Best plasterers in Rockingham, Baldivis & Kwinana
Table of Contents
The Rockingham corridor has two housing stocks and they break in different ways. Medina, Calista and Kwinana carry 1950s state-built homes with hard plaster and cornices that no longer match anything on a supplier’s shelf; Baldivis, Wellard and Secret Harbour are newer estates where the plasterboard is fine but the ceilings were fixed fast. We assessed 16 businesses across this corridor and the Peel searches beyond it, read 232 Google reviews, and found five plasterers with a verified local base and a record worth ranking.
Featured plasterers
Run a plastering or ceiling business between Kwinana and Secret Harbour? A Featured spot puts your business at the top of this page and in front of homeowners already searching for the work you do — no lead fees, no bidding against five other trades for the same job.
Get a Featured spot ▸WA Wall Alterations & Plastering Services
Seventy-five reviews and a perfect five is a rare combination in any trade, and in plastering it is the strongest record we have found south of Perth. WA Wall Alterations works from Arpenteur Drive in Baldivis and does something most plasterers on these searches do not: it takes on the plastering that follows structural work. The review themes are wall removal, cornice installation, fair quoting and, in several cases, building a new wall rather than patching an old one — the sort of job where the plastering is the visible half of a bigger renovation and where a bad finish shows up in every photo afterwards. Customers describe a tradesperson who accommodates last-minute changes, quotes at a price they consider reasonable and works to a high standard when the scope moves mid-job. That is worth paying attention to, because scope creep is exactly where plastering complaints come from. The listing is claimed, the photos are recent, and the business has a working website at wawallalterations.com.au.
Find plasterers in the directory ▸WA Ceiling Repairs
WA Ceiling Repairs is filed by Google as a “ceiling supplier” and is nothing of the sort — it is a ceiling contractor based on Baldivis Road, and the miscategorisation is so common in this trade that we now check the place page before cutting anyone for it. Ten reviews, all five stars, and the themes are the practical ones: ceiling repair, wall patching, tidiness and easy communication. One customer had Jeremy and his team remove and reinstall ceilings across a house and singled out that there was no mess left behind; another described a same-week quote and repair where the damage is no longer visible. The owner posts about the work in plain language, covering cracks, holes, water damage and sagging, which is a better guide to what a business actually does than any category label. Ten reviews is a modest record next to the listing above it, and we have ranked it accordingly rather than promoting a perfect score on thin volume.
Find plasterers in the directory ▸Apex Ceilings
Apex Ceilings runs from Luminous Loop in Wellard, holds 5.0 across five reviews and has a live site at apexceilings.com.au. Five reviews is a small record and we are not going to dress it up as anything else — it clears our floor, it does not carry the weight of the two listings above it, and that is why it sits third. What makes it worth including is how consistent the five are: customers name Aaron, and every review lands on the same two things, clear explanations before the work starts and craftsmanship at the end. Two of the five specifically cover renovation ceilings rather than one-off patch jobs, which suggests he is being kept on site for the length of a project rather than called in for an hour. For a homeowner in Wellard, Bertram or Baldivis wanting someone who will walk them through the job before quoting it, this is a reasonable first call — just ask for photos of recent work, as you should with any young listing.
Find plasterers in the directory ▸Render Plaster Repair
Render Plaster Repair works out of Ougden Way in Medina and is listed under “building restoration service” rather than plasterer, which in this case is closer to accurate than most category labels in this trade. The focus is external and remedial: render repair and restoration on older brick homes, of which Medina, Calista and Orelia have a great many. Reviewers name Brian and describe professionalism from quoting through to completion, with workmanship and communication as the recurring themes. One caveat we will state plainly rather than bury: a good part of this record is old, including a five-star review that is five years back, so the eight reviews do not all describe recent work. Judge it on the portfolio and on a current quote rather than on the star count alone. If your problem is cracked or blown external render rather than a ceiling, this is the only operator with a verified base in the corridor who specialises in it.
Find plasterers in the directory ▸Adams Ceilings Walls
Adams Ceilings Walls is based on Safety Bay Road, identifies on its listing as women-owned, and posts its own jobs — a recent one covering drywall lining to walls in Warnbro. Twelve reviews at 4.7 make it the second-largest record on this page, and the themes are workmanship, friendly staff and efficiency, with three reviews naming ceiling repair specifically. It also carries the one clearly negative review among the five businesses ranked here, from a customer who says they would not recommend the business. We are not hiding it: a 4.7 average across twelve reviews means most customers were happy and at least one was not, and you should read that review yourself before you book. The reason the listing still ranks is that it is a claimed, addressed, actively posting local business with a website at adamsceilingswalls.com.au — and in a corridor where most search results are booking-line brands, that combination is scarcer than a perfect score.
