PreConstruct AIList each item beside your scope that you are not pricing, and word it the way the drawings do: what it is, whether supply, installation or both is out, and where your work stops. "Insulation by others" looks finished on a proposal until the general contractor (GC) opens the specification and finds acoustic batts written into your own section.
Below: how an exclusion differs from a clarification, the items to settle on every drywall bid, and how to word each one so a GC reads it as you meant.
Exclusion, clarification, assumption: three different things
An exclusion is work near your scope that you are not pricing: "Painting, including primer, excluded." A clarification says how you priced something the documents leave open: "Level 4 finish on painted board, Level 1 above ceilings." An assumption is a fact you priced on that the drawings don't settle, and if it is wrong your number moves: "Partitions marked to the deck priced at 16 ft, from the building section."
A GC reads each of the three differently. An exclusion hands work to somebody else, a clarification says what they are getting, and an assumption says what would change your price, which makes it the one most worth writing down.
Level of finish is where a clarification is most often needed. The Gypsum Association's GA-214-2022 quick reference guide expects the design professional to mark the Level 4 and Level 5 areas on the finish schedule or the plans. When the drawings don't, state the level you priced, room by room if it varies, since the step from Level 4 to Level 5 is a skim coat over the whole surface.
Some specifications settle it for you. This 2025 City of Winnipeg specification says Level 1 above finished ceilings and in concealed areas, Level 4 where board is painted flat, eggshell or satin, and Levels 2, 3 and 5 not used. It names the 2017 edition of GA-214, so check which edition your own specification names before quoting a level from the newer chart.
Items to decide on every bid
Nine items sit on the edge of a drywall package. Decide each one in or out, then word it so the GC can check it against the documents:
| Item | Word it so it can be checked | Where to look first |
|---|---|---|
| Doors, frames and hardware | Supply of doors, frames and hardware excluded; setting frames in our partitions included (or excluded) | The schedules for doors and frames, and the Division 08 sections |
| Firestopping and rated joints | Firestopping of penetrations excluded; head-of-wall joints on rated partitions included to the listed design (or excluded) | The firestopping section, and what your board section says about penetrations |
| Insulation other than acoustic batt | Acoustic batt in the types that show it included; thermal, rigid and spray insulation excluded | The partition legend and the Division 07 sections |
| Painting | Painting, including primer, excluded; board finished to the stated level, ready for paint | The painting section and the room finish schedule |
| Backing for other trades | Backing included where the drawings show it, by sheet; backing not shown excluded | Interior elevations, millwork, mechanical and electrical sheets |
| Access panels | Panels supplied by the mechanical and electrical trades; framing the opening and setting the panel included | The mechanical and electrical sheets |
| Bulkhead framing | Bulkheads included as drawn; bulkheads not drawn excluded | Reflected ceiling plans and building sections |
| Temporary heat and protection | Temporary heat, enclosure and power by the GC, holding the specified temperature through taping | The board section's site conditions, and Division 01 |
| The exterior wall's inside face and studs | The wall type's mark, the layers you are pricing and the layers you are not | The wall sections and the exterior type on the legend |
None of those wordings leans on "by others" alone. "By others" says the work isn't yours without saying whose it is, so the gap stays with whoever reads it last. For the items that never reach the takeoff at all, see the drywall takeoff checklist; this table is about the ones you saw and chose not to price. For the boundary questions behind them, see the scope questions to settle before you price.
Where an exclusion meets your own specification
An exclusion is easiest to misread when the section you are bidding includes the item. The GC compares your number with the specification, so a line that takes out work your own section asks for can read as a qualification of your bid rather than a note on it.
The City of Winnipeg's 2025 gypsum board specification, written for an office renovation at a transit maintenance facility, shows where this happens:
- Acoustic insulation. This 2025 City of Winnipeg specification says sound attenuation batts go in tight between the studs, full height, in sound-rated partitions, inside the board section itself. "Insulation excluded" there takes out work the section names.
- Temperature. This 2025 City of Winnipeg specification says to hold the space between 10°C and 21°C for 48 hours before and during board and taping, and for at least 48 hours after. Excluding temporary heat leaves that clause in your section, so say who supplies the heat.
- Firestopping. This 2025 City of Winnipeg specification gives firestopping a section of its own, then says board above finished ceilings is sealed around every penetration, with firestopping in rated assemblies and smoke barriers. Your exclusion has to say which side of that line you are on.
Whether a given exclusion stands on your job depends on documents this post hasn't read. Check your contract, the bid form, and the bid depository's rules if the trade closes through one.
Writing each one so it can be checked
A GC checks an exclusion the way you would check a takeoff line, against a sheet, so each one carries four things:
- The item, in the documents' words. "P2" or "sound attenuation batts", never just "insulation".
- Supply, install or both. "Access panels supplied by the mechanical trade, set in board by us" is two decisions, and either can go the wrong way.
- Where it stops. A layer, a face, a height or a gridline.
- Where to look. The sheet or detail, so the reader can find it without calling you.
Here is one wall type taken all the way through. On our sample set, Riverbend Community Centre (a fictional drawing set made for showing how a takeoff works), the exterior wall W1 prints on the legend as six layers: 9 mm fibre cement panel on girts, a self-adhered air and vapour barrier, 76 mm rigid mineral wool, 13 mm exterior gypsum sheathing, 152 mm steel studs at 406 mm, and 16 mm Type X gypsum board inside.
First decide whether W1's inside face and its studs are yours. Say that on this job the board is and the studs are not. The exclusion then reads:
W1 (exterior wall): inside face of 16 mm Type X board included; steel studs, exterior sheathing and everything outboard excluded.
That line uses the legend's mark, separates the layers and puts the exterior gypsum sheathing on the excluded side. The sheathing is the layer a GC is most likely to misread, because it is gypsum too. The same sheet needs a clarification for heights: "P1 priced to 6 in above the 10 ft ceiling, as the legend states; P2 and P3 to the underside of deck." For turning each type into its layers, see how to read a partition schedule.
The wording that fails is the short one, like "fire caulking excluded" or "patching by GC": true, and it leaves the GC to guess where the edge is.
Where they go on the proposal
Exclusions split into two kinds by how long they stay true. A standing list holds what your company leaves out of every bid, such as painting if it is never yours. Job-specific items go with that job's proposal: the W1 split, the level of finish you priced, the heights you assumed, and the addenda your price includes, listed by number. A GC checks that addenda line first, and how to read an addendum before you bid covers what to look for in each one.
Exclusions start before the proposal, too. Notes and assumptions are one of the columns every takeoff line needs, and an exclusion written there can be copied into the proposal's Notes word for word.
Before the next proposal goes out, read each exclusion against the section of the specification it touches. In PreConstruct AI your standing list goes in Settings → Company as "What they exclude, by default" and prints on every proposal as "What this excludes", and job-specific items go in the proposal's Notes. A line you exclude on the estimate, with a reason such as "Paint by others", stays measured on the takeoff but leaves the proposal without a word, so write it in Notes as well. Here is how exclusions and scope work in a commercial drywall takeoff. Your first bid is free, with no card: start your first bid on the job you are pricing now.