How Much to Charge for Drywall Repair: Price the Trips, Not the Square Feet

How do you price drywall repair?

Price drywall repair from hours: the hands-on work plus every trip you make while coats dry. Then cost the hours, add materials and overhead, and apply your margin.

1. Hours = hands-on hours + trips × (drive, setup and cleanup hours).
2. Labour = hours × workers × loaded rate (wage × (1 + burden %)).
3. Overhead share = hours × workers × (yearly overhead ÷ sellable hours).
4. Break-even = labour + materials + overhead share.
5. Price = break-even ÷ (1 − margin), and never below your minimum charge.

The pages ranking for this query are forum threads ("my wife got an estimate, is it fair?") and cost guides written for homeowners. They report ranges. They do not show why a fist-sized hole can cost more than a customer expects. The reason is trips, and this page puts a number on each one.

Assumptions used throughout (replace each one): $28 wage, 30% burden for payroll tax, workers' comp, insurance and paid time off = $36.40 loaded; $14,520 of yearly overhead (van, insurance, tools, phone, software) over 1 person × 220 billable days × 8 hours = $8.25 per sellable hour; 0.75 hours of drive, setup, masking and cleanup per trip; 35% margin.

Drywall repair cost calculator

Enter the total hours (hands-on plus trips), your wage, materials and overhead to see break-even and the price to quote. It opens on the medium-patch example.

The same tool is the free job pricing calculator on its own page. No signup, nothing to download, and your numbers stay in your browser.

Why drywall patches take multiple trips, and what each trip costs

Joint compound has to dry between coats, and sanding has to wait for the last coat. Unless your method finishes in one visit, a patch means coming back, and each return trip is paid time.

On these assumptions, one 0.75-hour trip with no materials has a break-even of $33.49 and prices at $51.52. A three-trip patch carries $154.56 of trip price before any hands-on work. That is the part of a drywall quote customers do not see.

How long each coat needs depends on the product, the thickness and the room's humidity: read the bag, and do not promise a finish date the compound cannot meet. Fast-setting compounds can reduce trips. If your method finishes a patch in one visit, price one trip:

Same patch, same hands-on hours, one trip instead of three: $236.85 instead of $339.88. The 3-hour version is cheaper for the customer and still keeps your 35% margin. If you cannot do it in one trip, do not quote as if you can.

How much do I charge for patching drywall? A price sheet by patch size

On this page's assumptions, a small hole prices at $169.94, a 12-inch patch at $339.88, and a large repair with new board at $481.38. Add $74.60 for a texture match on the same trips.

Every row is job(hours, materials) from the same math the calculator runs. The hands-on hours and trip counts are illustrations, not measured times: cut-outs, corner bead, ceilings and water damage all add hours. Time your own repairs and replace the second and third columns.

If the patch also needs paint, price painting as its own line from its own hours, or include it only if you carry the paint. The painting bid guide covers pricing by coats and area.

Worked example: a 12 × 12 inch patch

A 12-inch hole means cutting it square, fitting a piece of board with backing, taping, three coats and sanding. With 2.25 hands-on hours across three trips of 0.75 hours, the job is 4.5 hours. With $20 of materials it breaks even at $220.93 and prices at $339.88.

Check it: labour 4.5 × $36.40 = $163.80. Overhead 4.5 × $8.25 = $37.13. Break-even $163.80 + $20 + $37.13 = $220.93. Price $220.93 ÷ 0.65 = $339.88.

Half of the 4.5 hours is trips. That is why several small patches in one house should share trips: price the combined hands-on hours plus one set of trips, not the sheet price for each hole added together.

Minimum charge and why per square foot fails for patches

Your minimum is the price of the shortest visit you would make: one 0.75-hour trip and 0.75 hours of work with $5 of materials is $110.73 on these assumptions.

Per-square-foot pricing breaks on small repairs because the time does not scale with area. The 12-inch patch is about 1 sq ft, so its price works out to $339.88 per sq ft. The 4 × 4 ft repair is 16 sq ft, which works out to $30.09 per sq ft. No single per-foot rate prices both correctly.

Per square foot does make sense for hanging and finishing whole walls or rooms, where area drives hours. Even there, derive it: your hang-and-finish rate in sq ft per hour sets the hours, and the hours set the price.

How much would it cost to drywall a 12 × 12 room?

Start with area, then hours. A 12 × 12 ft room with 8 ft walls has 4 × 12 × 8 = 384 sq ft of wall and 144 sq ft of ceiling, 528 sq ft in all. At 32 sq ft per 4 × 8 sheet that is 16.5 sheets, so 17 before openings and waste. Convert that area to hours with your own hang and finish rates, and price the hours in the calculator.

How much should I charge for drywall labor per hour?

Before materials, the hourly price is (loaded rate + overhead per hour) ÷ (1 − margin). On these assumptions that is ($36.40 + $8.25) ÷ 0.65 = $68.69 per hour.

Hourly billing suits repairs you cannot see into until you open the wall, such as water damage. Quote fixed prices for patches you can size, with the hours worked out as above.

If you pay a helper, price the loaded rate, not the wage: a $28 wage priced as $28 leaves $8.40 an hour unbilled before overhead. The labour burden guide shows how to build your own burden percentage, and the handyman pricing guide covers flat rates for other small jobs.

The other common error is markup. Adding 35% to the 12-inch patch's cost bills $298.25 and keeps 25.93%, not 35%: $41.64 short per job and $12,990.39 a year at 6 jobs a week. See the markup vs margin guide.

Excel formulas for a drywall repair price sheet

Layout: B2 = hands-on hours, B3 = trips, B4 = hours per trip, B5 = wage, B6 = burden %, B7 = materials, B8 = yearly overhead, B9 = people in the field, B10 = billable days, B11 = margin %, B12 = minimum charge.

Calculator, app or spreadsheet, and what to put in your price sheet

Use whatever makes you enter trips and overhead before it shows a price. For one quote, the free calculator; for a saved price sheet, a spreadsheet.

There is no ready-made drywall template in the store, so the free starter and the custom build are the options. Put these on your sheet:

• Patch sizes, each with hands-on hours and trips.
• Hours per trip: drive, setup, masking and cleanup.
• Materials per patch size.
• Loaded labour rate and overhead per sellable hour.
• Target margin, applied by division.
• Add-ons: texture match, corner bead, ceiling work, priming.
• Minimum charge, and a rule for sharing trips across several patches.

Can a homeowner do a drywall patch themselves?

Many small patches are within reach of a careful homeowner. What a quote buys is the trips, the finish quality and the cleanup. Customers comparing quotes should compare the scope, including trips, texture and paint, not only the total.

Step-by-step: How Much to Charge for Drywall Repair: Price the Trips, Not the Square Feet

1. Size the damage. Measure each hole or damaged area and note texture, corners, ceilings and any water damage.
2. Count trips and hands-on hours. Decide how many visits the drying coats force, and estimate hands-on hours for cutting, taping, coats and sanding.
3. Add trip time. Multiply trips by your hours per trip for drive, setup and cleanup, and add the hands-on hours.
4. Cost the hours. Hours × loaded rate, plus materials, plus hours × overhead per sellable hour. That is break-even.
5. Apply your margin. Divide break-even by (1 − margin). For 35%, divide by 0.65.
6. Check the minimum. Quote the higher of the calculated price and your minimum charge for one short visit.

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