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I have decided to hire someone to do some drywall finish work on my unfinished garage. I am probably in an average price "market" so to speak. I am 50 miles north of Washington D.C. but in a smaller town.
Approx 900 sq foot of drywall is already "hung". I started to finish it but decided it was too big of a job.I am probably 25% finished with the "finish" work in total.
675 square feet of the 900 sq foot is overhead in a 11 foot garage ceiling. The rest is adjacent vertical walls. The garage is basically cleaned out so they don't have to move around a bunch of stuff.
Finish the drywall, prime all the walls and two coats of finish paint.
I will provide all the materials.
In general, what would you expect the range of labor rates to be...approx.
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I was quoted 8.00/sheet recently, that's just for taping. I don't know if a 'sheet' is a full 4x8 or its any piece with 4 seams. I assume it's the latter.
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You may have a hard time finding someone to do it as you started the job. My drywall finisher charges extra for stuff like that sometimes twice as much.
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fixtureman said:
You may have a hard time finding someone to do it as you started the job. My drywall finisher charges extra for stuff like that sometimes twice as much.
That would certainly be true around my part of the world.
I started with absolutely nothing. Now, thanks to years of hard work, careful planning, and perseverance, I find I still have most of it left.
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I gave up on drywall mudding. Now I just nail 1x4 strapping over the seams and paint. Too old to be mudding and this is simpler.
Mel
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I believe the taper will charge by the hour and not by the board. They will have a good idea how long it takes to do an area with corners inside and out. If the ceiling is a high ceiling I am sure that will be added to. But if someone who works off stilts it can be the same time frame. If you are supplying all the materials it is all labor. Probably looking at 5 days to do all. If he has to work off a scaffold then add at least another day or two. I would guess $15 /hr . You can save some time and money with a paint that is both a primer and first coat. Not sure what your plans for the garage are but primer and 2 coats of finish paint is quite a job for a garage.
Just a side note. Is it not a tax thing if you finish a gagrage it is considered a room of the house and is subject to be taxed as such??? That is why you see most garages with a basic coat of drywall tape and mud and no paint. At least I thought i remembered that many years ago. Am I off base here????
John T.
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JTTHECLOCKMAN said:
I believe the taper will charge by the hour and not by the board. They will have a good idea how long it takes to do an area with corners inside and out. If the ceiling is a high ceiling I am sure that will be added to. But if someone who works off stilts it can be the same time frame. If you are supplying all the materials it is all labor. Probably looking at 5 days to do all. If he has to work off a scaffold then add at least another day or two. I would guess $15 /hr . You can save some time and money with a paint that is both a primer and first coat. Not sure what your plans for the garage are but primer and 2 coats of finish paint is quite a job for a garage.
Just a side note. Is it not a tax thing if you finish a gagrage it is considered a room of the house and is subject to be taxed as such??? That is why you see most garages with a basic coat of drywall tape and mud and no paint. At least I thought i remembered that many years ago. Am I off base here????
Depends on your local state ,county or whoever makes the rules and how they figure it. Here its not included in the appraisal because it's not a conditioned living space. If you convert it to one then it's a different matter.
As to not painting that's cause they are cheap and don't realize that not painting allows more moisture ro penetrate the walls from the garage and the drywall tape will eventually fall off and make it look worse.
And the comment above by thooks is dead on. Drywall guys or anyone in any field do not like small jobs. You don't make any money on the small jobs and why a handyman is a better choice as they don't have the overhead the larger contractors do.
I used to do lots of projects for friends and mainly people my mom knew in the school district. Often just to make mom happy but teachers are not easy to work for and many of the projects were either too small or they had no sense of what tools and materials cost. So often those jobs barely made any money and just wasted my time and I ended up spending more time out in the 100*+ heat which I hate the weather here....
So that's why you will see big quotes from contractors and many handy men won't be much cheaper unless they live down the street.
For tape and bed of a garage that's a days project. Using hot mud and guys that know how to mudl it's very easy and fast. Basically as they work from one side to the other it will set up and be ready for the next coat when they get back to the starting point.
Even me doing it it would be a 2 day project cause I'm not the best at mudding and I'm getting slower at everything as the body doesn't move as fast or as easy.
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then once the cost of mud and tape is done, theres the painting.
which id say between $250-550.
as suggested, ya might want to look for a handyman thats not doing it full time- someone retired from the trades. a few years back my girlfriend wanted to put a floating subfloor in her basement. although i was capable i just couldnt physically do it. we called a few different handymen that advertised in the local paper. i gave my opinion on which one to chose- a retired builder who just liked to keep himself busy with smaller jobs- he didnt need the work.
his price was in the middle of the 3, but what sold me was he was there 15 minutes before he said hed be to estimate(even apologized for being early),
asked exactly what was wanted, explained how he would do it, and gave an estimate for both with materials and just labor.
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$1200-1500 depending on how well you installed the drywall and how well you finished the 25%.
Any free advice given is worth double price paid.
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Woodenfish, you are right on. The first 25% is not pretty. We also decided to remove all the old tape on the ceiling that was never completely finished. Their quote was $1500 and included in that was some additional beam painting. These guys came with a great reference. 20 year experienced drywall guys. Deal done.. Start in a week. Thanks for all the input.
