The cost of removing gotelé starts with measuring properly
You were looking for a figure per square metre, and you will not find one here: a figure given without seeing the wall is a guess. What you will find is where the price comes from, starting with the square metres, which are hardly ever what people think, and how to compare two quotes without being sold a pup.
What moves the price most is what your gotelé is made of. Find out with a damp sponge before you ask anyone for anything.
Your 90 m² flat does not have 90 m² of wall
The square metres in a property listing or on the deeds are floor area, and gotelé is not on the floor. It is on the walls and ceilings, and those add up to a good deal more.
An example in round numbers: a bedroom measuring 4 by 3 metres, 2.5 metres high, has 12 m² of floor. Its four walls add up to 35 m², minus whatever the door and the window take up, and the ceiling another 12. Before deducting openings, that is close to four times the floor area, in a single room.
And every partition wall counts on both sides: with the same floor area, a flat with lots of rooms has more wall than an open-plan one. Measure yours here alongside. The result is the number that should appear on any serious quote.
Enter the length and width of a room, and its height, to see how many square metres of wall and ceiling it has.
What moves the price of each metre
Once the square metres are measured, the price of each one comes down to four things. None of them can be known over the phone, and all four show up in a couple of good photos.
What it is made ofDistemper or plastic: two different jobs
Distemper softens with water and comes off with a scraper. Plastic gotelé will not budge: it has to be machine-sanded or covered with filler without removing it. They are procedures with different tools, timings and debris, and it is the first difference that shows in the price per metre. Wetting a corner with a sponge is enough to tell which one you have.
The reliefSame area, different texture, different quote
A fine texture is covered by the usual coats of filler. A high, peaked one needs extra work, whether an additional coat or knocking the relief back first, and each option adds hours and drying time. So a metre of coarse gotelé does not cost the same as a metre of fine gotelé, even if the room measures the same.
What turns up underneathThe only part nobody sees before starting
Once the wall is bare, the cracks, badly cured patches and wall-plug holes that the gotelé was hiding come out. Nobody can know how many there are before scraping, so a serious quote does not guess: either it includes them on a clear basis, or it says how each repair will be charged if it turns up.
Ceilings, heights and finishing detailsWhat turns an easy metre into a hard one
Working overhead is slower, and a stairwell or a double-height space needs equipment to reach the top. Where the wall meets frames, corners and skirting boards counts too: for every metre of wall, a small room has a good deal more edge work than an open-plan living room.
That is why a serious price is given with photos in front of you, and in writing. A figure given by word of mouth commits nobody to anything, and it is no use for comparing either.
What to bear in mind before comparing quotes
It should state the square metres
Of wall and of ceiling, separately. If a quote talks about “a 90 m² flat”, it is measuring the floor, and the floor does not get skimmed. With the square metres in writing you can check them yourself with the calculator, and compare two offers in the same unit.
It should state the method and the coats
Whether it is scraped, sanded or skimmed over; how many coats of filler; whether it includes primer; how many coats of paint. These are the items you cannot see once the wall is finished, and that is why they are the first to disappear from a tight offer.
It should say what happens if something turns up
How the cracks or patches that appear when scraping are charged, whether protecting the furniture and floors and the final clean are included, and whether the price includes IVA (Spanish VAT) or not. Whatever is not in writing gets argued about later, and by then there is nothing left to compare against.
What happens when one of those items gets cut is covered in what the job involves from the inside, and why the texture of your gotelé changes the number of coats of filler, in the types of gotelé.
Common questions about the cost of gotelé removal
Can you not just give me a price per metre over the phone?
Can you not just give me a price per metre over the phone?
Because it would rest on three assumptions: the real square metres, what the gotelé is made of and the state of the wall. A figure given like that gets adjusted later, and hardly ever downwards. With two photos and the measurements we can give a fixed price in writing, which is the only kind that is any use for making a decision.
How many square metres of wall does a 90 m² flat have?
How many square metres of wall does a 90 m² flat have?
There is no one answer for everyone: it depends on how many rooms it has, their shape and the ceiling height. With the same floor area, a flat with lots of small rooms has more wall than one with a few large ones, because every partition wall counts on both sides. The calculator on this page works it out room by room; with a tape measure and the floor plan in front of you, it takes a little while.
Does the price include painting?
Does the price include painting?
Only if it says so. Removing the gotelé and leaving the wall ready to paint is one job; leaving it painted is another, with the primer and the coats of colour as separate items. When you look for a price to “remove gotelé and paint”, check that both are written into the same quote.
Is skimming over it cheaper than removing it?
Is skimming over it cheaper than removing it?
You save the scraping and a good part of the debris, but it is not something you choose on price. It only works if the gotelé is well bonded and has a low relief; over hollow or high-peaked gotelé, the filler ends up showing the texture and the job has to be done again, which is the most expensive way of saving money.
How can one quote be double another for the same flat?
How can one quote be double another for the same flat?
Almost always because they are not quoting for the same thing. One counts floor area and the other wall area; one allows two coats of filler and the other one; one includes the primer and the other does not mention it. Put them side by side, line by line: what the cheap one is missing is exactly where it saves.
Send us the square metres and two photos
The square metres the calculator gave you, a close-up photo of the gotelé with the light coming from the side and another of the whole room. With that we can tell what it is made of, what texture it has and which method it needs, and the price we give you is fixed and in writing.