Drywall

The drywall part of the project cost WAY more than I had budget, took longer, and was far more work than I anticipated. After being apart of most of the process (sans skim coating) I would gladly hire this out again. It’s a ton of work.

My drywall materials & labor came out to: $9,800.00

I don’t have too much to note on how to find the best drywall crew for your project because what seems very obvious: ask around. At my local home building center + meeting other contractors there I got 2 recommendations. Depending on the size of your town these folks might not advertise (ie: have websites and such) so you’ll have to tap into local knowledge.

My drywall guy was willing for me to help him lift and install the sheets and this saved me around $3000 and sped the project up.

A big lesson I learned was that to begin drywall, if you’re approaching the cold season, is that you must have heat on in your home. You do not want to turn on your HVAC system since the dust will ruin it. Your drywall team will likely have a powerful 240v space heater. I’m just noting that so you can plan ahead and have a plug ready to go, using the oven circuit for instance is a great spot.

You’ll want to start drywalling the ceiling first so then you can pause and get insulation blown into the ceilings THEN you can turn the space heater on and continue. This is where scheduling a build can get complicated and you could end up waiting for insulation subs. Instead of pausing the project for 4+ weeks I bought my own insulation at the building center and used their free rental.

The biggest part of what made my drywall job more expensive/difficult was having to use scaffolding for the entire home because of the 12’ ceilings. Ultimately I think it’s well worth the extra expense because the space feels amazing BUT if you are looking to save money going with 10’ ceilings would be a big savings + you could do the project with stilts.

I went with a smooth wall finish + bullnose corner edging.