Please advise on drywall job

withee

Hi Everyone,

I just found this site a few minutes ago and this is my first post.

I own rental properties and I am hiring a drywall job done.

I am getting at least two and hopefully three bids. I would appreciate if someone knowledgeable about drywall would help me decide if these bids are fair. So far I have two back. Here is the first one. The second one did not include all that I wanted done so need to clarify that.

Here is the first bid that has been itemized. I have someone else estimating it tomorrow afternoon if all goes according to plan.

Both rooms have two doors and two windows. The living room is approximately 13 x 15 and the second room is approximately 13 x 10. I believe that the celing is approximately 8 ft tall.

Please give me your opinion, as far as what you think this should cost.

JOB DESCRIPTION Remove all existing paneling and trim in living room and bedroom. Then mudd and caulk spred/lat (lathe ?) as needed, recovering with 1/4 inch drywall. This includes sealing and mudding all joints and edges, finishing with priming and painting all needed surfaces, to include repainting living room ceiling (appr 13 x 15).

Materials to include:

22 sheets 1/4 inch drywall board $132
5 gal joint compound $ 13
7 pounds drywall screws $ 14
12 tubes painters caulk $ 18
3 gal paint (owners color) $ 75
1 gal ceiling white paint $ 15
2 gal primer $ 22

Total Materials $279 (actually adds up to $289)

Labor is figured at 75 hours at a rate of $30 per hour
for a total of $2250.00 labor

Total price for two rooms $2529

Thank you very much for any assistance that you can give me. It is GREATLY appreciated.

aavguy

Price seems fine to me, the only advice I have is to use someone who focuses on drywall rather than a jack of all trades. I think some GCs pay drywall guys as little as $10/hour which doesn't seem fair.

withee

Thank you for the reply.

So you think that it would take 75 hours to do two rooms..drywall, mudd, prime and paint? I ask because I have been told by others insisting that is way more hours than what would be needed to do that job.

Also do you think that 1/4 inch drywall is what should be used over plaster?

Thank you again.

racebum

the thicker drywall is the stronger. 1/2 is the most common for wall use. personally i think 75hrs is steep. a good hanger can hang both rooms in 8-15hrs depending on how crazy they are. mud would be 4-6hrs x 2 or 3 days. that's a max of 33hrs. in other words they seem to be billing half the hours it will actually take. $30hr retail isn't bad though.

there are enough out of work drywall guys scattered about you should be able to get a deal. i actually paid one guy $350 to tape n mud all of the ceilings in a 1500sqft house a couple months ago.

prime and painting is time but $30/hr to roll paint is excessive. you can either do it yourself or hire out paint for $15hr all day

oh'mike

I've never seen a quote written up like that----Why are the materials broken out like that?

Where is the corner bead? Only one type of mud? No mention of trash disposal? What about protecting the area? Clean up--scrapping out the drywall drops? Should be a charge in there for floor protection.

Are you doing the retrimming?----Never saw a bid written up that way---Might be a regional thing.


Can't comment on the hourly wage--you didn't mention the location---In this area that $30-would be low----Mike---

racebum

that's actually a good point and something you should address with your drywall guys. all that caulking makes me wonder what they plan on doing with it. if it's going behind the rock to create a more solid wall, okay, if it isn't and they plan on doing your corners with it, i would take issue. the cheap sheetrock trick that no one who learned how to rock right would even think about is to run caulk in all the inside corners. that's the ceiling and room corners. the mud thing is the other deal. if they use glass tape like most guys in a hurry they need to be using a setting compound with it. it's actually in their best interest to do so anyway since the top coat can go on the same day. if they are paper taping most use a bazooka but it could still be done by hand. if they use all purpose mud on everything it's actually costing YOU more since it will eat up more hours. all purpose has to set overnight and it takes longer to sand vs a light topping mud. if they used a nice hot mud setting compound and the light topping mud a good drywaller can get a room flat all in one day. a thick coat of setting compound in the tape, let it set and do a layer of topping. it's only two coats and not everyone can pull it off but that guy i mentioned above who did my ceilings had the two coat method looking better than i could do with 3. i'm not half bad at drywall work either.

kwikfishron

“Total Materials $279 (actually adds up to $289)”
What does that mean, you’re getting a $10 discount?

“Thank you very much for any assistance that you can give me. It is GREATLY appreciated.”
I guess he would like you to help.

Beware of this guy.

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