Finishing a new build: from bare walls to move-in ready

What does it cost to finish a new-build home?

You pay a fixed price per m², and it falls as the order gets bigger. For a whole home you therefore often end up in the lower price band. The main rates from our price list:

Prices exclude VAT. For new builds (homes under 10 years old), 21% VAT applies. Prices from our 2026/2027 price list, valid from 1 September 2026.

We have also put together a worked example for a whole home: what it costs to have a whole house plastered. All surcharges, such as a colour of your choice or a second coat, are on our prices page. If several neighbours have work done in the same project at the same time, the neighbour discount per m² applies.

What exactly does wall finishing in a new build involve?

A new-build home is handed over with walls of plasterboard, calcium silicate block or concrete, and with ceilings that are often only sprayed or even still bare; in a shell house the interior walls are sometimes missing too. You can only live there once that substrate is flat, sealed and painted. That work covers three trades: plastering, wallpapering and painting.

Finishing new-build walls and finishing new-build wall surfaces mean the same thing in practice: going from a bare substrate to a finished wall. The difference lies in the route you choose, and that depends on how the home was handed over.

With us you do that with a single company. We have 97 in-house tradespeople on permanent contracts: 40 wallpaper hangers, 32 plasterers and 25 painters. Every year they finish more than 600 new-build homes. That way you don’t have to coordinate three separate trades, and you know in advance who is coming to your home.

The table shows which elements usually come into play in a new-build home, and where to read more about each.

Is a wall handed over as wallpaper-ready ready to paint?

No. “Wallpaper-ready” in a purchase agreement usually means the seams are filled and the biggest imperfections are gone. Put paint straight on it and in raking light you will see every board seam, every screw hole and every filler patch.

A wallpaper-ready wall is made to have something else put over it, such as renovation fleece. If you want a wall you can paint straight away, you can have your new build plastered paint-ready. So pay close attention at handover to what wallpaper-ready at a new-build handover actually means, because the terms are not used the same way everywhere.

That is why we always look at the walls ourselves before we start. During the site survey we assess, room by room, whether renovation fleece can go straight on or whether a skim coat is needed first, how the ceilings have been finished and what state the doors and window frames are in.

What is the best wall finish for a new build?

For most new-build homes, it is renovation fleece wallpaper, with a skim coat underneath where the wall needs it.

A new-build home is still moving in the first period. Concrete and calcium silicate block release construction moisture and the structure settles. That causes hairline cracks, often at board seams, corners and above doors. This is normal behaviour for a new house: shrinkage cracks in a new build are part of the first years.

Traditional plaster is hard and cracks as the building moves. Renovation fleece is a fibre fleece that bridges and hides small cracks, so they don’t come through your paint layer. Even so, not every crack is one that renovation fleece will bridge, which is why we always look at it ourselves.

The skim coat is the repair base in that chain: it levels an uneven wall, after which the renovation fleece goes over it. That gives you a crisp wall that stays crisp after the first years of settling. That is also exactly why renovation fleece is the most popular choice for new builds.

How does the process work, and who does the work?

The work is done by our own tradespeople, not subcontractors, such as wallpaper hangers Kai and Illias, who have been with us for 5 years. The same organisation schedules the plasterer, the wallpaper hanger and the painter, so the sequence is right and no days are lost between steps.

1. Phone consultation. A project manager goes through what needs doing in the home and when you get the key.
2. Quote within 24 hours. This gives you a free quote with a fixed price per m², based on a price indication.
3. Site survey at your home. If you agree, we come round. We measure the walls and ceilings and check the substrate.
4. Final price and schedule. If extra preparation is needed, it is listed separately and clearly in the quote.
5. Skim coat where needed. A plasterer covers an average of 100 m² per day. The skim coat then has to dry before wallpaper can go on.
6. Hanging, filling and painting the renovation fleece. A complete home takes 3 days, and sanding the substrate is included in the package.
7. Handover. We walk through the home with you before we leave.

There is also something you can do yourself before the wallpaper hanger comes, such as clearing the rooms. The 3 days for wallpapering a home are made up of hanging, filling and painting, in that order.

One customer had the ceilings plastered and renovation fleece hung on all three floors of a new home. A project manager was her point of contact during the job. This is how she describes it herself on Google:

A bigger example: for the Grandioos Wonen new-build project we finished 61 homes, ordinary houses and villas. Our tradespeople wallpapered, painted and plastered there. In this video from 2022 you can look around the building site.

When can you start after key handover?

With renovation fleece you can usually start shortly after key handover, precisely because it absorbs the cracks of the first period. The condition is that the wall is not wet. Sometimes it is better to wait a little before starting after key handover, especially if there is still a lot of construction moisture in the new-build walls.

Schedule the finishing between getting the key and moving in, because we work fastest in an empty home. If the handover is delayed, we simply shift with it. If you also want window frames and doors, skirting boards or the staircase painted, we schedule that in the same period: combining wallpapering, plastering and painting saves you separate appointments.

We work throughout Belgium, in Flanders, Brussels and Wallonia. We also do the site survey at your home anywhere in the country. Request your quote and we will schedule the site survey around your handover date.