Board, tape, mud, and finish for basements, renovations, and additions — $2.50–$4.50 per square foot installed, paint-ready.
Get a Free Quote — 226-212-1413Hanging drywall is the easy 20 percent of the job; the finish is the other 80. Guelph Drywalling handles the complete sequence — supply, hang, tape, three coats of compound, and sand — so your framer or general contractor hands us bare studs and gets back paint-ready walls. We work on basement finishes, single-room renovations, whole-home projects, additions, and garage conversions across Guelph and Wellington County, at a typical installed rate of $2.50–$4.50 per square foot of board.
Basements are the most common installation job we do in Guelph, and they punish sloppy work: bulkheads around ductwork, dropped beams, pot-light cutouts, and short ceiling heights mean far more corner bead and detail taping per square foot than a plain bedroom. We plan board layout to minimize butt joints, strap ceilings where framing is uneven, and keep factory edges at the seams that will catch light. For additions and renos, we coordinate scheduling around insulation and vapour barrier inspections so the boarding day doesn't stall your project.
Drywall finishing is graded in levels, and two matter for homes. Level 4 is the industry-standard paint-ready finish: seams taped and coated, corners beaded and coated, every screw spotted three times, then sanded smooth. Under flat or eggshell paint in normal lighting, Level 4 looks perfect, and it's what our base rate includes.
Level 5 adds a thin skim coat of compound over the entire surface. Why bother? Because bare drywall paper and dried compound absorb paint differently, and under critical light — a big south-facing window raking down a hallway, semi-gloss or dark paint, ceilings under pot lights — you can see the difference as blotchy "flashing." The skim coat makes the whole surface one material. It typically adds $0.75–$1.50 per square foot, and we'll tell you room by room where it's worth it rather than quoting it everywhere.
We supply materials at contractor pricing, which usually beats what you'd pay at retail — and it means the right board actually shows up on site.
Guelph's older neighbourhoods — the Ward, Exhibition Park, St. George's Park, downtown side streets — are full of century homes with lime plaster over wood lath. When plaster is cracking, delaminating, or has been chopped up by decades of wiring work, converting to drywall is often the practical move. There are two honest ways to do it: strip to the studs (messier, but lets you insulate, rewire, and straighten framing) or fur out and board over sound plaster (faster and far less dusty, at the cost of about half an inch of room depth and some trim adjustment).
Century homes are never square, so we shim and plane walls before boarding rather than letting the drywall telegraph every wave in the 120-year-old framing. We also protect and work around original trim, run dust containment, and clean up daily — these are lived-in homes, and we treat them that way. More background in our drywall vs plaster guide.
Installed and finished drywall in Guelph runs $2.50–$4.50 per square foot of board. A typical 700–800 sq ft basement involves 2,000–2,500 sq ft of board and lands roughly $5,000–$11,000; a single bedroom is a few days and a fraction of that. Timelines are driven by drying: each of three coats needs about 24 hours, so a room is realistically 4–7 days and a basement 1–2 weeks. Full numbers, including what pushes a quote up or down, are in our 2026 drywall cost guide. Already-finished walls that just need fixing? That's our drywall repair service, and ceilings have their own page: ceiling repair & popcorn removal.
Professionally installed and finished drywall in Guelph runs $2.50–$4.50 per square foot of board, including hanging, taping, three coats of compound, and sanding to a paint-ready Level 4 finish. Small jobs, tall ceilings, and Level 5 finishes sit at the top of the range.
Level 4 coats all seams, corners, and fasteners and is the standard paint-ready finish for most rooms. Level 5 adds a thin skim coat over the entire surface, eliminating texture differences between board paper and compound. Choose Level 5 for walls hit by strong window light, gloss or dark paint, and long hallway sightlines.
Yes. We use moisture-resistant board in bathrooms and laundry areas (with cement board behind tiled wet zones), and recommend mould-resistant board for below-grade basement walls in Guelph. Type X fire-rated board is used on garage-to-house walls as the Ontario Building Code requires.
Yes — plaster-to-drywall conversion is one of our specialties for Guelph century homes. Depending on the wall's condition we either strip the plaster and lath back to the studs, or fur out and board directly over sound plaster. We handle out-of-square framing, trim depth, and dust containment as part of the job.
A typical 700–800 sq ft Guelph basement takes about 1–2 weeks from boarding to paint-ready: 1–2 days to hang, then taping and three coats with proper drying time between each, followed by sanding. Rushing the drying stage is what causes cracked seams later, so we don't.
Call 226-212-1413 or send the form below with your square footage or room list. On-site quotes are free anywhere in Guelph and area, and every quote is itemized so you can compare fairly.
Drywall Repair · Ceiling Repair & Popcorn Removal · 2026 Drywall Cost Guide
Guelph Drywalling provides drywall installation in Fergus · Elora · Rockwood · Erin · Kitchener · Cambridge.