Level Five WALL & CEILING 604 555 0196

Scope & rates

Four scopes. Rates per square foot of board.

Board square footage, not floor area — walls plus ceilings, less the openings. It is the only unit that means anything, and it is the one your other trades quote in.

Level 4 — paint-ready

$2.82 / sq ft of board

Joints taped and coated, fasteners spotted, beads finished, sanded. The field is bare board. Correct for a matte finish in a room without punishing light, and it is what most of the industry means by "finished".

  • Three coats over tape, feathered out
  • Fasteners spotted three times
  • Beads and trims finished flush
  • Sanded, vacuumed, left ready for primer

Level 5 — skim coated

$4.99 / sq ft of board

Everything in Level 4, then a thin coat of compound over the entire surface. There is then no difference in porosity or texture between a joint and the board beside it. This is not a luxury: it is the only thing that survives raking light off a big window or a run of pot lights set close to a wall.

  • Full skim, wall to wall and corner to corner
  • Priced on area, not on joints, because that is how it is done
  • Right for gloss, semi-gloss and any deep colour
  • What we quote by default on residential

Architectural

$8.50 / sq ft of board

Where the drawings have no trim on them. Shadow-gap reveals instead of cornice, drywall returns at the openings instead of casing, radius corners, barrel vaults, flush bases. Slow, skilled, and unforgiving — there is no moulding to hide behind.

  • Reveal beads set dead straight over the full run
  • Drywall returns at windows and doors, four finished corners each
  • Radius and curved work, usually two layers of ¼" bent wet
  • Continuous planes where the architect will not accept a control joint

Acoustic assemblies

quoted per assembly

Separation between bedrooms, media rooms and mechanical. Double ⅝" with a damping compound between the layers, resilient channel, or a proprietary board. Different material, different labour, and it has to be sequenced with the trades either side of us.

  • Double ⅝" with damping compound
  • Resilient channel over the studs
  • Perimeter sealed — the detail that actually makes it work
  • We will tell you when it is not worth the money

What moves a rate

Ceiling height
Past nine feet you are off a stepladder; past ten you are on stilts or staging. That changes the labour rate rather than the quantity, so it is a multiplier: 12% over 9 ft, 25% over 10 ft.
Ceilings against walls
Overhead work, a board lifter, more fasteners. A 15% factor on the ceiling area, not a blended rate across the job.
Openings
A window is not a saving. It is four finished corners and a run of bead. If the drawings call for a drywall return instead of casing, it is a great deal more than that.
The framing you hand us
We check it before we board. If a wall is out enough that a reveal would show it, we will tell you before we start rather than after — and it will cost you a day of shimming instead of a rebuild.
Minimum
$1,800. Below that the mobilisation costs more than the work.

Send us the drawings.

We take off from PDFs and quote in writing, usually inside three working days.

Send drawings Call 604 555 0196