Fair cost for drywall patches & repairs before paint?

Question

Opinions, please?

I have a rule-of-thumb for how much interior and exterior house paint should cost in labor and materials per square foot, over surfaces in a decent condition.

But if the surfaces need a good amount of repairs first, do you have a way to estimate a fair cost JUST FOR THE REPAIRS PORTION of the job? (assuming the repairs, texture, and paint are all done by the same crew)

Repairs like 1) drywall patches + texturing, 2) repairing cracks and drywall joints + texturing, 3) scraping off bad, flaky paint, 4) washing and/or degreasing surfaces that need it, 5) filling holes or divots, and 6) even trimming back any plants or tree limbs touching the house area to be painted?

I know this might be asking a lot, but I’d love to have a fair pricing rule-of-thumb for each of those specifics.

I APPRECIATE YOUR HELP, THANK YOU.

Lara Fobian

David Robertson · Answer

I typically don't waste my time trying to estimate/itemize every little drywall patch or crack on a project.

Since drywall patching involves very minimal material costs (just tape & mud) I generally just try to estimate the hours it will take a drywaller to do the work.

So if a 3 bedroom, 2 bath house needed miscellaneous patching or maybe some wallpaper removed I'd expect a drywaller to be able to get that done in a day (or less). At $25 to $40 an hour, that's $200 up to $320 + $25 in material tops.

Fair cost for drywall patches & repairs before paint?

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