Find plasterers in the directory ▸Who else we assessed, and why they are not ranked
Sixteen businesses surfaced across the Rockingham, Baldivis, Kwinana and Peel searches. Eleven are not on this page, and the reasons matter more than the names, because they are the same filters you should apply to any plasterer search result down here.
- The Master Plasterers (Kwinana, Lakelands, Mandurah and two listings with no street address at all) — one brand, one website and one booking line behind separate suburb listings, and it appears in every search from Kwinana to Mandurah. We count a brand once, and only where the listing carries a verifiable street address. It is not a judgement on the work; it is that “your local Kwinana plasterer” and “your local Mandurah plasterer” turning out to be the same phone number is not local at all.
- Ceiling Repair Co., 5.0 from 54 reviews, Falcon and T.M.Ceilings (Terry Johnson), 5.0 from 11 reviews, Meadow Springs — both strong, both genuinely local, and both based in the Mandurah and Peel corridor rather than this one. Pulling them onto a Rockingham page to make the list look deeper would be padding. They will be assessed on their own page.
- Peel Ceilings, 5.0 from 2 reviews and The Plaster Wall Doctor Mandurah, 5.0 from 2 reviews (both Nolan Lane, Mandurah) and Sweeney & Son’s Ceiling Experts, 5.0 from 1 review — below our review floor as well as outside the corridor. Two reviews is a start, not a track record.
- Listings with no street address — several plastering brands rank on Rockingham searches while publishing only a service area. If a business will not say where it is based, we cannot confirm it is local to you, and a call-out from forty minutes away is a different service to one from the next suburb.
What plastering actually costs in Perth (2026)
These are indicative Perth-metro ranges collected from published trade pricing rather than quotes, and the spread is wide because access, ceiling height, whether the room has to be cleared and whether the old material is asbestos-era all move the number before any work starts. Two cost drivers are specific to this corridor. Older Medina, Calista, Orelia and Hillman homes were built in the 1950s and 60s, and hard plaster and non-standard cornice profiles take longer to cut back and match than modern plasterboard. And on the coast, from Safety Bay through Secret Harbour, external render takes a harder beating than it does inland, so remedial render work is a bigger share of the trade here than it is in the eastern suburbs.
| Job | Typical range | What drives the price |
|---|---|---|
| Plasterer labour | $52–$125/hr | Experience, job size, whether it is a call-out or a full day |
| Plasterboard supplied and fixed | $26–$68/m² | Sheet thickness, access, height, wet-area or fire-rated board |
| Ceiling replacement | $37–$89/m² | Roof space access, insulation, removal and disposal of the old |
| Cornice | $16–$63/lm | Profile, height, whether it is being matched to existing |
| Board supply only | +$8–$18/m² | Added when you buy materials separately from the labour |
Ceilings generally run twenty to thirty per cent above walls for the same area, because everything is done overhead and off a trestle. Expect a call-out minimum on small jobs: a plasterer who drives from Baldivis to Medina for a single patch has spent an hour on the road before touching a trowel, which is a large part of why local matters financially as well as practically.
Do plasterers need a licence in WA? (the honest answer)
No. We checked this against the regulator rather than repeating what other sites say. Western Australia’s Building and Energy division registers and licenses builders, building surveyors, building engineers, electrical and gasfitting workers, owner-builders, painters and plumbers. Plasterers are not on that list. There is no plastering registration in this state, and no exam, minimum experience or insurance requirement attached to calling yourself one.
The contrast is worth sitting with: under the Home Building Contracts Act 1991 a painter needs registration to do work valued at $1,000 or more, while a plasterer rendering the entire facade of your house needs none. The protection sits in the contract rather than in a licence, so the contract is where you have to look.
For fixed-price residential work between $7,500 and $500,000, the contract must be in writing and signed by both parties, and you must be given the “Notice for the homeowner” before you sign. That applies whether or not the tradesperson is a registered builder. The deposit is capped at 6.5 per cent of the contract price in that band, and progress payments can only be claimed for work actually done or materials actually delivered to site.
Work that needs a building permit and is valued over $20,000 requires home indemnity insurance, covering loss of deposit up to $40,000 and incomplete or defective work up to $200,000. Complaints go to Building and Energy within three years of the contract date, on 1300 489 099.
In practice, for the sort of jobs on this page, that means:
- Anyone can legally call themselves a plasterer in WA — so the review record, the street address and the referral are doing the work a licence would do in another trade.
- Get it in writing even under $7,500 — scope, price, and what happens if the ceiling or wall opens up worse than expected.
- Never pay a deposit above 6.5 per cent on a contract in the $7,500–$500,000 band, and never pay for materials not yet delivered.
- Check public liability cover before work starts — ask for the certificate of currency, not a verbal assurance.
- Keep the paperwork for three years — that is the complaint window with Building and Energy.
Don’t get ripped off: red flags
- A quote with no square metre rate — a lump sum with no measurement behind it cannot be compared to another quote, or argued with when the job grows.
