Smooth plaster over spachtelputz (textured walls)

What does smoothing spachtelputz with new plaster involve?

Spachtelputz is a plaster layer with a visible grain. Many older homes still have it on the walls, especially if you are renovating a 1970s house. That grain holds dust, is hard to keep clean and sits badly with a sleek interior.

Smoothing means the texture disappears under a new layer, until the wall is flat enough to paint directly. The result is a wall ready for paint, the same finish as a plastered wall without grain.

There are two routes to that smooth wall.

Which route suits your wall, we decide at the site survey. If plastering over is possible, that saves work, dust and the item for removal.

The grain itself counts too. Spachtelputz comes with a very fine grain and with a coarse grain, and everything in between. The coarser the grain, the deeper the texture that has to be filled before the wall is flat.

If there is spachtelputz on the ceiling, it can be smoothed as well. The same two routes apply to a ceiling. Plastering a ceiling involves more, however, such as scaffolding for a high ceiling.

What does it cost to smooth spachtelputz with plaster?

Smoothing spachtelputz has no fixed m² price in our price list. A coarse grain needs more material and work than a fine one, a layer that is loose has to come off first, and old paint layers also play a part. A price given from a distance would therefore be a guess.

What is fixed are the rates for the items around it. For comparison they are listed below. The price for smoothing your spachtelputz is in the final quote after the site survey.

Prices exclude VAT. For renovation work on a home over 10 years old, 6% VAT usually applies; otherwise 21%. The VAT rate is stated in the quote.

If the old layer has to come off, removal appears as a separate item on the quote. Removing old plaster has a separate rate for a thin and for a thick layer. External corners often get a corner bead, so that the new corner is straight and sturdy.

Wondering what plastering costs per m² with all the items included? Then also allow for corner beads and a floor protection runner. The prices page lists the rest of our rates.

Can’t you simply paint or wallpaper over spachtelputz?

You can, but then you keep the texture. The biggest misunderstanding is that a new colour or a layer of wallpaper hides the grain. Paint follows the grain exactly. The wall gets a different colour, but stays just as rough and holds dust just as well.

Wallpaper is no different. Wallpaper does not make a wall flat. A coarse grain pushes through the wallpaper and stays visible, especially when light falls at an angle along the wall. For renovation fleece, the wall must first be smooth enough.

If you want to get rid of the grain, the wall has to be made flat first. After that you choose what goes on it: paint directly on the paint-ready layer, or wallpaper after all. The choice between plaster or renovation fleece is made wall by wall.

If your home is not recently built, mention that in the phone consultation. Asbestos may have been used in older homes. If an old textured layer has to be removed, it is good to know that first.

What happens when you have spachtelputz smoothed with plaster?

Having spachtelputz smoothed by Bouwsector België means one of our own plasterers does the work, such as Bram, who has been plastering for us for 7 years. We have 32 on permanent contracts, as part of 97 in-house tradespeople, together with 40 wallpaperers and 25 painters. No subcontractor comes near your walls.

It starts with a free phone consultation. Tell us which rooms are involved, how old the home is and whether the layer is flaking or coming loose anywhere. Within 24 hours you will have a free quote with a price indication.

If you agree, we come round for the site survey: we look at how coarse the grain is, whether the layer is firmly attached everywhere and how many m² are involved. After the site survey and wall inspection you know exactly where you stand.

On that basis the final price is fixed, with the route that suits your wall. On the working day we cover the floor, remove the old layer where necessary, fit corner beads and plaster the wall ready for paint. A plasterer does 100 m² a day on average.

Then the new layer has to dry. According to the plaster manufacturer Knauf, a gypsum plaster can be sufficiently dry after about four weeks under good conditions. Then a primer goes on first and only then the paint. We never skip priming after plastering.

If the wall then has to be painted or wallpapered, we plan that ourselves in the right order, with our own painters and wallpaperers. And besides spachtelputz, you can also have ordinary walls and ceilings plastered with us.

We work throughout Belgium, in Flanders, Brussels and Wallonia. We carry out the site survey at your home anywhere in the country. For a wall with spachtelputz that survey is decisive: only then do we know whether the grain can be plastered over.