Walls and Ceilings - What would you charge for this?

Hey all, I have recently redone the drywall in my master bedroom. While I feel my skills at scoring, cutting and hanging drywall are adequate I don't quite feel as confident in my muding and taping skills. I have a total of 640 square feet of sheet-rock that need to be made beautiful. I'm going to start getting estimates on Angies List but I thought I would ask some of you what you feel a fair price for this kind of job would be if you were doing this.

Again this is only for the muding and taping. The drywall is already hung.

Thanks!

15 sheets of rock won't be much work, although the drywall finisher needs to be paid for their time too.

For labor, I would say about $350-$450. Materials another $50 (3 buckets of mud, 1 or 2 rolls of tape, and a couple bucks for picking it up)

* If this seems high, just remember Uncle Sam hammers "business owners", so they are only actually making about 55-60% of what they charge. Hence they will take home $200-$300 for 4 trips to your house + all that work!

Hand taping 15 sheets won't take any time at all. The price is moreover to load and unload tools, driving time, gas, etc.

If the ceilings are over 8 feet, it can run $100/foot for each foot over 8.

A lot of corner bead will also increase the price (about $3/stick). If it is a couple pieces they probably wouldn't charge anything more.

If the drywall isn't installed well, add another $50-$100 minimum.

I hope this helps.

Thanks for the info. I'm sure whoever I hire to do this is going to be laughing behind my back a little as i'm sure my drywall skills leave a lot to be desired from a finishing stand point. My friend assures me that a good taper can hid nearly any mistake so i'm sure i'll be paying a little extra in the end for my newbie effort. :)

Last week I had a 12x14 bedroom with a 4x8 closet attatched mudded with a knockdown ceiling for 350 bucks and I had a lot of small corners. He said I did a good job hanging the rock, but i didn't set the screws deep enough and he re set all of them. I do live in minnesota which typically has a high cost of living, generally speaking.

Save the money and do it yourself. Seams are easy but butts take a little more time. Get a 4", 6", and 14" knife, hard foam corn sander and flat sander. You can rent a texture sprayer for about $40 for 1/2 day if you are going to put a heavy texture on. Test spray on a piece of rock until you get the trigger pull and texture you want. If you do use a heavy texture, your mudding and sanding doesn't have to be perfect because a lot will be hidden. If you can hang it, you can mud it.

Last week I had a 12x14 bedroom with a 4x8 closet attatched mudded with a knockdown ceiling for 350 bucks and I had a lot of small corners. He said I did a good job hanging the rock, but i didn't set the screws deep enough and he re set all of them. I do live in minnesota which typically has a high cost of living, generally speaking.

Maybe this can provide a "baseline" for the prices I give.

I am not familiar with the cost of living in areas around the country. In my part of the county, the cheapest home you can buy is $215,000 (2-3 bedroom cape cod or ranch that is about 30 years old.)

A 30 year old 4 bedroom, 2-1/2 bath, 2 story colonial is about $300,000-$375,000.

New 3500 square foot houses start at about $450,000. Most people that buy these put in 150k-200k in upgrades on top of that.

A 1/4 acre buildable lot is about $75,000.