Drywall Installers in San Francisco, CA

San Francisco Drywall Installation

Whether you're remodeling a living room, adding a garage apartment, or building a whole house in San Francisco, drywall installation is likely to be a part of the project. By far the standard when it comes to creating interior walls, drywall is found in just about every home in the country. When installed properly, drywall creates a surface that is durable, attractive, and suitable in most areas of the house. Proper drywall installation is not, however, quite as simple as it may seem.

Professional Drywall Installation
While far easier to handle than its plaster predecessor, drywall installation is still a process where experience goes a long way. On the surface, putting up drywall is a pretty straightforward task: cut the drywall to the necessary size, screw the boards in place, fill the seams with joint compound, smooth the surface to make it consistent, then paint it. Anyone who's ever done the work will tell you, however, that there is more to this project than meets the eye.

For most homeowners in San Francisco, drywall installation is a job that is well worth hiring a professional to do. When you consider the competition involved in selling or renting a property in the Bay Area and the importance of keeping your property looking good (not to mention the multiple things you can get accomplished in the amount of time it would take to do the job yourself), paying for professional results makes a lot of sense to most area homeowners.

DIY Installation
By opting for do-it-yourself drywall installation, San Francisco homeowners can definitely save a few bucks on labor. There are many resources on video, in print, and online that can help you with this task, but remember, these materials are often created by trained professionals with many years of experience. Watching a pro at work in any field can make what he or she is doing look deceptively easy; this certainly holds true for videos or pictures of drywall installation, and is particularly true of the process known as finishing.

Drywall Finishing
Inexperienced DIYs can probably work their way through cutting their own drywall and securing it to the studs, but the really tricky part of this job is drywall finishing. San Francisco is an expensive place to live and saving money on home improvement projects should, of course, be a concern; however, if you plan on tackling your own finishing, make sure you start in an area that is not highly visible until you get the hang of it. Working with joint compound (or "mud") can get very messy very quickly and creating an even surface can be a tedious and time consuming process for the uninitiated. If you want to get the best of both worlds, consider cutting and hanging your own drywall, but calling in a pro for the finishing.

Prices
Nationally, most drywall installation jobs cost about $2,000. According to our figures for San Francisco, drywall installation can range in price from $1,000 to $5,000. Since much of the price goes to labor (many of the materials used in drywall installation are inexpensive and many of the tools are things that a lot of homeowners already have), it is certainly worth the time to figure out how much you would save by doing all or part of the job yourself.

Getting Other Services
In a section of the country known for its high living costs, many San Francisco drywall companies are relatively affordable. When choosing the right contractor for the job, however, you must look deeper than the price if you want excellent service and good-looking results. Each San Francisco drywall company is going to be able to handle basic installation and repairs, but some have other specialties that are worth looking into. In some cases, a company that advertises as drywall experts may also employ individuals who specialize in creating textured surfaces, adding insulation, mural painting, acoustic ceiling installation and removal, plaster work, or any number of other disciplines; by hiring a company that also does other work, you can get two or three projects completed at once, often saving money in the process.

Getting the Best Price
In and around San Francisco, drywall contractors are hardly difficult to come by. Since there are so many different companies to choose from, it's easy to imagine some pretty fierce competition for work. This is one of the reasons why when looking for drywall contractors, San Francisco is a city where getting as many quotes as possible usually pays off. Not only will getting multiple estimates give you a better idea of how much your particular job is likely to cost, it will also give you a chance to see which company seems to value you most as a client. Also, because of the competition you'll find for work in San Francisco, drywall contractors who know you're getting estimates from their competitors, too, may be willing to give you a better deal than you could have gotten otherwise.