A friend of mine bought a house recently and unfortunately the previous owners left her with a great deal of issues to deal with, none of the heating works, the built in oven is broken etc etc.
She needs two rooms sorting out which are artexed, the quotes she's had are for between £500 and £700 which is rather high we think.
She has two boys under the age of three and really needs those smooth surfaces IMO.
Any advice or willing workers - I'll pass on details, she's stressed to the eyeballs and I want to help her.

we did it ourselves using a steamer that you use to remove wallpaper. It was hard work but it only cost the hire of the steamer.

Are we talking 4 walls and the ceilings? What size are the rooms?

I think you'll find that they are perfectly reasonable prices, that's a fair bit of work there..... Don't forget you are paying a plasterer for his time - preparing, mixing for and skimming 8 artexed walls will take a fair while including a bit of standing around waiting for it to go off etc. Then there maybe the ceilings on top of that.... Of course materials aren't free either...

I'm not being funny here so don't take this the wrong way but when you say you think the prices are too high, what are you basing it on? Do you have a price in mind and if so how did you calculate it?

I'm not a plasterer myself but should be able to get you one if need be. If your friend would like a quote for any of the work e.g. heating then feel free to give us a yell.

Originally posted by sanman
we did it ourselves using a steamer that you use to remove wallpaper. It was hard work but it only cost the hire of the steamer.

We did that too. Like you say, its hard work (and messy) but a lot cheaper than having someone in to plaster

All ideas duly noted and thanks!
My friend did have a property before which she had just one wall artexed, which needed to be changed and it costs next to nothing, that where her price comparisons came from.
However, your advice makes perfect sense and I will point it out and pass on your number if she wants to follow it up.
Thanks to you all :)