Blueboard And Veneer Coat Pricing?

PlainPainter

I am a painter by trade that has been troweling on plaster for 5 years for relatives and friends - and for myself. So after all this time - trying to learn it
I finally have gotten decent at it - my problem has now been trying to figure out pricing for these services. I have watched pricing for drywalling on this board - and can't make heads or tails of it. Most people seem to quote what seems to be just labor, and I am left wondering where are the profits - or do people on here not distinguish running a company with profits and working directly for a customer for just a wage?

I talked to a guy at a coffee shop who was telling me that he use to put up
blueboard and finish it for like $35/sheet and that's a 12x4 sheet! And I have found references on the net like in northern michigan - homeowners can expect to pay anywhere from $15-$18 per sq. yard for just the finishing alone!

So where does the truth lay? How can you run your own company and only charge like $16-$17 per sheet to install, tape, and mud drywall? That seems like what you would pay labor. And then add materials and profits.

-PlainPainter

housedocs

Plaster is a pretty rare animal in these parts other from some occassional repair jobs, which I always bill at regular hrly rate. Seems like the drywall pricing question has been discussed in the New Drywall Forum thread thoroughally. I saw the post you mentioned as well about the price for plaster work in Mich, seemed pretty low to me, but never worked up there, some great fishin in the summer though.

Rusty Nails

The veneer alone goes for about $2.50 here. Not counting buying, hanging blueboard and cornerbead.

It is great stuff. We save several days on the schedule, it's rock hard and looks & feels top class.

Con is it tends to crack like light bulb glass with any settlement and it's a lot harder to patch.