Drywall Quote

[funkytuqe]

I just had a quote done to have drywall installed and taped up in a basement bedroom and bathroom (cement board around shower). Also included in the quote was ceiling texture (knock down) in the two rooms and casing in 4 doors. The cost came up to just over $11K, does that sound reasonable?

[C_Dave45]

WAY more information needed:

Exact square footage of board...
ceiling height...
drops/changes of ceiling...
number of corners/jogs/rooms/windows/built-ins..
condition of framing/vapour barrier/insulation..
type of bead..
type of casing..
ease of access..
location...


Rather than ask on a forum, phone a couple of other reputable drywall companies and get a few more quotes.

It's like me coming on here and saying: "I bought a car for $25,000...is that a good price?"

[Tik-Tok]

Only two rooms? Do it yourself. Might take awhile, and make a mess, but it isn't terribly difficult as long as you have patience.

I did my whole basement, and didn't have patience. It's not horrible, but if you put your head against the wall, you can see the bows.

Edit: I should add, I didn't do my ceiling, I paid a fellow Beyonder to do california knock down for that.

[JRSC00LUDE]

Originally posted by Tik-Tok
Only two rooms? Do it yourself. Might take awhile, and make a mess, but it isn't terribly difficult as long as you have patience.

With all due respect to you Tik-Tok,

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD OP DON'T DO IT YOURSELF IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING.

It might just be me but I know if I'm looking at a place (as in to buy), the minute I see obvious home done work like drywall (which is super easy to spot an amatuer job) I am pretty much convinced to walk away from it. Same goes with cabinetry and flooring.

When you see visible signs of "cheapskate work", it immediately makes me wonder how much of it you can't see.

.02

[funkytuqe]

Yes i agree, there is no way i am doing this myself.
Bedroom - 120sqft, with 9' ceiling
Bathroom - 54 sqft half of the ceiling is dropped to 8' and the other half at 9'
corners all 90deg no rounding. Bedroom has 2 windows.

I kow this is kinda general but just trying to get a "ballpark" cost feel.

[CapnCrunch]

It seems way out to lunch to me, but I've never been a drywaller. It sounds more like the guy just doesn't want to do it and gave you a stupid quote.

[collectskulls]

from what you say sounds like he priced it then doubled the price...

[funkytuqe]

i was expecting about $5K so yah maybe. But I realy have no idea what general costs are.

[mr2mike]

You could probably do the ceiling texture knock down yourself and the casing of the doors with a little research on how to do it.

My whole basement, about 1000 sq ft. Bathroom, kitchen and ceilings cost about $8K. That included mudding, taping, primer coat walls and ceiling.
This was 2 yrs ago.

No carpets installed or anything. So basically they could go balls to the wall with the primer and not worry.

[funkytuqe]

Ok, that quote makes sense to me thanks mr2mike.

[InRich]

thats WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY TOO MUCH!!!

make sure you call him and tell him hes a fucking douche bag...

I did my ENTIRE basement, 975 sq, insulted, dry walled, taped, stipple (knock down) for 3400 +mateirals which were 1300. all the way up to paint stage.

[mr2mike]

Headed home. Let me pull the invoice. Now I'm second guessing if it's 6 or 8 thousand.

[reese]

Wow, that's a lot, I got mine recently done ( a bit over 700sqft) for a bit more than half of what they are quoting you which includes paint and all what you mentioned.
If you want PM me and I can give you the contractor that I used.

[ddduke]

I didn't read any of the other posts besides the initial one. But I know a guy who used to do it for a living while he was in school and now that he started his big boy job does a few jobs a month for extra cash. He's done 2 jobs for me and is absolutely amazing at his job. What he usually charges is right around $1800 + cost of materials or you can supply, you can pay him when the job is complete and done right.

Pm me if you want his info

[barmanjay]

Originally posted by Tik-Tok
Only two rooms? Do it yourself. Might take awhile, and make a mess, but it isn't terribly difficult as long as you have patience.

I did my whole basement, and didn't have patience. It's not horrible, but if you put your head against the wall, you can see the bows.

Edit: I should add, I didn't do my ceiling, I paid a fellow Beyonder to do california knock down for that.


Hey, I know who you are talking about! ;)

I recall he skimmed out a couple walls for you too ;)

Too bad he isn't in the drywall business anymore.



Yes, more information is required.

The $11k sounds pretty steep, although you may have 9-10ft ceilings down there with bulk heads at every turn. And the sq/ft of your basement might be 1500 sq/ft.

If the $11k is including paint and in a fairly large basement, that could be a fair price?

Iirc: I used to charge $2 sq/ft for knockdown pending ceiling height and difficulty (bulkheads and etc). On 1000 sq/ft, that's $2k right there. (That's for the knock-down/span-tex, not stipple/snow texture you see in most starter style homes)

Drywall material on average will be about $15 a sheet and you may have 100-150 sheets in a basement. The drywall delivery will charge an extra $300 to bring it into the basement.

Labour just to install might be around 1000-2500 pending difficulty.

Taping can be 1500-3500 pending difficulty.

Installing trim is another beast.
$1.50-3.00/linear foot to install pending type difficulty
Cost of material can be anywhere from $1-$5 linear foot.

Remember each door, you will use 20 linear feet (for each side, inside/outside)
That can translate to $120/door.

It all adds up.

Hope this all helps. This is roughly based in what I charged many, many, many years ago before I switched professions.

[funkytuqe]

Thanks everyone. I'm going to get a couple more quotes and see how it goes.

[frozenrice]

That's a real small area that you're looking at doing. Most drywall companies will charge a premium/minimum to come out for something like that. You were probably quoted $11k because they really didn't want the job and will only do it if it's worth their while.

