Hang and tape, done in days, not weeks.

Professional drywall installation across the Greater Toronto Area

Drywall installation is the bones of every renovation. Get it square and the painters fly through. Get it crooked and every step after — trim, paint, lighting — fights the wall. We have spent seventeen years getting it square the first time, and we hang and tape an average of six homes a week across the GTA.

Our drywall installation service covers full residential builds, basement finishings, additions, garage and detached suite conversions, and small-to-medium commercial buildouts. We are in Toronto, Mississauga, Brampton, Vaughan, Markham, Oakville and the rest of the GTA every working day. One crew hangs, tapes, sands, primes, and walks the job — start to finish, one warranty, one schedule.

What's included in a standard installation

• Pre-install framing check. Lead taper walks the studs with a 6 ft level. We flag anything more than 1/8" out of plumb before we hang. Studs are sistered, shimmed, or planed straight as needed.
• Material delivery. 1/2" CGC Sheetrock or CertainTeed standard, 5/8" Type X fire-rated, green board, cement board, or specialty panels — delivered fresh from a major GTA supplier the morning of hang day so the sheets are not exposed to humidity overnight.
• Square cutting and hanging. Sheets cut tight to electrical boxes and openings with a Roto-Zip. Screws set 12" on ceilings and 16" on walls, dimpled just below the paper face without breaking it. Coarse-thread for wood framing, fine-thread for steel stud.
• Three-coat taping process. Tape coat embedded in setting-type compound for hard bond. Fill coat with all-purpose ready-mix and a 10–12 inch knife. Finish coat with topping compound and a 14 inch knife. Sanded between coats.
• Corner bead. Metal or paper-faced metal on outside corners, paper tape on inside corners. L-bead or J-bead at wall-ceiling joints where seasonal truss uplift is a concern.
• Level 4 finish standard. Walls primed with PVA drywall primer and paint-ready. Level 5 (full skim coat) available on request — see our taping levels post for which rooms warrant the upgrade.
• Daily clean-up. HEPA vacuum-out at end of day. Final clean before walk-through. Drywall debris hauled away.
• 1-year workmanship warranty. Tape lifts, screw pops, corner cracks — fixed at no charge for twelve months after the final walk-through.

Our installation process, day by day

Most residential installations follow a predictable rhythm. Knowing the schedule helps you plan around the work — especially in occupied homes.

1. Day 0 — site visit and quote. Lead estimator measures the space, photographs framing condition, confirms board type and finish level, and emails an itemized written quote within 24 hours. No verbal estimates, no surprise charges.
2. Day 1 — material drop and hang. Boards delivered first thing. Crew hangs ceiling first (always), then walls top-down. Roto-Zip cuts tight to boxes and openings.
3. Day 2 — tape coat. Paper tape embedded in setting-type joint compound. Setting compound bonds harder than ready-mix and shrinks far less. Inside corners get paper tape; outside corners get metal or paper-faced metal bead.
4. Day 3 — fill coat. Wider coat with all-purpose ready-mix mud and a 10-inch knife. Feathered edges past the tape coat.
5. Day 4 — finish coat. Topping compound and a 14-inch knife. Topping is softer and sands cleaner, leaving a glassy surface.
6. Day 5 — sand, prime, walk-through. HEPA vacuum sanders for dust control. Drywall primer (PVA) rolled on the entire surface. Final walk with the homeowner before payment.

When to install new drywall

Most calls fall into one of five categories:

1. Basement finishings. Easily our largest residential category. We hang and tape framed basements every week — typically 4–6 days from start to paint-ready. Most basements need 5/8" Type X on the ceiling under living space (fire code in many municipalities), green board around plumbed wet walls, and standard 1/2" elsewhere. Milton and Brampton family-home basements are a steady weekly rhythm for our crews.
2. Whole-house renovations. When you take walls down to studs and reframe, the new layout needs new drywall. We coordinate with electricians, plumbers, and HVAC trades so we hang once and tape clean. A 2,500 sq ft renovation typically takes 2–3 weeks of drywall and finish work.
3. Additions and second storeys. New square footage, new walls. Often involves matching existing finish levels and ceiling textures. We feather mud well past the new-to-old transition so the seam disappears under primer and paint.
4. Garage conversions and laneway homes. Toronto's laneway suite and garden suite explosion has kept us busy. Mostly 5/8" Type X for code, sometimes with sound assemblies (resilient channel, double-layered drywall, or QuietRock).
5. New construction. Custom homes and small infill developments — typically Level 4 standard, sometimes Level 5 in main living areas. We can run multiple crews on multi-unit builds.

