Most drywall bids a GC opens look the same on first read: a page of scope, a number at the bottom. The difference shows up in the field. Good bids compress on schedule and price out tight. Bad bids create a change order for every door location the framer moved, every can light the electrician added, every ceiling height you adjusted after the owner walked the space.
This is what we try to make unambiguous on every bid we send.
Unit pricing, not just lump sum
Lump-sum bids are fine when the plans are final and the scope doesn't move. On real commercial TI work, plans move. Unit pricing gives the GC a way to absorb scope changes without opening the bid every time: "add $X per additional demising wall linear foot, add $Y per added ceiling soffit, add $Z per rated-assembly penetration."
Our commercial bids list the base lump sum, then unit rates for the five or six changes we expect to see. That turns "how much more" into a number the GC can calculate on the spot.
Finish level, stated explicitly
GA-214 defines six finish levels. A bid that says "taped and finished" without specifying a level is an argument waiting to happen at inspection. We call out the level on every wall and ceiling area — Level 4 under paint, Level 5 under critical lighting, Level 2 in back-of-house — and price accordingly.
When an owner asks for a Level 5 upgrade mid-project, we quote the delta against the bid's baseline, not against a made-up number. Same for going the other direction on a tight-budget secondary space.
Material spec the painter can rely on
We name the board: 1/2" standard, 5/8" Type X, moisture-resistant at wet walls, abuse-resistant in corridors. We name the corner bead: metal, vinyl, or no-coat. We state the tape system (paper, mesh at MR board, fire-taping where required).
This matters because the painter's prep time depends on it. A bid that quietly downgraded from Type X to standard board is how you get failed fire inspections at close-out.
Schedule in writing
The best drywall bid tells the GC three things on schedule:
- Mobilization window — how many business days from NTP to boots on site.
- Production rate — square feet hung per crew per day, and how many crews.
- Release dates — when the ceiling grid trade can start, when the painter can start, when the flooring trade can start.
A bid without these leaves the GC guessing on every subsequent trade's schedule. We've seen projects where the drywall sub's silence cost the GC a week of flooring delay. Put it in writing.
What's excluded
This is the section that stops arguments. Our standard exclusions on a commercial TI:
- Paint prep beyond a broom-clean surface
- Caulking at dissimilar materials (we tape, we don't caulk)
- Access panels unless specified and priced as line items
- Sound attenuation blankets (framer's scope)
- Firestop at penetrations (specialty sub's scope)
- Removal of existing drywall beyond the cut-out zone shown on plans
- Overtime and second-shift work without written approval
The GC may disagree with any of these and ask to include them — fine, we re-price. What we don't do is leave them ambiguous and hope.
Change-order terms
Every change order is written, signed by the GC's PM, and priced against the unit rates in the bid before we swing a hammer on it. If the unit rates don't cover the change, we quote it, get a signed approval, then execute.
This protects the GC too: nothing in the final billing is a surprise.
Insurance and safety
The bid names the limits on our GL and workers-comp. Certificates are issued before mobilization, not after. OSHA 10/30 trained leads are on every crew. If the job has an OCIP/CCIP, we state it.
The tell
A drywall bid that reads like a one-pager of contractor-speak isn't ready to be built against. A bid that looks more like a schedule attachment than a sales quote is the one you can hand to your PM and your super and have them run it without coming back to you with questions. That's the standard we try to hit.