I suggest you try and sub the drywall work yourself. You supply the drywall and find/hire the following :
A boarder to install the board (make sure/hope the framing is done right first).
A taper to mud, tape and sand the joints.

If you can cut the middle guy (ie. drywall companies), you'll save yourself money although there'll be more hassle to get all of it organized and scheduled.

The key is to find a taper. A good taper can fix a shitty board/framing job (although you'll pay for it).

[mr2mike]

I checked my invoice, it was $6800 for the basement. But remember I had it totally clean with no flooring in yet.

Dropped the drywall in the basement middle of the floor.
Hammered it out in 2 days but didn't really work a full 8 hours each day.

Mud and tape took 2 days.

They could be pricing it according to if you DIY the framing. Go through and make sure everything is square and every corner has an anchor point for the board.
I know I had a mess up in the one outside wall corner because the way the concrete was poured, it wasn't square. N00b mistake but my framer friend picked it out instantly and helped me fix it.

Although when I got quotes, I had 3 done. One was upwards of $14K. They didn't want to do the job obviously.

Don't drywall yourself and think to save on a taper to come in. They may end up having to fix things with how you put the boards together. There's a tapered edge to the boards and not done right can lead to issues in mudding. This is basically restating what frozenrice just said.

[fajita123]

Originally posted by mr2mike
I checked my invoice, it was $6800 for the basement. But remember I had it totally clean with no flooring in yet.

Dropped the drywall in the basement middle of the floor.
Hammered it out in 2 days but didn't really work a full 8 hours each day.

Mud and tape took 2 days.

They could be pricing it according to if you DIY the framing. Go through and make sure everything is square and every corner has an anchor point for the board.
I know I had a mess up in the one outside wall corner because the way the concrete was poured, it wasn't square. N00b mistake but my framer friend picked it out instantly and helped me fix it.

Although when I got quotes, I had 3 done. One was upwards of $14K. They didn't want to do the job obviously.

Don't drywall yourself and think to save on a taper to come in. They may end up having to fix things with how you put the boards together. There's a tapered edge to the boards and not done right can lead to issues in mudding. This is basically restating what frozenrice just said.

Sorry to bring this back from the dead. I'm framing my basement currently and will be looking at having it boarded/taped/mudded in the new year. Anyone have recent pricing? Is there a rule of thumb cost per square foot for wall and ceiling? I have an 800 sq.ft basement with ~160 lineal feet of 8' wall.

[InRich]

i'll do it for 11k :rofl:

[funkytuqe]

I ended up going through Calgary Renewals. Fair price and they did a great job.

[charlie2]

Developed 860 sq ft of living space in a 1050sq ft walkout basement and used approx 2700 sq ft of drywall, half basement had 9 foot ceilings and a stairwell. Cost to me, including mud/tape, drywall, labour and textured ceiling was $4800 cash. Guy worked by himself and took 2 weeks but did an awesome job. Had 2 other quotes coming in up to $6500. All my quotes came from Kijiji advertising companies.

When the texture guys showed up to do the ceiling they commented on how great it looked and said it could be painted vs textured!

[fajita123]

Originally posted by charlie2
Developed 860 sq ft of living space in a 1050sq ft walkout basement and used approx 2700 sq ft of drywall, half basement had 9 foot ceilings and a stairwell. Cost to me, including mud/tape, drywall, labour and textured ceiling was $4800 cash. Guy worked by himself and took 2 weeks but did an awesome job. Had 2 other quotes coming in up to $6500. All my quotes came from Kijiji advertising companies.

When the texture guys showed up to do the ceiling they commented on how great it looked and said it could be painted vs textured!

Awesome, thanks!

[thinmyster]

Originally posted by charlie2
Developed 860 sq ft of living space in a 1050sq ft walkout basement and used approx 2700 sq ft of drywall, half basement had 9 foot ceilings and a stairwell. Cost to me, including mud/tape, drywall, labour and textured ceiling was $4800 cash. Guy worked by himself and took 2 weeks but did an awesome job. Had 2 other quotes coming in up to $6500. All my quotes came from Kijiji advertising companies.

When the texture guys showed up to do the ceiling they commented on how great it looked and said it could be painted vs textured!
do you still have his contact info?

[loweg]

Developed my basement approximately 1000 sq feet was developed.

Drywall boarded myself and with the help of a few friends. Paid a guy I knew (that only works for builders about 1250 to come mid and tape. Was impressed the drywall was boarded so well.

A good mud/tape guy is a must. Can't stress this enough!

All in all did my full basement with a premium carpet and a 500 gallon fish tank for about 8-9 k

[fajita123]

Originally posted by loweg
Developed my basement approximately 1000 sq feet was developed.

Drywall boarded myself and with the help of a few friends. Paid a guy I knew (that only works for builders about 1250 to come mid and tape. Was impressed the drywall was boarded so well.

A good mud/tape guy is a must. Can't stress this enough!

All in all did my full basement with a premium carpet and a 500 gallon fish tank for about 8-9 k

Nice. I'm thinking the time it will take me to board (planning to do ceiling as well) will be worth the labour cost to me. Also worried about doing a subpar job and having to pay someone to demo and redo the work.

How much was just the carpet, if you don't mind me asking?

[heavyfuel]

Originally posted by funkytuqe
I ended up going through Calgary Renewals. Fair price and they did a great job.

11k sounded pretty high to me too based on conversations I've had/have with my contractor clientele. Jerry's a good guy, I used to do cleanups for him years ago. I've seen his work, sounds like you made the right choice!

[R!zz0]

Why can't i find people that will do my 622 square feet basement for under $ 12,000?
I'm getting quotes for $20,000 plus.