Skimming plasterboard walls

[RunMeOver]

I'm renovating a room in my house to make it my bedroom, and the walls are pretty bad with holes, scrapes and tears where previous pictures, shelves etc. have been erected then taken down. I've started attending to them with polyfiller but I've got a feeling the end result is not going to be fantastic.

I'm wondering about getting a plasterer in to do a skim coat over the whole lot to give me a nice new, smooth surface to paint on. Can you do this over plasterboard (the current surface is the paper that you have on the outside of plasterboard panels)? And how big a job would it be for a professional, ie what ballpark area of cost would I be looking at?

It's an average-size double bedroom.

Yes you can do this on plasterboard. Is there any wallpaper or it’s just the plasterboard? If no prep involved, we had a 3m x 4m bedroom skimmed a couple of years back for £550. London. This was for the 4 walls and the ceiling so if you just need the walls I’d say £350-£400 ish depending on area of the country.

Thanks. No, no wallpaper. Don't need the ceiling done and I'm in a cheaper area than London so that sounds promising.

Word of warning over going with the cheapest for plastering. It’s an art and takes years to perfect - I’ve skimmed a few walls myself since and although I can put up with some imperfections as it’s my house, anyone else would be wanting a refund for sure. Make sure you get someone reputable either through word of mouth or something like check a trade.