Rates and Terms What a wall costs, before you write to us
Every figure on this page is fixed in writing after we have stood in front of your wall with a mallet and a lamp. The survey costs €180 within 40 km of Siena and is credited in full if you go ahead. The quote that follows names one rate per square metre or per day, the number of days, the phases and what each phase is paid on, and it does not move once you have signed it. What follows is what most walls cost, so you can judge whether the work fits the house before you write.
What the Work Costs
Three cards, laid out the way our written quotes are. Every range narrows to a single figure once the survey has measured how far out of true the wall is and how much of it is hollow.
Plaster and Lime Wash
| Work | Rate |
|---|---|
| New three-coat lime plaster on old stone or brick A thrown first coat, the rough arriccio and the fine intonaco, all from putty aged in our own pits. The lower figure is for a wall that stands true; the higher for one that leans, bellies or has been patched a dozen times. | €72-98per m² |
| Patch repair of historic plaster For old plaster that is sound in most places and hollow in a few. Lime and sand are included in the day rate, and we cut out only what has failed. | €420per conservator-day |
| Lime wash in natural earth pigments Two coats, brushed on in the cool of the morning. Ochres, siennas and umbers, mixed to match what the survey finds under the old paint. | €24-32per m² |
| The smallest job we take Two conservator-days, so a single cracked lintel or one damp corner still gets the same order of work as a whole house. | €840minimum |
Fresco
| Work | Rate |
|---|---|
| Fresco cleaning and consolidation Poultices and soft brushes to lift grime, salts and old varnish, and lime grout injected behind plaster that has come away from the wall. The figure turns on how much is lifting and how fragile the paint is, and it is fixed in writing after the survey. | €700-1,600per m² |
| Tratteggio infill of losses Fine vertical hatching in watercolour over new lime: it closes the gap from the back of the chapel and reads as a mend from arm's length. Charged for the hours actually spent at the wall. | €55per hour |
| Plain plaster around the painting The unpainted plaster that frames a fresco is repaired at the ordinary plaster day rate, lime and sand included. | €420per conservator-day |
| Repainting lost faces or figures Where a face has gone we infill in tratteggio or leave the loss honest. We do not invent what nobody can see any more, at any price. | Not offeredever |
Survey and Travel
| Item | Rate |
|---|---|
| Site survey and written condition report A morning at the wall: knuckles and a small mallet for hollows, a map of the salts, a lamp held low, and photographs. Within 40 km of Siena, and credited in full against the job if you go ahead. | €180credited |
| Travel beyond 40 km Counted from the bottega on the south side of Siena, out and back, up to our limit of 120 km. | €0.55per km |
| Overnight stays When a site is too far to drive to each morning, rooms are charged at exactly what they cost us, receipts attached. | At costreceipted |
| Papers for a listed wall The condition report, drawings and photographs usually asked for. The owner makes the application; we supply what goes inside it. | Includedwith the survey |
How Payment Runs
A deposit holds your weeks, each phase is paid as it is finished, and the last tenth waits until the new plaster has proved itself.
30%
A deposit when you sign the quote. It holds your weeks in the calendar and starts the lime for your walls coming up out of the pit.
By phase
Staged payments at the end of each phase named in the quote: stripping, rough coat, finish, wash. You pay for what you can see is done.
10%
The final tenth follows the curing check, when we come back two weeks after the last day to tap the new plaster and look for cracks.
€840
Two conservator-days at €420. Below that, the drive and the mixing take more of the day than the wall does.
€0.55
Per km beyond 40 km from Siena, as far as 120 km. Overnight stays are charged at cost.
14-20
From signed quote to the first day on site, as the calendar stands now. Surveys are usually booked within 3 weeks of your first message.
Permissions
If a wall is listed, the owner applies for whatever permission it needs. We supply the condition report, the drawings and the photographs usually asked for, and we do not lift a trowel until the paper is in your hand.
The curing week
Interior plaster is misted every day for seven days after it is laid. That week you keep the windows open or shut as we ask, because lime hardens by drawing carbon back out of the air and cracks if it dries too fast.
We do not take jobs that need the week skipped, however close the christening or the sale.
The quote itself
Every range on this page becomes one figure in the written quote. It lists the phases, the days and the payment at the end of each, and the total does not change unless you ask us to do more wall than it names.
The Year on One Line
Lime keeps to the weather, and scaffolding in Siena keeps to the city's own calendar. Here is a whole year as the crews live it.
- Crews on site
- Bottega closed
- No scaffolding moved inside the city walls
Slide the strip sideways to read the whole year.
Why Some Weeks Stay Empty
Lime is slow and it is honest, and it will not be hurried by a deadline, a frost or a horse race.
Cold
Lime hardens by taking carbon back out of the air, and water that freezes inside a fresh coat splits it from the wall. So exterior work runs from April to October only, never below 5°C and never with a frost in the forecast. A day lost to cold moves to the next safe one.
Heat
From June to August the crews are up the tower at 7:30 and down by 16:30, before the afternoon dries a coat faster than it can cure. Inside, every new wall is misted daily for a week, whatever the month.
The Palio
Twice a summer the centre of Siena fills for the races. In the four days before 2 July and 16 August no scaffold goes up or comes down inside the city walls, so a town house job is planned around those dates from the first quote.
Christmas
The bottega closes from 23 December to 7 January. Messages written then are read in the first week back, in the order they arrived.