Drywall Cost Calculator

On our default 1,600 sq ft job, hanging alone runs about $2,776 versus $4,012 hung and finished to Level 4. Taping and mudding is where the craft lives — three compound coats over every seam, corner bead and fastener head, then sanding — and it is often the larger half of the labor bill. An untaped wall cannot be painted.

Level 4 is the standard for walls that will be painted flat or eggshell. Level 5 (a full skim coat) adds about $581 on the default job and earns its keep under glossy paint, big windows that rake light across the wall, or dark wall colors. Level 3 is fine under heavy texture, and garages or utility rooms commonly stop at Level 1–2.

About $1,561 hung and finished to Level 4 at national-average prices, including the 144 sq ft ceiling and 10% cutting waste — inside HomeGuide's published $580–$1,800 range for a room this size. Expect the high end (or beyond) in coastal metros and the low end in the South and Midwest.

5/8-inch board adds roughly $446 to the default job and hangs slower because of the weight, but it resists sagging on 24-inch-on-center framing, blocks more sound, and is the standard fire-rated thickness — many codes require Type X 5/8" on garage-to-living-space walls and ceilings. Use 1/2" for ordinary walls and standard 16"-on-center framing.

Moisture-resistant (green) board is the normal choice on bathroom and laundry walls outside wet areas — it adds about $0.25 per sq ft of board, which is roughly $440 across our default 1,600 sq ft job if the whole area were green board (usually only one or two rooms are). Inside tub and shower surrounds and other wet locations, code wants cement backer board or a rated waterproof substrate; green board alone is not acceptable there. The other upgrade code commonly triggers is fire-rated Type X 5/8" on garage-to-living-space walls and ceilings — priced separately in the board-type table above.

A two-person crew hangs 1,000–1,600 sq ft of board in a day, but the calendar belongs to the taping: every compound coat must dry before the next goes on, so count on 2–4 working days for a Level 4 finish depending on humidity, plus another day for texture or a Level 5 skim. That sequencing is also the money — on our default 1,600 sq ft job, hang-only prices at $2,776 and the taping-and-finishing half adds about $1,236 (31% of the total). Bids that compress the schedule below three coats and a sand are bids you pay for later as nail pops and shadowed seams.

Patching or re-hanging the same walls almost never triggers one. New partitions, basement finishes and additions do — HomeGuide pegs those permits at $50–$400, and the inspection typically happens at the fastening stage, before any taping starts. Asbestos testing applies to some pre-1990 plaster-and-lath tear-outs.

QuietRock-style board lifts our default job from $4,012 to about $7,068 — roughly $3,056 more. For a shared wall, home theater or street-facing bedroom, one layer can beat two layers of standard board. Cheaper acoustic routes: resilient channel plus a second standard layer, or mineral wool in the cavity before the board goes up.