DIY drywall: hang it yourself, hire the finish?

Three ways to get the walls done

1. Hire it all. A contractor hangs, tapes, finishes and usually primes.
2. Hang it yourself, hire the finishing. You buy and hang the board; a taper finishes it.
3. Do it all yourself.

Each has a cost in money and a cost in time, and the right one depends on the size of the job, what your time is worth to you, and how much the finish matters.

Why the split works

Hanging is mostly measuring, cutting and lifting. A careful first-timer can hang board well, especially on walls, with a few hours of reading and a lift for the ceilings. Mistakes are visible and fixable: a bad cut is recut.

Finishing is a hand skill. Feathering a butt joint so it vanishes under flat paint, keeping corners crisp and fastener spots invisible, takes practice that a single basement does not give. Poor finishing shows for the life of the wall, especially under raking light. And it is the slow half: four passes with a day of drying between each.

So many owners hang it themselves and hire a taper, who finishes in a few short visits.

The numbers

The hours are the site’s estimates for a careful first-timer: about an hour per sheet to hang and a little over an hour per sheet to finish over all coats. Professionals are several times faster. The drywall time calculator breaks them down:

What the hours do not show

• Weekends. A DIY job runs on evenings and weekends; the project schedule gives real dates, with drying between passes.
• Quality. The money saved is real only if the result is acceptable. A wall finished to Level 4 by a pro looks like a wall; one finished by a beginner often looks like joints.
• Tools. A screw gun, a lift for ceilings, knives, pans, a sander and a respirator. Rent the lift; buy the hand tools.
• Your body. Hanging ceilings is hard work; plan for help.
• Waste. First-timers waste more board and compound.

Doing the hanging well

If you hang and someone else finishes, the finisher’s job is only as good as your hanging. A taper will thank you for:

• Ceilings first, walls after, top row tight to the ceiling. The guide to hanging ceilings first explains.
• Long sheets, few butt joints, staggered and away from the corners of openings.
• Tight joints, no gaps over 1/4 in, and no tapered edge against a cut edge.
• Screws set just below the surface, none broken through the paper, none missing the framing.
• Clean cut-outs around boxes and openings.
• Corner bead on, or agree who does it.

Ask the taper what they want before you start.

When to hire it all

• Large jobs, where 90 hours of your time is worth more than the saving.
• Ceilings over 9 ft, stairwells and vaulted rooms.
• Level 5 finishes, gloss paint and rooms with strong raking light.
• Tight schedules, where a crew’s speed matters.

Contractors’ rates and how they are built are in the guide to what drywall contractors charge, and labour alone on the hang and finish labour calculator.

When to do it all yourself

• Small jobs: a closet, a patch, a single wall.
• Garages and utility rooms at Level 2, where appearance does not matter.
• Textured walls, where the texture hides much.
• When you want to learn, starting in the least visible room.

Drying sets the pace of the finishing however good you are; the guide to drying times between coats explains how to keep it moving.

The tool list

For hanging: a 4 ft drywall T-square, a utility knife with plenty of blades, a drywall saw or an oscillating tool for cut-outs, a screw gun with a depth-setting nose, a foot lever to lift the bottom row, a rasp for cut edges, and a panel lift for ceilings. For finishing: 6, 10 and 12 in knives, a mud pan, a mixing paddle for a drill, a corner tool for inside corners, a pole sander or sanding sponges, a work light and a respirator. The lift and the screw gun are worth renting; knives and a pan are cheap to buy and pay back on the first room.

A middle path for finishing

If you want to try finishing yourself, start in the least visible room, a closet or a utility room, and use setting compound for the tape coat and lightweight ready-mix for the rest. Hire the taper for the living spaces if the first room does not satisfy you. The cost of trying is a pail of compound and a few evenings.