PreConstruct AIA drywall package doesn't always sit in one division of the project manual. The board and its finishing are Division 09, but the studs, backing, insulation and access panels can each be specified elsewhere, and they're still yours to count if they're in your scope. This guide covers what a Division 9 takeoff spans, how board, studs and finishing are taken off, the levels of finish, where waste belongs and the scope questions to settle before you price. The worked figures come from our sample set, Riverbend Community Centre, which is fictional and drawn for showing the product.
What a drywall bid spans, division by division
MasterFormat, developed by CSI and Construction Specifications Canada, sorts a project manual into numbered divisions (00 to 49, some held in reserve). Its current edition is MasterFormat 2026, and many project manuals still follow an earlier one, so go by the edition yours uses. Where a material sits is the specification writer's choice, so the middle column is what you'll often see, not a rule.
| Division | What can sit there on a drywall bid | In our product, by default |
|---|---|---|
| 05 Metals | Load-bearing cold-formed steel framing; some specifications put all the steel studs here | Studs and track of every metal wall type |
| 06 Wood, Plastics, and Composites | Wood backing and blocking inside steel-stud walls | Backing |
| 07 Thermal and Moisture Protection | Insulation, and the firestopping at rated walls | Insulation, acoustic batts included |
| 08 Openings | Access doors and panels set in your walls | Access panels |
| 09 Finishes | Gypsum board and finishing, non-structural metal framing in many specifications, ceilings and painting | Board, tape, compound, corner bead, primer and paint |
Two public specifications show it moving. Newfoundland and Labrador's master specification for public buildings lists gypsum board and non-structural metal framing together under Division 9. A 2025 City of Winnipeg gypsum board specification sends the stud framing to a framing section of its own and the firestopping to Division 07, but keeps the acoustic batts in the board section. Read the project manual's table of contents before you build the takeoff.
In the product, a metal wall type's studs and track are filed under Division 05, and its Bid under setting offers 05 or one of two Division 06 choices (wood, or wood framing for the framing trade), never 09. A proposal by division can carry 05 and 09 together.
Board
CGC's submittal sheet for its 15.9 mm UltraLight Firecode 30 panel (not a Type X panel) lists it 1219 mm (4 ft) wide and 2438 to 3658 mm (8 to 12 ft) long, and the CGC and USG estimator for Canada offers 4 × 8 up to 4 × 16, in 1 ft steps, plus 54 in widths. Read the thickness and kind off each type: Riverbend's P1 and P2 print 16 mm Type X, and P3 16 mm moisture-resistant board.
For each type, board is net face area × faces × layers ÷ sheet area:
- Measure the run, and the height the type gives: to the ceiling, a set distance above it, or to the deck.
- Count both faces and every layer, and take each opening off every face it passes through.
- Choose the sheet length to suit the height, because it drives your waste (below).
The metric conversions are in sheets, tape and compound per square metre, fasteners in screw spacing and screws per sheet, and reading the type itself in how a partition type becomes material.
The corridor wall, worked
Riverbend's sheet A-101 has a P1 partition along the north side of Corridor 109: 39 ft (11.9 m) long and 10 ft 6 in (3.2 m) high, which is the room's 10 ft ceiling plus the 6 in the legend prints (“TO 6" ABOVE CEILING”). It has two D-1 doors at 3 × 7 ft and one D-5 at 2 ft 10 in × 7 ft.
- Both faces:
39 × 10.5 × 2 = 819 SF - Openings:
61.8 SF a face × 2 = 123.7 SF - Net board:
695.3 SF(64.6 m²) - With the type's 10 per cent board waste:
695.3 × 1.10 ÷ 32 SF a sheet = 23.9 → 24sheets of 4 × 8 (2.97 m² a sheet)
The product prints that line's working as 695.3 SF net both faces × 10% waste ÷ 32 SF/sheet = 23.9 → 24 sheets.
Steel framing
Studs are counted run by run: LF × 12 ÷ spacing, rounded up, plus one to close the run, then the extra studs at each opening, corner and tee, then waste. Track is two lengths of wall, top and bottom. On the corridor wall, at 16 in centres with 4 extra studs a door, that comes to 39 LF × 12 ÷ 16" = 30, + 1 = 31 + 3 openings × 4 = 43 × 10% waste = 47.3 → 48 studs and 39 LF × 2 = 78 × 10% waste = 85.8 → 86 LF of track. Gauges, mils, sizes and studs per metre are in steel stud gauges, mils and sizes, and the metal stud calculator does the count.
On a commercial job, stud and fastener spacing comes from the project specification, the listed fire-rated design if the wall is rated, the board maker's data sheet and ASTM C840. Check the edition: ASTM lists C840-25 as active, the 2025 Winnipeg specification still names C840-17a, and a bid follows the edition its specification names. CGC's submittal sheet for that panel, for one, allows single-layer 15.9 mm board on unrated walls over framing up to 610 mm apart either way, and on ceilings 406 mm with the board parallel to the framing or 610 mm across it.
What a specification adds to the takeoff
Clauses like these change the count and the price, and they're only in the specification:
- A 2017 City of Winnipeg framing specification asks for slip track at all interior partitions, and floor and ceiling track fastened at 600 mm centres at most.
- The same specification puts a stud within 50 mm of abutting walls and at each side of openings and corners, two studs each side of an opening wider than the stud spacing, and 38 mm wood backing behind basins, washroom accessories and grab bars.
- It gives 22 gauge as typical for interior walls and 20 gauge for ceilings and bulkheads, unless noted otherwise. Those are its gauges, not a recommendation: yours are on your drawings and in your specification.