- A “local” business that will not name a suburb — particularly common on Rockingham and Kwinana searches, where several of the top results are booking lines for brands based elsewhere.
- Cash-only, deposit up front, starting tomorrow — urgency plus an untraceable payment is the oldest pattern in this trade, and it spikes after every winter storm.
- A patch quoted without mentioning paint — a repair that is perfect in texture will still show as a colour difference. Any plasterer who has done this work raises it before you do.
- Sagging blamed on the ceiling alone — if water caused it, something above is leaking, and plastering over that is money burnt twice.
- No mention of dust control or clean-up — ceiling work coats a house in fine dust, and whether the quote covers protection and clean-up is often the whole difference between two identical prices.
Before you hire: quick checklist
- Ask where they are based — a suburb and a street, not a service area.
- Ask what caused the damage — a plasterer who diagnoses before quoting saves you the second job.
- Get the rate and the measurement — square metres for walls and ceilings, lineal metres for cornice.
- For an older Kwinana or Medina home, ask about matching — hard plaster and period cornice profiles are a different job to patching modern board.
- Confirm dust protection, rubbish removal and clean-up in writing — particularly for a full ceiling replacement.
- Ask for two recent local jobs — every operator on this page works within a few suburbs of you.
Frequently asked
How much does a ceiling repair cost in Rockingham or Baldivis?
A small patch — a leak stain, an impact hole, a hole cut for old wiring — is usually a half-day job priced against the hourly range of roughly $52 to $125, so most land in the low hundreds before painting. A full ceiling replacement is measured instead, at roughly $37 to $89 per square metre, which puts an average bedroom ceiling somewhere between the high hundreds and low thousands depending on access, insulation and disposal of the old material. Expect a call-out minimum on very small jobs, and expect an older Medina or Calista home to cost more than the same area in a newer Baldivis build, because hard plaster and period cornice take longer to cut back and match.
Why does external render crack near the coast?
Render moves with the building and with the weather, and near the coast it gets more of both: wind-driven rain, salt-laden air and bigger day-to-night temperature swings than a house ten kilometres inland. Hairline crazing across a render face is usually cosmetic and can be repaired and recoated. Cracks that run in a line, follow a mortar joint, or open and close with the seasons are telling you something is moving behind the render, and patching them without finding the cause buys a season at best. A render specialist should be looking at what is behind the crack before quoting to fill it.
Is a sagging ceiling dangerous, or can it wait?
Treat it as urgent. A ceiling sheet that has separated from its fixings holds its own weight plus whatever insulation and dust sits on top, and it lets go without warning, usually at the wettest point. Keep people out of the room, do not poke at it to test it, and get it looked at within days rather than weeks. Several operators on this page do make-safe work, which means propping or removing the unsafe section immediately and doing the proper repair once the cause has been fixed.
What is the difference between a plasterer, a ceiling fixer and a renderer?
They overlap, and in WA nothing stops one business calling itself all three. Broadly: a ceiling fixer installs and repairs plasterboard ceilings and cornice; a solid plasterer works in cement and lime render, float and set, and the hard-wall systems on older brick homes; a renderer applies external coatings including acrylic and texture systems. This corridor has all three — ceiling specialists like WA Ceiling Repairs and Apex, a wall-and-alterations business in WA Wall Alterations, and a render specialist in Render Plaster Repair. Ask which one a business actually does before you book, because the tools and the skill are genuinely different.
How long does a ceiling replacement take?
A single room is usually one to two days of work, plus drying time between coats of compound, plus painting afterwards. The sequence matters more than the total: strip out and make safe, check and repair the fixings and any insulation, sheet, set and sand, then paint. A plasterer who promises strip-out and finished paint in a single day is either quoting a very small room or is planning to skip drying time, which is what causes joints to show up as ridges a month later. Ask for the sequence in the quote, not just a number of days.
How were these rankings put together?
We searched the Rockingham, Baldivis, Kwinana and Peel area for plasterers and ceiling contractors, assessed 16 businesses and read 232 Google reviews. Each business is scored with a weighted formula balancing rating against volume, so a 5.0 from five reviews cannot outrank a 5.0 from seventy-five. To be ranked, a business needs at least a 4.3 rating, a meaningful number of reviews, and a verifiable street address in this corridor confirmed from the map coordinates rather than the business name. Suppliers, multi-suburb booking networks, wrong-trade listings and businesses that publish only a service area are excluded, and every exclusion is listed above rather than quietly dropped. We take no payment for a ranked position; Featured placement is sold separately and is always labelled.
Run a plastering business in Rockingham, Baldivis or Kwinana?
List your business free in the directory, or take a Featured spot at the top of this page.
Get featured ▸Claim your free listingRankings based on Google review data collected 30 August 2026. Ratings change, we re-check monthly. Blue Collar Business · Western Australia’s Trades & Home Services Directory.