What a gypsum partition wall costs in Malta

Splitting a bedroom in two, closing off a corner of an open-plan flat, boxing in a walk-in wardrobe — these are the most common jobs people ask about, and they are the hardest to find a price for. No Maltese contractor publishes an installed rate for a stud partition. Our own rate card is explicit about it: the line Stud partition wall has no price band at all. It lists the component prices and then says labour is quoted on site, and it records that no Maltese contractor publishes an installed gypsum rate as at 2026-09-21.

What can be priced exactly is the material bill. Maltese retailers list their stock openly, so you can build the cost of the wall up from parts and know what the merchant's share of your quotation looks like.

The parts, at Maltese retail

These are the prices listed by Kenneth Hardware Stores, read on 2026-10-05.

A second Maltese retailer, Gypsum Works Malta, lists studs in 3 m lengths at EUR 2.89-5.33 and tracks in 3 m lengths at EUR 2.46-4.53, standard board at EUR 6.82-11.00 per sheet, rockwool sheets of 1.2 x 0.6 m at EUR 4.40-11.03, sliding door kits at EUR 115.50-181.72 and self-drilling screws at EUR 10.89-14.85 per 1,000. The board price there is not much use for comparison because the listing gives no sheet size.

The 1.2 x 3 m sheet matters more than it looks. A 3 m sheet stood vertically reaches the full height of a typical Maltese room in one piece, so there is no horizontal joint across the middle of the wall to tape, fill and sand. That is why the worked example below is a 3 m wall: it is the height the material comes in, and it is the height the public tender measures to.

A worked example: 4 m long, 3 m high

Single layer of board each face, 50 mm studs at 600 mm centres.

• Studs. Seven bays across 4 m means eight studs: 8 x EUR 4.25 = EUR 34.00
• Track. Head and base, 8 m in total, so three lengths: 3 x EUR 3.39 = EUR 10.17
• Board. Four sheets a face, eight in all: 8 x EUR 15.78 = EUR 126.24
• Screws. One box of 25 mm: EUR 10.00
• Tape. Two rolls: 2 x EUR 1.75 = EUR 3.50

Materials: EUR 183.91. That is 12 m2 of wall face, so roughly EUR 15.33 per m2 of one face, or about EUR 45.98 per linear metre of wall. Add two 3 m angle beads at EUR 2.67 each — EUR 5.34 — if there is a door reveal or an external corner, taking it to EUR 189.25.

A box of 1,000 screws is far more than one wall needs; it is a box price, not a per-wall price, and the surplus carries over to the next job.

What the tender version costs

The 2015 bill of quantities for gypsum partitioning at the Malta Life Sciences Park describes the heavier build: a 100 mm partition on 50 mm metal studs, both faces finished with two layers of 12.5 mm board, joints taped, polythene acoustic sealant, and a skim coat. The arithmetic is tidy — 50 mm of stud plus four layers of 12.5 mm board gives the 100 mm overall thickness. It is measured per linear metre up to 3,000 mm high, which is where the 3 m assumption above comes from, and rockwool to a 50 dB rating is priced separately as an extra-over per square metre.

Doubling the board on the same 4 m wall takes it to 16 sheets, EUR 252.48, and you need the longer 35 mm screws for the outer layer at EUR 10.42 per 1,000. The bill comes to EUR 320.57 in materials. Rockwool across one 12 m2 face needs about 17 of the 1.2 x 0.6 m sheets, which at Gypsum Works Malta's listed EUR 4.40-11.03 each is EUR 74.80 at the bottom of the range and EUR 187.51 at the top.

The rate column in that tender is blank. It tells you what a properly described partition is; it does not tell you what anyone charged for it.

The line nobody publishes

Everything above is the merchant's half. The other half is a crew on site for however long the wall takes, plus fixings into limestone or concrete, setting out, cutting around services, skimming and making good. There is no Maltese published figure for it — not on our rate card, not on anybody's. Any contractor who gives you a per-square-metre number over the phone before seeing the opening is guessing at the things that actually drive the time: whether the floor is level, whether the soffit is a slab or a beam-and-pot ceiling, how the wall meets an existing plaster finish, and whether a door is going in.

Note also that VAT in the Malta Life Sciences Park tender is applied at 18%, and neither retail listing states whether its shelf prices are inclusive or exclusive. Get that stated on the quotation.

Flats, shells and Gozo

Three Maltese conditions change the job rather than the material list.

Shell form. Property here is routinely sold as a shell, which means the partition layout is yours to decide and there is no existing finish to match. That is the cheap moment to build walls — before screeding, before second fix, before anything has to be protected.

Apartments. Internal partitions in a flat are your business, but anything touching common parts is governed by the condominium rules under Cap. 398. Fixing to, penetrating or loading a shared structure is not a decision for the contractor on the day.

Gozo. Every 3 m sheet, every length of track and every bag of fixings crosses on the ferry. Neither retailer publishes a delivery charge and nothing in the sources covers the Gozo premium, so ask for delivery to be itemised rather than buried.

Gypsum is also not a licensed trade in Malta. There is no registration body to check, which is why verification has to be done some other way.

What to ask for in writing

Use the tender's language. A quotation that answers these is comparable with another one; a quotation that says "partition wall, supply and fix" is not.

1. Stud gauge and width — 50, 75 or 100 mm — and the centres.
2. Number of board layers per face, and the board thickness.
3. Overall finished partition thickness.
4. Whether joints are taped and whether the finish is a full skim coat.
5. Whether acoustic sealant is included at the perimeter.
6. Whether rockwool is included or priced separately as an extra-over per m2, and to what rating.
7. How the head of the partition meets the ceiling or slab.
8. Door type and whether a sliding kit is in the price.
9. Whether the figure is VAT inclusive or exclusive.
10. Whether delivery, and for Gozo the crossing, is in the price.