Not sure which board to use where? Our drywall thickness guide walks through 1/2", 5/8" Type X, green board, cement board, and the specialty panels — and when each one makes sense.

Drywall types we install

• 1/2" standard board (CGC Sheetrock, CertainTeed ProRoc, USG Sheetrock UltraLight) — bedrooms, hallways, closets, most living areas. Fastest to hang, easiest to tape, lowest cost per sheet.
• 5/8" Type X fire-rated (CGC Firecode C, CertainTeed Type X) — garages, party walls, mechanical rooms, code-required ceiling assemblies. Glass fibres in the gypsum core hold the panel together longer under heat exposure.
• Green board moisture-resistant — bathrooms, laundry, mud rooms. Wax-resin treated paper face. Not waterproof — moisture-resistant only. Never goes behind tile.
• Cement board (Durock, HardieBacker) — wet areas behind tile, tub surrounds, shower walls. Score-and-snap on site, fastened with corrosion-resistant screws, taped with alkali-resistant mesh and thinset.
• QuietRock and damped panels — media rooms, condo party walls, home theatres, podcast studios. A QuietRock 545 panel each side of a standard wood-stud wall raises STC from ~33 to ~56.
• Abuse-resistant board (CGC Sheetrock Mold Tough AR, USG Fiberock) — high-traffic commercial corridors, schools, daycares, clinics. Fibre-reinforced gypsum core resists denting and impact.
• Mould-resistant board (CGC Sheetrock Mold Tough) — basements with humidity history, garages with poor air sealing, areas around plumbing.
• Sag-resistant ceiling board — engineered to span 24" on-centre joists or trusses without strapping. We usually prefer adding strapping and using standard 5/8" instead.

Common project types

Basement finishings

Roughly 40% of our weekly residential volume. Most GTA basements run 1,000–1,800 sq ft and finish in 4–6 working days. We hang ceilings first (5/8" Type X for code under living space), then walls (1/2" standard, green board around plumbed walls), then mechanical room enclosure (5/8" Type X), then bathroom and laundry. Three-coat taping over four days. Prime and walk on day five or six.

Condo unit renovations

Toronto, Etobicoke, Mississauga, and Vaughan condo unit renovations are a steady part of our work. We coordinate with property management on freight elevator booking, follow building rules on quiet hours and material storage, and carry the $5M general liability insurance most GTA condo boards require. Demising walls and party walls often need fire-rated and sound-rated assemblies — we build to GA-600 and OBC standards.

Commercial buildouts

Office tenant improvements, retail buildouts, restaurant fits, condo amenity spaces. Most commercial drywall is on steel stud framing, often with rated assemblies (1-hour or 2-hour fire ratings on demising walls, STC ratings on shared walls). See our dedicated commercial drywall page for more.

Custom new builds

For smaller GTA developers and custom builders we hang and tape new homes from framing through paint-ready handover. Level 4 standard, Level 5 in main living areas with raking light. We can run multiple crews on multi-unit projects to hit framing timelines.

Why hire pros over a DIY hang

Hanging drywall is not difficult. Hanging it square, with consistent screw depth, no bowed sheets, and tight cuts at every electrical box and opening — that is a different skill, and it is the difference between a wall that tapes clean in three coats and a wall that needs five coats and still telegraphs every seam. The same goes for taping. A weekend DIY taper can cover the seams. A trained taper feathers mud 12–14 inches past the seam, sands flat, and primes a wall that disappears under paint.

If you want to save money, the best approach is to hang the drywall yourself (with help — sheets are heavy, especially 5/8" on a ceiling) and pay a pro for taping only. Standalone taping and mudding typically saves 35–45% off a full hang-and-tape number. Just be aware that a poorly hung sheet creates problems we cannot tape away — bowed sheets, missed studs, oversize cuts at boxes, and gaps wider than 1/8" at seams all telegraph through the finish.

Pricing

Most GTA drywall installations fall between $2.50 and $4.50 per square foot, hung and taped to Level 4. The wide range comes from ceiling height, room count, finish level, and access difficulty. A flat 12-foot wide rectangular basement room is far cheaper per square foot than a vaulted ceiling open-concept living room with multiple arches and half-walls.

Read more on our drywall installation cost page, see exactly where the money goes in our drywall cost breakdown, or just request a written estimate.

Schedule and timeline

For typical residential installations we book 1–2 weeks ahead. Repairs can usually start within 48–72 hours. Larger commercial projects we book 3–4 weeks out — earlier if there are inspections or coordinated trades. If you have a hard deadline (closing date, tenant move-in, inspection), tell us and we will work to hit it.