units are not in it.
Electrical work that needs a certificate, and gas work, are outside what I take on. If your room needs either, you hear that from me in my reply, not halfway through.
Send photos of the room on WhatsApp and you get back my read of it in writing, free, before any figure is agreed.
Free read, then a price.
Still not sure? Spend €100 and judge the work instead of the page
You cannot check a tradesman from a website. So check me on the cheapest job you have.
Two hours of general repairs is €50/hour, two-hour minimum — €100 of labour. Pick the smallest thing on your list. It carries the same 6-month guarantee as everything else, and you get the answer no page can give you: whether the work matches what was quoted, and what the room looks like when it is finished.
Then hand me the bigger job, or do not.
Free read, then a price.
The other five, and what each figure buys
Bathrooms, kitchens and plastering are above. These are the rest of the list.
Room painting — from €250, labour
Walls and ceiling, filled, sanded and cut in properly, two coats. What moves the figure is the state of the surface underneath and the height of the room, not the square metres. A repaint over sound paint is the cheap end; anything that has to be stripped, filled or primed first is not, and you are told which one you have before the price is agreed.
Exterior painting — from €2,500, priced per job
Render, masonry, window frames and fascia, after the surface has been washed and whatever is loose has come off. Access decides most of it — a bungalow and a two-storey with a gable are different jobs — and so does what is on the wall now. This one is priced per job rather than quoted as labour, so the written price says what it covers before anything is agreed.
Flooring — from €25/m², labour only
Laminate, LVT and engineered wood: subfloor checked and levelled where it needs it, underlay, boards set out so the cuts land where they are least seen, then beading and thresholds. Materials are yours. Tiled floors are not this rate — they are quoted per job.
Built-in carpentry — from €850, labour
Fitted wardrobes, alcove shelving, storage built into the space it is going in rather than bought to approximate it. Made to the room, which is the point: walls are not square and floors are not level, and a built-in absorbs that where a flat-pack shows it. The figure moves with the size and how much of it is doors.
Kitchen fitting — from €2,500, installation only
Your units, fitted: carcasses hung and levelled, doors aligned, worktop cut and sealed, sink and appliances seated, plinths and cornice. Supply is not in this figure — you buy the kitchen, this is the labour to put it in. If the room also needs plastering, flooring or the wall opened up, that is the full kitchen renovation and it is priced per job.