Plasterers & decorators — planning application leads | PlanWatch
PlanWatch Demand Radar · for plasterers & decorators

Every extension, loft and conversion has a plastering week — and the register tells you roughly which one.

Plastering sits late in the programme, which is exactly why it is bought late and in a hurry. The application is months of warning: the shell goes up, first fix goes in, and then somebody needs boarding, skimming and decorating, usually at short notice and usually from whoever the builder can get.

14,629 matching applications hit the UK register in the last 30 days — filtered down to just the councils or postcode areas you cover.

Why the register beats every other lead source

You are booked at the last minute, so the diary is never more than a few weeks deep.
Cancellations and slipped programmes leave gaps that nothing fills.
The work goes to whoever the builder can get, not whoever the homeowner would have chosen.

An extension or loft is a week or two of work; a whole-house renovation or a new dwelling is a much larger package, and decorating often follows the same crew.

Exactly what we match for plasterers & decorators

This is the real matching table, not marketing. Every lead row you receive shows its trigger, demand window and confidence — and the reasoning is printed on the row so you can sanity-check every address before it's mailed.

TriggerExample from the registerDemand windowConfidenceWhy it matters to you
Loft conversion / dormerLoft conversion with rear dormer and 3 no. rooflights3 – 6 monthshighthe whole conversion is plastered and decorated once first fix is done
Kitchen extension / open-plan kitchenSingle storey rear extension to form open plan kitchen diner3 – 7 monthshighthe extension is plastered before the kitchen is fitted
Two-storey / first-floor extensionTwo storey side extension and single storey rear extension4 – 8 monthshighevery new room is plastered once it is weathertight and first-fixed
Single-storey extensionHouseholder Planning Application - Single storey rear and side extension3 – 7 monthshighplastering and decorating follow first fix on every extension
Garage conversionGarage conversion to habitable accommodation1 – 4 monthshighthe whole converted shell is insulated, boarded and plastered
New dwelling(s) / self-buildPlanning Application for the erection of a two storey dwelling with garage6 – 12 monthsmediumwhole-house plastering, though a new-build main contractor often has a regular team
Open-plan / knock-through kitchen (no extension named)Internal alterations to form open plan kitchen and living space2 – 5 monthshighthe whole opened-up space is re-plastered
Extension (storeys unspecified)Proposed rear extension and internal alterations3 – 7 monthsmediumevery extension is plastered, though the area is unknown here
Renovation / alterations (catch-all)Refurbishment and alterations to existing dwelling1 – 6 monthsmediuma renovation is re-plastered and redecorated more or less by definition

Plastering lands late in the build: roughly 3–7 months after consent on extensions, 3–6 on lofts, and 6–12 months on new dwellings. Demand windows are measured from the expected decision date. Refused and withdrawn applications are dropped automatically. How the demand windows are built →

See what’s in your patch

Enter a full postcode to search a 5 km business radius, or name the councils or postcode districts you cover. We will run the last 90 days of the public register through the same trigger model your batches use and tell you how much matching demand is sitting in it right now.

Counts only. High and medium confidence matches, deduplicated to one line per application. The site addresses, planning references and per-row reasoning are what a subscription buys.

How it works

1. Pick your patch

The councils or postcode prefixes you cover — a town, a county, or several.

2. We scan the register

Every month we cross live planning applications from 378 UK councils with the trigger model above and score the demand window.

3. You get a mailing list

A deduped, mailing-house-ready CSV of "Owner/Occupier" addresses — one household, one letter, prior recipients suppressed automatically.

Sample leads (anonymised)

TriggerAreaPropertyExpected demand
Loft conversion / dormerCO15A property near CO15 ●●●3 – 6 months
Kitchen extension / open-plan kitchenCO12A property near CO12 ●●●3 – 7 months
Two-storey / first-floor extensionCO13A property near CO13 ●●●4 – 8 months
Single-storey extensionCO16A property near CO16 ●●●3 – 7 months

Real batches show the full site address, planning reference, score and reasoning. Samples are illustrative.

The rules (non-negotiable)

Postal outreach only. Mail only — no email, no SMS, no cold calls. Each letter should cite the planning reference and carry an opt-out address. The data is from the public planning register; we store no applicant names and address letters to "The Owner/Occupier".

Start your subscription

£149/month · plasterers & decorators · your patch

Exclusive cover available: one plastering and decorating subscriber per patch — first come, first served. If your area is already taken, we'll tell you before you pay anything.

Already a subscriber? Open your dashboard →

Straight answers

Isn't this too early to be useful?
It is early on purpose, and the row tells you how early. Every line carries the month range we expect the work to fall in, so you can mail now for a job in five months or hold the address until the window opens. Being early is the only way to be the name the homeowner already has when the builder asks who is doing the plastering.

Where does the data come from?
Published planning applications from the UK planning register — planning.data.gov.uk plus direct council sources, covering 378 local authorities. That register is public information. What you pay for is the trade-trigger matching, the demand-window timing, the deduplication and the suppression, not the raw fact of the applications.

How far back does the first list go?
There is no fixed cut-off date. We look back across the register and keep only the applications whose buying window for your trade is still upcoming, open or closing. In practice that means most of a first list is the last six months of live projects, plus a tail of larger builds from further back that are only now reaching your stage. Anything finished or already past its window is dropped, and each household appears once and is never sent to you twice — as is anything refused or withdrawn, unless your trade is architects and planning consultants, where a stalled application is the whole point. Whether that first list comes out bigger or smaller than the 90-day figure on the patch checker depends on how long your trade's buying window is, and it goes both ways. A long-window trade — glazing, kitchens, flooring — gets a much bigger first list, because consents from six or twelve months back are only now reaching its stage. A fast-window trade like skip hire or demolition gets a smaller one, because a nought-to-three-month window has already closed on a good share of what the checker counted. Either way later months are smaller than the first: they carry new applications only.

Why postal outreach only? Can I get phone numbers?
No, and that is deliberate. The register is published for planning transparency, not to build a calling list. We store no applicant names, so there is nothing to phone: letters are addressed to "The Owner/Occupier" at the property. Mail only — no email, no SMS, no cold calls — and every letter should cite the planning reference and carry an opt-out address. Firms that want a dialler list are not a fit for this product.

How does exclusivity work?
One subscriber per trade, per patch. The check runs before you pay: if another firm in your trade already holds those councils or postcode areas, we tell you at signup and take no money. Exclusivity is scoped to your trade only — a roofer and a window company can both hold the same town without clashing.

Can I cancel?
Yes. Billing is monthly and you can cancel at any time; cover runs to the end of the month you have paid for, then the patch is released for someone else. There is no minimum term and no contract to exit.

What happens when I sign up today?
You go straight to secure checkout, and your first list is generated within 24 hours of activation rather than a month later. That first list is not a snapshot of the last few weeks: it carries every live application in your patch whose buying window for your trade is still upcoming, open or closing, which in practice is most of the last six months plus some larger builds from further back that are only now reaching your stage. Finished jobs are dropped and each address appears once. Refused and withdrawn applications are dropped too for every building trade — with one deliberate exception: on the architects and planning consultants list they ARE the list, because a refusal is the moment a household discovers it needs drawings. After that a fresh list arrives every month covering new applications only, so it will be smaller than the first. If your patch turns out to be thinner than you expected in that first month, tell us and we will sort it out.

How to actually work these leads

A list is not a pipeline. What to send, when to send it, how many times to follow up and the compliance line we hold: how to turn planning applications into jobs →

PlanWatch Demand Radar · leads sourced from the public UK planning register · postal outreach only. All trades · The guide