Plasterboard on Dot & Dab + Skim – cost per m² – UK 2026 Rate Guide

Budget rate for supply & lay · typical budget rate before your adjustments

Labour, plant, materials, outputs and waste — yours to edit, as an Excel. Three free.

Rates are UK national (non-London): central London and constrained urban sites typically run dearer — adjust the labour, plant and access lines in the build-up accordingly.

Plasterboard & skim

per m² · supply & lay

£33 – £66 / m²

What is it

The supply and fixing of 12.5 mm tapered-edge plasterboard, dot-and-dabbed (adhesive-fixed) to a blockwork or masonry background and finished with a 2–3 mm multi-finish skim to receive decoration, priced per m² of finished wall. This is the standard internal drylining line — the board and skim, not the background wall behind it, which is a separate rate. The composite carries two operations:

Dot-and-dab boarding — 12.5 mm tapered-edge boards fixed to the background on adhesive dabs, cut around openings and reveals, with scrim tape and edge / angle beads.
Two-pass skim — a 2–3 mm multi-finish plaster skim trowelled to a flat, decorable surface ready for mist coat and decoration.

Rate range

Low£33 – £43 / m²

Typical£41 – £53 / m²

High£51 – £66 / m²

Budget rate per m².

3 key cost drivers

Room complexity

Small rooms with many reveals, beads and openings mean more cutting and edge work per m², slowing the gang; large open walls board and skim fastest. Labour is about 70% of this rate, so complexity is its biggest driver.

Background condition

A true, plumb blockwork or masonry background dot-and-dabs cleanly; an out-of-plumb or rough wall needs dubbing-out, using more adhesive and slowing the gang.

Supply & quantity

Merchant prices for the bought-in materials move with supplier, account and load size, and the published band already spans that range. Rates are UK non-London; London & the South East typically run dearer — adjust the build-up.

Estimator

Budget rate generator

£41 – £53 / m²

Covers the plasterboard, dot-and-dab adhesive, skim plaster, sundries, the board & skim gang and O&P · excl. the background wall, prelims & VAT

Exclusions

Lifting & material distribution — telehandler / forklift, hoist and site-distribution labour (an attendance, in main-contractor prelims)
The background wall — blockwork, masonry or stud lining (a separate rate)
Insulated / thermal laminate boards, metal-stud partitions, mist coat & decoration
Scaffold supply (usually in preliminaries)
Preliminaries — main-contractor site set-up, management & welfare
VAT