Drywall Cost Calculator
Figure the whole job in seconds. Enter the room (or your board area) and get the real takeoff — drywall sheets, joint compound, tape, screws, and corner bead — plus your hang-and-finish labor and what to charge. Board is walls plus ceiling, not floor space.
You priced the job. Now run it like a business.
That's the hard part done. SideWRK runs the rest from your phone: text the estimate, your customer taps approve, and the money hits — card or Apple Pay from their own phone, landing in your own Stripe account. It keeps a line on who still owes you, logs every material and cost so your real profit and your tax write-offs tally themselves, and stands up a free website with reviews that feeds you the next job. A free estimate today, or your whole operation in one app. Built for drywall and every trade.
Measure the board, not the room
Drywall prices off the surface you cover — walls plus ceiling — so a 12×12 bedroom with 8-foot ceilings is roughly 500 square feet of board, not 144. Measure it that way, pick the finish level the paint actually needs, and price finishing-only work with your eyes open: mud hides a lot, but it does not hide bad hanging, and whoever sands it owns it. A job minimum keeps the small patch worth loading the truck for.
Questions
- How much does drywall cost per square foot?
- Hung, taped, and finished drywall runs about $1.50–$3.50 per square foot, board and labor included — a 500 sq ft bedroom pencils out around $750–$1,750. Board itself is only $0.51–$0.73 per square foot at retail; the rest is your hanging, taping, and sanding. Ceilings, tall walls, and stairwells price at the high end because everything is slower overhead.
- What do drywall finish levels mean for price?
- Level 4 is the standard paint-ready finish most homes get — tape, three coats, sanded. Level 3 stops earlier because texture is going over it, so it runs a little less. Level 5 adds a full skim coat over the whole surface for gloss paint or hard side light, and that adds 25–50% to the finishing. Quote the level by what is going on the wall, not by habit.
- What should I charge to finish drywall someone else hung?
- Tape-and-finish alone runs about $0.50–$1.10 per square foot. Walk it before you commit — bad hanging becomes your problem the minute you mud it. If the screws are proud, the gaps are wide, or the board is busted at the corners, price the fix or pass on the job.
- Is this calculator free?
- Yes. It runs entirely in your browser, there is no sign-up, and nothing is stored anywhere but your own device.
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