Currently finishing my basemement (HT/Billiards room) and have hung approx 85 sheets of 4x8 drywall. I have definatly decided that I am not the man for the job when it comes to the taping and mudding. Recently got a bid from a remodeling outfit for $1700 to perform all of the taping and mudding as well as putting a knock down texture on the ceiling. That does not include the material costs of corner bead, mud, tape, etc....another couple hundred for the materials puts me over $1900 for the entire project. I live in the Kansas City area and am wondering if that bid sounds in line or if its too much? From all the reading I have done it is way too much for drywall finishing....any opinions/recomendations would be greatly appreciated.

Not bad I've seen it as high as $35 a sheet. that qoute sounds fare to me.

Not bad I've seen it as high as $35 a sheet. that qoute sounds fare to me.

$35 a sheet for just tape and mud or is that with hanging the actual drywall included?

It sounds a little high to me but I'm not in your area. I just paid 18.50 a sheet to hang and finish but I'm in Atlanta and we have a very large day labor community.

I hung all my sheets as well.

I paid about $1400 for 4 rooms of about 1800 sq ft for finishing.
All inclusive price including, corner bead, mud, tape and labor.
I monitored the hours they worked and it was about 5 man days total.
The going rate in these parts is $250 day for a finisher.

I'm in Olathe, KS.

Two years ago, after finishing framing/electrical/insulation/etc., I planned on taking a week off of work and getting as much drywall work completed as possible.

I had Home Depot deliver my 66 4'x8' sheets in the driveway, and with rain in the forecast for that day, I immediately moved them into the garage, one by one.

Then, I started to bring them down into the basement. The stairway to the basement is one where you go halfway down to a landing, do a 180-degree turn and then proceed down the rest of the stairs. It was very difficult to get each sheet through the 180-degree turn... tight fit, but possible, and very difficult.

By the time I had maybe 20 sheets down there, I was worn out. And this was day one!

My wife witnessed all of this, and happened to be traveling on K-10 later that day when she found herself side-by-side with a plain white van with "Mexico Drywall" on the door and a phone number. She called, and on my behalf, arranged to have someone come out to do a bid.

"Max" came out, took some measurements, and gave me a bid of $1200 labor to hang, mud/tape, sand, and apply the knockdown ceiling texture. They happened to be finishing up a job, and could be out the next day to get started. I said "Sold."

But I had to get all of the sheets down into the basement.

They did hit me up for another $150 in materials for the mud/tape/texture/corner_bead/etc.

They showed up the next day with a crew of 6, and had the entire basement (66 sheets) sheetrocked in 3 hours. The next day, a crew of two showed up to haul off all of the scraps they had left all over the floor. The day after that, a crew of two showed up and spent 8 hours doing corner bead. Then a crew of two showed up every other day for a week to mud/tape/sand. In a week and two days, it was done.

Hope this helps...
ND

What I did was get about 6 bids for my drywall work, to get an idea what the going rate in my area was. You might want to do the same.

Guy

I would be more concerned about the quality of work this drywaller performs than the bottom line.

You can pay pennies for mud and taping, but IMHO, that's the most important part to a drywall job, and rushing it, or using someone not as good as it, can cause headaches down the road.

I would be more concerned about the quality of work this drywaller performs than the bottom line.

You can pay pennies for mud and taping, but IMHO, that's the most important part to a drywall job, and rushing it, or using someone not as good as it, can cause headaches down the road.

I second this. It is certainly hard to guess who will do the best work, however. In my case, I got 6 bids and I actually accepted the highest bid. It was a hard choice to accept the highest bid, but the one I accepted was recommended from a local home theater dealer, has his own home theater, and has built commercial movie theaters. Even though he had never used Green Glue, he had heard of it and read the installation instructions and was interested how it would compare to the resilient channel he usually uses in situations like this. So I picked him and was very happy with the results.

Guy

I'm in Olathe, KS.

Two years ago, after finishing framing/electrical/insulation/etc., I planned on taking a week off of work and getting as much drywall work completed as possible.

I had Home Depot deliver my 66 4'x8' sheets in the driveway, and with rain in the forecast for that day, I immediately moved them into the garage, one by one.

Then, I started to bring them down into the basement. The stairway to the basement is one where you go halfway down to a landing, do a 180-degree turn and then proceed down the rest of the stairs. It was very difficult to get each sheet through the 180-degree turn... tight fit, but possible, and very difficult.

By the time I had maybe 20 sheets down there, I was worn out. And this was day one!

My wife witnessed all of this, and happened to be traveling on K-10 later that day when she found herself side-by-side with a plain white van with "Mexico Drywall" on the door and a phone number. She called, and on my behalf, arranged to have someone come out to do a bid.

"Max" came out, took some measurements, and gave me a bid of $1200 labor to hang, mud/tape, sand, and apply the knockdown ceiling texture. They happened to be finishing up a job, and could be out the next day to get started. I said "Sold."

But I had to get all of the sheets down into the basement.

They did hit me up for another $150 in materials for the mud/tape/texture/corner_bead/etc.

They showed up the next day with a crew of 6, and had the entire basement (66 sheets) sheetrocked in 3 hours. The next day, a crew of two showed up to haul off all of the scraps they had left all over the floor. The day after that, a crew of two showed up and spent 8 hours doing corner bead. Then a crew of two showed up every other day for a week to mud/tape/sand. In a week and two days, it was done.

Hope this helps...
ND

WOW....All too familair...I too receieved a delivery (Lowes) of around 80 sheets and they site them in my driveway. After dragging them into the garage I would take one peice down and hang it then grab another. I have the same landing stairwell with the 180 degree turn. Sounds like a good deal from "Mexico drywall"....Do you still have the number? I would like to give them a call. Did they do a good job?

i would also recommend getting several bids. but, i have been in construction for over 17 years, price sounds too good to me. check references. but this is based in my area of indiana. you wouldn't believe how many jobs i have lost due to a couple of guys getting laid off at factory "x" and went to wal-mart and bought a hammer. then the homeowner calls and asks me if i can fix it!

By all means get multiple bids. the $35 included the drywall. Thats what they charged me when they built the house well pretty close to that. Included all supplies and drywall.

why not give the finishing a try......the learning curve isn't that steep and the supplies are rather cheap.

Mistakes with mud and tape are easily fixed....it just costs time, mud, and having your wife go nuts over the amount of drywall dust coating the interior of your house.

I'm pretty good after practicing on a small room.....Im still very slow at it, but my results are very good.