I am in the middle of a DIY basement project and am receiving bids for drywall installation, mud/taping, and orange peel finishing in my basement (because I won't tackle this one) and have NO idea what to expect for the bids. Does anyone have a ROUGH idea of costs per sheet of drywall to finish. I have a feeling that only one of the contractors I selected (who I really like) is going to bid on the project. Any number would help me gauge when the bid(s) come in. I live in the midwest. Thanks.

 

All I can say is make SURE!!!! that whoever you choose to do your finishing that you will look at some of the work they have done before. I just went through a terrible ordeal where I let someone do my finishing work and it turned out awful. I am still ripping out some of the new drywall and redoing it myself because it looked so bad.

 

I have seen both of my bidder's previous work (both good). I just have NO idea on what is fair market value for drywall work.

 

prices for hanging and finishing sheet rock usually run from 55 on the low end to 75-85 on the high end but that includes labor and materials. I have never priced a finisher only before though.

 

Is that $55 to $85 per 4'x8' sheet installed?

 

yep

 

I completed my basement last fall. I hung all the sheetrock, but hired out the mud & tape. My basement is not that big, but I ended up using around 26 - 27 sheets, with very little left over. I was careful to minimize the # of seams and did not do anything stupid like piecing together to save the cost of a sheet. Trying to do that will ultimately cost you in the long run. We did not drywall the ceiling since I installed a drop ceiling.

The guy I hired just did it on the side for me. During the days he works as a mud & tape man doing only commercial office buildings. Basically when one office in building I work at was being redone, I walked down and asked if he did small jobs on the side. I of course was able to view his work since it was right in front of me at the time. He did mine for a flat $250 (which I beleive was a pretty good deal) with me buying all of the materials. He did it in the evenings (3-4 hours per evening) and he was in & out in 5 trips. The guy indicated that had I drywalled the ceiling, he would have at least doubled his price. In the end he said it was a simple job for him.

Good Luck

 

I paid just under $2000 for hanging and finishing about 50 4x8 sheets, materials included. Southeastern PA. About 5 days total (3 to hang, one to tape, two half days to finish).

 

In the real construction world, the people who hang the sheetrock, are not the people who tape and texture. A good taper will be about 35 cents to 50 cents per sq. ft. If someone is below 35 cents look out. Sheetrockers usually hang by the sheet or sq. footage also. The price will vary with the number of corners, plug ins, etc. but sheetrockers will be forn 50 cents to 60 cents per sq ft., and the good ones are very fast. The sheetrock price does not include materials.

 

I just had a basement priced out to rock, mud, tape and texturize. Both bidders came in around $43-45 bucks a finished sheet. It's a 1500 sf. basement so I can get it finished for under $5,000. We had thought about doing the work ourselves, but not being a professional sheetrocker, we decided that paying a professional would be well worth $$$$!
Those proces are reflective of Colorado. Also, basement finish companys are getting $23-$25 sf. on average to do total basement finish.

 

I just had a guy come in to tape, mud, and texture the ceiling. He charged me $.50 sq/ft for labor and materials. He completed 100 sheets of dryall in less than 2 weeks working nights and weekends. He does 2 jobs concurrently.