I got three estimates last week to install new drywall in my home and two of them were about the same ($1700) while one of them was half that cost ($825). $1700 seems a bit high for the amount of work, so I decided to go with the guy charging $825. Does this seem like a reasonable price for about 400 square feet of new drywall work, patching a corner wall, and patching four or five holes in the ceiling where original walls were removed?

 

I would suspect that the guy with the lower price either is short on work or has less experience. Have you checked his references or seen any of his work?

 

No, I haven't, but he seemed pretty confident and knew what he was talking about when I met with him. I know what to look for, and its such a small job that I'm sure it will be fine.

 

400 sf of new drywall is about 12 sheets of drywall. Assuming that there is not a lot of cutting / fitting, two men should be able to install them and do the 1st coat of plastering in less than a day. Then you will need another one to two visits to finish up the plastering, perhaps 2-3 hours of work per visit. The patching job you described doesn’t seem to be a lot of work neither.

In my area, $825 sounds kind of tight but it also depends on the accessibility of the work area, preparation of work like if they have to do any other work before the installation and the location (how far you are).

 

You might be ok here but I would definitely not pay him until you had a chance to closely inspect his work

 

I paid him a $200 deposit for materials today after they finished hanging the drywall. I checked everything over thoroughly after they left and it looks good for the most part, but anyone can hang drywall. We'll see how the mudding goes tomorrow. They sound pretty confident. BTW, there was no prep work required on their part.

 

Make sure they use paper tape and not the mesh stuff

 

What's wrong with mesh tape? They used paper for the corners and mesh for the joints. Looking pretty good so far. They'll be finishing up tomorrow.

 

The mesh or 'sticky' tape tends to loose it's adhesion over time

The only way to have any type of success with sticky tape is to apply a coat of setting compound [like durabond] over the tape.

 

The joints with mesh tape will crack in 30 days. Paper all the way.

 

Not intuitive but the paper tape is stronger than the mesh

 

Crack in 30 days??? Come on. I find that hard to believe. If that was the case, they wouldn't sell the stuff.

 

30 days or 1 yr, no matter how long, the sticky tape either cracks, comes loose or bulges when regular joint compound is applied over it. It fairs better if a setting compound like durabond it used.

When it 1st came out it was used a lot because a finisher could send a helper in to apply the tape but because of the high failure rate most pros have quit using the sticky tape.

 

Alright, well it's too late now. I went from excited about my new drywall job to concerned about it falling to pieces in 1 year. BTW, they used a "Setting Type" joint compound.

 

Since they used a setting compound, you might be ok.