Enough to cover the finish you will actually leave on the wall, not enough to match the cheapest postcard on the block. A basement hang-and-texture special and a Level 5 skim under a skylight are not the same job, and a flat price per square foot cannot see the difference.
Open the free bid calculatorStart with length × width × height on each room. Add the ceiling when you are hanging it. Subtract openings once — doors and windows are not board. Add waste. Then price hang and finish as two different hour stacks. Gypsum Association finish levels 0–5 are a useful language for that stack: Level 0 is hang only, Level 3 is what a heavy texture can hide, Level 4 is the usual paint-ready house, and Level 5 is a full skim for critical lighting. Those are not the same week.
An 8-ft closet is the hang you already priced. A 12-ft great room is not twice the hours, but it is not the same hours either — stilts, lifts, and carrying add a real fraction. Each door and window is a cut, a tape line, and a bead, not a hole that makes the job cheaper. If those lines are “included” in a $1.50-a-foot special, they are unpaid.
Orange peel, knockdown, and skip trowel are hours and material after the finish coats, not a free upgrade. Contractors who quote only the hang and “figure texture in” are guessing the line that most often blows a basement special. 4×12 sheets cut joint tape versus 4×8; that is visible in the takeoff, not in a blended square-foot price.
A hanger paid $34 often costs more than $44 once employer taxes, stilts-and-tear-out workers’ compensation, liability, and paid time off are counted. Overhead sits on top of that direct cost. Margin is a share of the price the customer sees, not a markup you add last and forget. The walk-away number is total cost: below it the job makes nothing, even before you pay yourself.
This is not a Gypsum Association production table, not a building-code requirement, and not a finding that a wall is fire-rated, permitted, or paint-ready. The starting hours and material figures are ballpark numbers so a contractor can see the shape of a bid. Replace them with times and invoices from your own jobs, confirm measurements on site, and have a qualified professional review anything that has to be signed or insured.
Price this job in the calculator
Charge the hours and material the job will actually take — net hung area plus waste, times hang, finish level, texture, height, openings, travel, and a dumpster if you are tearing out — then divide cost by one minus your target margin. A flat price per square foot hides the difference between a hang-and-texture basement and a Level 5 skim under critical lighting.
Finish level, texture, height, and openings. Hanging is the cheap half. Level 4 paint-ready is not Level 3 plus a spray, and a 12-ft ceiling is not an 8-ft closet. A neighborhood special that ignores those lines is how a crew works a week for a three-day price.
No. Starting hours and material figures are editable ballpark numbers, not a Gypsum Association production table, a code specification, or a finding that any wall is fire-rated, permitted, or paint-ready. Confirm measurements on site.