Drywall repair prices in Los Angeles
Small repairs are flat-rate. New drywall and skim coating are priced per square foot of surface, finished and ready for primer. Every repair is sanded, vacuumed and primed so it does not flash through the paint.
| Job | What it involves | Typical price |
|---|---|---|
| Small patch | Doorknob hole, nail pops or a few cracks; texture matched and primed | $275–$450 |
| Water damage, one full sheet | Wet board cut out to framing, replaced, taped and textured to match | $600–$1,200 |
| Skim coat / Level 5 | Texture removed, full skim across the surface, flat under raking light | From $2.60 / sq ft |
| New drywall | Hung, taped, three-coat finish, corner bead, texture to match | From $3.40 / sq ft |
| New drywall, 12x14 room with ceiling | Walls and ceiling hung and finished | $2,200–$3,000 |
| Real job: Pasadena Craftsman plaster | Plaster re-keyed to the lath, cracks bridged, walls skimmed, living and dining rooms repainted, eight days | $8,200 |
HomeGuide's national average for drywall repair is $300–$1,500 and up (HomeGuide (opens in a new tab), checked September 2026). Our flat rates for a small patch and for a single water-damaged sheet fall inside that band. What pushes a job past it is usually a leak, movement or failed plaster behind the wall.
What drives the cost of drywall repair
Why it failed
Before patching anything we work out why it failed. A recurring ceiling crack usually means movement; a stain means water. Patching without fixing the cause just buys you six months. If a leak is still active, the plumber or roofer goes first, and the repair price assumes a dry wall.
Size and position
Holes up to two feet are cut back, backed and patched. Past that, damaged board comes out to solid framing and a new piece goes in at matching thickness. Ceilings take longer than walls because every step, from cutting to sanding, is done overhead.
Removing texture instead of patching it
Sometimes the honest answer is not a repair. A wall covered in old patches, or a popcorn or knockdown ceiling you want gone, is better stripped and skimmed flat. That is priced from $2.60 per square foot: texture removed, a full skim coat across the whole surface, finished flat under raking light and primed. It costs more than one patch and less than a string of patches that never quite disappear.
Texture matching
This is the part people underestimate. Orange peel, knockdown, skip trowel and smooth are matched by hand to the wall beside the repair, not sprayed at a generic setting. If your texture is unusual we do a test patch first and get your approval before finishing. A repair that is flat and primed but textured wrong will always read as a repair.
Drywall or plaster
Many older LA homes, Craftsman houses especially, have lath and plaster rather than drywall. Plaster has to be repaired as plaster: loose keys re-anchored to the lath, cracks bridged, the wall skimmed. On the Pasadena job a previous contractor had filled the cracks with joint compound, and all of it had popped back out within two years. Re-keying is slow work and is priced that way, but it is the repair that stays put.
Painting afterwards
A primed patch still needs paint, and a touch-up in the middle of an old wall rarely disappears, so the whole wall is usually repainted corner to corner. If the room is due anyway, fold the repair into a repaint: nail holes, hairline cracks and small patches are part of our interior painting price, and a full interior repaint includes minor drywall repair at no extra charge.
Older homes: lead and asbestos
In a home built before 1978, cutting out painted drywall can disturb lead paint. Once more than six square feet of painted surface in a room is disturbed, the work has to be done lead-safe by a certified firm (EPA (opens in a new tab), checked September 2026); we are one. Popcorn ceilings installed before 1980 in California may contain asbestos, so we recommend a $75–$150 test before any scraping. If it comes back positive, removal goes to a licensed abatement contractor, and we tell you rather than quietly scraping it.
Handyman or licensed contractor?
For a single small patch, a handyperson can be a reasonable call, within limits. Since January 2025, California lets an unlicensed person take a job only if the total for labor, materials and everything else is under $1,000, no building permit is needed and nobody else is hired to help (CSLB (opens in a new tab), checked September 2026). Anything over that, anything that needs a permit and any job with a crew needs a licensed contractor.
Our license is CA License #1156332, and you can verify it on the CSLB website from the link in our footer. Whoever you hire, check the license before you pay anything.
How to keep drywall repair cost down
- Fix the cause first. A patch over an active leak or a moving crack is money spent twice.
- Gather every repair into one job. Setup, dust containment and texture matching take much the same time for one hole as for five, so list everything that needs fixing and have it priced together.
- Fold it into a repaint. If the room is due for paint, small repairs are included in our interior painting price.
- Ask whether to patch or skim. If a wall has been patched badly before, skimming the whole wall can cost less in the end than patching again. We will tell you which.
How the repair runs
Small repairs are usually done the same day, and a patch is paintable the next day. Full skim coats need 24–48 hours to cure depending on humidity. We seal the work area with plastic and zip doors and sand with a HEPA vacuum sander, so the rest of the house stays clean. See the full scope on our drywall and plastering page or the Pasadena plaster job on our work page.