Marble-deep, marble-cool, without the weight or the joins. Our team lays and burnishes Italian polished plaster finishes on feature walls, hallways, media surrounds and bathrooms — a finish photographers actually ask to shoot.
A plain-English overview of what the DAB team delivers, who it's for and when it matters. No marketing filler.
Venetian plaster is a family of lime-based, hand-applied decorative finishes — Marmorino, Stucco Veneziano, Spatolato and Tadelakt — that create the look of polished marble, travertine or aged plaster in a coat only millimetres thick. Every wall is layered, ragged, spread and burnished by hand.
Homeowners wanting one hero wall, interior designers specifying luxury bathrooms and media walls, and boutique commercial spaces — bars, salons, showrooms — that need a durable, wipeable, high-end wall finish without cladding weight or tile grout lines.
When paint, wallpaper and tile don't deliver the depth you want; when a curved wall needs a joint-free finish; when the room's lighting is designed to catch a surface — polished plaster is the natural answer.
Venetian plaster is the most technique-dependent finish we lay. The number of coats, the trowel angle, the timing of the burnish, and the wax or soap-sealer choice all decide whether the wall looks like a museum feature or a smudged mess. This is not a finish to trust to a generalist plasterer.
The specific ways this job goes bad when it's ignored, DIY'd, or handed to the cheapest quote in the WhatsApp group.
Applied over the wrong primer or burnished at the wrong set, polished plaster looks patchy and flat — none of the depth people are paying for.
On unsuitable substrates (soft skims, chipboard, unprepared MDF) the finish shears and lifts within months. Prep is 80% of the job.
Standard Venetian in a shower without a proper Tadelakt build-up or a lime-wax seal will bloom, stain and eventually delaminate. Wet zones need a specific spec — not just a top-coat swap.
The market price for Venetian plaster runs from £70/m² to £250/m² depending on system and coats. Cheap quotes almost always mean a two-coat 'effect' rather than a real four-to-seven-coat Italian system.
The exact system our team runs on every job — from your first message to the certificate in your handover pack.
We meet you on site, agree the room, the wall and the mood — soft matte marble, high-gloss stucco, aged Marmorino — and produce a physical A4 sample board so you approve the exact colour and finish before we mix a drop of material.
Existing walls are re-skimmed flat, primed with a fine quartz-loaded base coat (Sottofondo) tinted close to the topcoat. On new plasterboard, joints are taped and skimmed first — Venetian must go over a truly flat, low-suction background.
Two or three thin coats of the tinted base plaster are laid on with a stainless steel trowel, allowed to set, and lightly sanded between coats to remove trowel edges.
One or two ultra-fine top coats are pressed onto the wall at the exact right set, then burnished with a clean, warm trowel until the surface polishes to the specified sheen — matte, satin or full mirror-gloss.
Depending on system: soap-finish (Sapone) for a natural silk sheen, or a beeswax rub-in for a mirror finish, or a lime-wax seal for wet areas. Photographs taken, care card left with the client, and the finish is ready to live with.
What you actually get when you hire us for this job — measurable, provable, and reflected in every one of our verified reviews.
Because the wall is truly polished lime, light travels into the layers before it reflects — an effect wallpaper and paint cannot fake.
No tile lines, no wallpaper seams, no panel joints. Ideal for curved walls, alcoves and inglenooks.
Sealed Marmorino resists water splashes, scuffs and household cleaners; a repolish restores the sheen decades later.
Lime plaster has a high pH that inhibits mould and bacteria — a genuine advantage in kitchens and bathrooms.
Any RAL, NCS or bespoke pigment reference can be tinted into the material — no dye-lot mismatch on repair patches.
£10M public liability, dust-sheeted site, and finish quotes fixed in writing before we start.
The specification-level answers the internet usually skips.
We work primarily with San Marco and Novacolor systems — Marcopolo (classic Marmorino), Stucco Veneziano (mirror-polished), Marmorino Classico (matte-satin travertine look), Concret Art (industrial concrete effect), and Wall2Floor when the finish continues onto microcement floors. Wet-zone work uses a true Tadelakt build with olive-oil soap seal.
Matte (Sapone-finished Marmorino) — reads like honed marble, low reflection, most forgiving in daylight. Satin — light burnish, subtle depth, ideal for feature walls under wall-washer lighting. High-gloss Stucco Veneziano — full mirror finish, dramatic under directional light and the traditional Italian ballroom look.
Hallway feature walls, media walls behind wall-mounted TVs, en-suite shower walls (Tadelakt build), kitchen splashbacks, hotel and restaurant reception walls, and curved feature walls where tile or panelling would show joints.
Not on flexible substrates that move (thin ply, poorly fixed MDF, unbraced stud). Not below DPC without a specialist damp-management build-up. Not directly over silk or vinyl paint — we always base-coat first.
Residential jobs are typically one to three walls, priced per m² inclusive of prep. Commercial jobs (bars, salons, hotels) are programmed against a fit-out schedule, often after hours to avoid trading disruption, and specified to withstand higher wear — usually a wax or matt PU seal on top of the standard lime finish.
The questions we're asked at almost every survey. Not on the list? Call 07834 974462 — the DAB team is happy to talk it through.
In Surrey, a full Italian Venetian or Marmorino system installed over prepared walls typically runs £120–£220 per m². The exact number depends on the system, sheen level and substrate condition — fixed on a written quote after we survey.
A typical feature wall of 6–12m² takes 2–3 days on site once the wall is prepared: base coats one day, top coats and burnish the next, sealer the third. Wet-zone Tadelakt is longer because each coat is soap-sealed.
Yes, when specified correctly. We use a true Tadelakt build (lime plaster with an olive-oil soap seal) for wet zones — the same system used in Moroccan hammams for centuries. Standard Venetian is not suitable inside a shower.
Effectively yes — the base is white lime plaster tinted with mineral pigments before laying. We can match RAL, NCS, Farrow & Ball or a physical sample. Bespoke colours are agreed off a physical A4 sample board before work starts.
Dust with a soft cloth. Marks come off with a damp microfibre and mild soap — no bleach. Every 10–15 years a light re-burnish and re-wax restores the original sheen. We provide a care card at handover.
That's what the sample stage is for — we don't order material until you sign off the A4 sample. If tastes change during base coats, we adjust the burnish sheen or top-coat pigment before it's too late.
Yes. Venetian is one of our most-requested specialist finishes across the wider Surrey market — Kingston, Weybridge, Windsor, Sunbury and central Surrey villages are all standard call-outs.
Get plastering done once and done right. Our Staines-upon-Thames-based team hangs, scrims, floats and skims to a polished, paint-ready finish — spotless site, fixed price, and we come back if anything ever moves.
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Free on-site survey. Fixed written quote in 2–3 working days. No pressure, no hidden costs, no unknown extras. The DAB team replies personally.
07834 974462