Been a while and at it again, drywall calculations?

[Daddy4life85]

So a while back I was posting here because we were looking at fixers in Pittsburgh. Well my fiancee and I have since moved to Ohio near her family and started working for her mom sort of business partners. We started looking for houses again since we both have steady income again. We found a 2 story house with a very nice yard and a very large 2 car garage. The house it self is about 1445 sq ft, has siding and a roof that are about 2-3 years old and a newer central AC unit and Furnace. The interior really needs to be redone and this is where my questions come in.

First of all the walls are all plaster. I'm pretty sure it needs some electrical updates and I'd love to run some networking and other audio/video stuff through the walls. So I concluded if I have to do all this and I hate plaster anyways then I may as well pull the plaster and work my way towards putting up drywall in most if not all of the house. I've been trying to sort of guesstimate as far as how much drywall I'd need to try and figure up some numbers before we go putting a bid on the house. I was thinking that 150 sheets of 4'x8' drywall might be enough. I do plan on doubling up the drywall in the living room where I have my hi-fi system with this sound deadening glue inbetween the 2 layers. Other then that it's a pretty straight forward install in the rest of the house. I know this isn't the ideal way to calculate but was curious what you guys thought.

We are super interested in the house because they are only asking $19,900 for it. The market over here is quite low but there is a house that is the same size but updated I'd say 10 years ago and is going for 65k. So with the newer exterior and the fact I might be able to get it for ~15k I think it's a good buy. Here are a few pics of the property.

[handyandy]

We'd probably need to know how many rooms are in the 1445 sq ft to estimate how many 4x8 sheets you'll need, but what you said sure sounds like enough.

Keep in mind it's not always hollow wall behind plaster, like it can be with drywall. So expect to do some wall repair / rebuilding as well, I'd think.

Love the house!!! Looks like a steal to me!

[Daddy4life85]

What kind of stuff do you find behind plaster walls? They are still stud walls aren't they? I haven't delt with plaster walls too much and what I have was hollow behind the plaster. Well other then the lattice board or whatever you call it.

As far as rooms there are 3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, kitchen, dinning room, living room. I'm not sure about redoing the ceilings and what not but I'd imagine I may have to in some spots.

Also what about creeking floors? Is there an easy remedy I can use to fix some of that? The lower level seems to be the worse. I agree the house is really a great price and I'm surprised it's still for sale but I think most people don't want a fixer in this market.

[handyandy]

No telling what you'll find behind those walls. It might work to your benefit but if you are calculating costs then you should assume some reworking will need to be done.

Someone else will probably have more experience with that than me.

How tall are the ceilings?

Assuming 9 feet ceilings, you'll have something like 4000 sq ft of wall space. Divide that by 32 sq ft and you'll have 125 4x8 sheets of drywall. Of course, that won't fit perfectly, so your estimate of 150 probably isn't all that far off.

[Daddy4life85]

Yeah I think 150 sheets is probably what I'll get. I had planned to spend about 1000 bucks on drywall. How much can I expect to spend on mud and tape? I don't mind having extra's left over because we're going to finish the basement eventually. I think the ceilings are around 9 feet though.