- This 2025 City of Winnipeg specification says board runs full height where studs go up to the structure, wants steel corner bead in one piece at each location, and screws fire-rated walls at 200 mm round each sheet's edge and 300 mm in the field.
A wall to the deck often takes a deflection or slip track at its head, a different product and price from the bottom track. If your specification calls for one and the printed type doesn't show it, add it to the wall type in the product with Add a material, per LF of wall. Backing is its own line, in Division 06.
Finishing and levels of finish
GA-214, the Gypsum Association's guide to levels of finish, recommends six levels, 0 to 5, and, for Levels 4 and 5, says the design professional should mark those areas on the finish schedule or the plans. In short:
| Level | What it is | Where GA-214 says it's typically specified |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | No taping or finishing | Temporary work, or where the final finish isn't decided |
| 1 | Tape set in compound at joints and inside corners | Plenums, above ceilings and other concealed areas; smoke barriers |
| 2 | Tape wiped with a thin coat; one coat over fasteners and accessories | Under tile; garages, warehouses and storage where looks don't matter |
| 3 | One more coat on the joints; two on fasteners and accessories | Under medium or heavy texture, or heavy wallcovering |
| 4 | Two more coats on flat joints, one on inside corners, three on fasteners and accessories | Flat paint, light texture, lighter wallcoverings |
| 5 | Level 4 plus a skim coat over the whole surface | Gloss or sheen paint, dark colours, critical lighting |
The specification decides the bid. This 2025 Winnipeg specification puts board under flat, eggshell or satin paint at Level 4 and uses no Level 5, while GA-214 doesn't recommend non-flat paint over Level 4 and points it to Level 5. Where the drawings and the specification don't agree, ask before close.
Tape and compound
Makers publish coverage per area of board. USG gives about 370 ft of paper joint tape per 1,000 SF of board (112 m per 93 m²). For ready-mixed compound, USG's sheet J1968 gives about 9.4 gal per 1,000 SF (38.3 L per 100 m²), and CGC's all purpose compound sold in Eastern Canada about 40.5 L per 100 m² (10 gal per 1,000 SF).
The product's starting rates, set on each wall type, are 37 LF of tape and 1.4 gal of compound per 100 SF of board for three coats: 370 ft and 14 gal per 1,000 SF (57 L per 100 m²). The tape matches USG's figure. The compound is higher than both makers' figures, so set it to what your finishers use at that level. On the corridor wall they give 284 LF of tape (86.6 m) and 11 gal of compound (41.6 L), waste included. Level 5's skim coat is a line of its own, at 2 gal per 100 SF on the starting Level 5 type.
Bead, control joints and temperature
Corner bead is outside corners × height, bought in sticks. Control joints follow the specification: this 2025 Winnipeg one asks for them where a partition or furring run passes 9 m, where a ceiling passes 15 m either way, and where board meets the structure or a different wall.
Joint treatment needs warmth. This 2025 Winnipeg specification keeps the space between 10 and 21 °C for 48 hours before and during boarding and taping and for at least 48 hours after taping is done, and CGC's compound sheet asks for at least 13 °C during joint finishing in cold weather. On a winter job that's heat somebody supplies, so it's on the scope list below.
Waste factor: where it comes from and where it goes
The gypsum makers' own estimators leave waste out. The CGC and USG estimator for Canada says “This estimate doesn't include an allowance for waste,” and CertainTeed's calculator says its estimates “do not include allowances for waste.” The allowance is yours to set.
You'll see a figure of about 12 per cent quoted. NIST's life-cycle model for generic gypsum board (BEES, 2010) assumes about 12 per cent of installation materials go to landfill, and Pennsylvania's environment department puts drywall wasted during installation at about 12 per cent. Both are averages across many jobs, from a life-cycle model and a waste-reduction programme, not a figure worked out for your walls.
What drives your allowance
- Sheet length against wall height. The 2025 Winnipeg specification wants wall board hung vertically to avoid end joints, so a 10 ft 6 in wall takes 11 or 12 ft sheets standing, whichever your supplier stocks (the CGC and USG estimator lists both). That leaves 6 in or 1 ft 6 in to cut off the top: about 4.5 or 12.5 per cent before any opening, against a starting allowance of 10 per cent. Three courses of 4 ft sheets laid flat make 12 ft. Riverbend's 16 ft hall wall is the other case: four courses of 4 ft sheets fill it with nothing cut off.
- Openings and cut-up rooms. Doors, windows, short runs, returns, bulkheads and columns all leave offcuts a long, straight corridor doesn't.
- Layers. Each layer is cut round the same openings.
- Stock lengths. Studs and track are cut from stock lengths, commonly 10 ft (3.05 m) for track, and leave offcuts too.
Where it goes
Keep the measured quantity where you can see it, and add waste once. In the product, waste is set on each wall type for each material family: 10 per cent for framing, 10 for board, 10 for finishing, 5 for insulation and 5 for paint to start (12 for board on the furring and wet wall starting types), changed type by type. It goes on each wall's figure before the job total is rounded up, and each wall's working, on its row in Measure, prints the net figure and the waste beside the quantity, as the corridor wall's board line shows.
If your estimate also applies a waste factor, the price goes up a second time while the quantity shown stays the takeoff's, so use one or the other. Here is how waste carries into the estimate.
Scope questions to settle before you price
These are the boundary questions, where two subs bidding the same drawings can mean different work:
- Which walls are yours? Riverbend's W1 is the exterior wall: decide whether its inside face of 16 mm Type X board and its 152 mm steel studs are in your price, and which layers outboard of them are other trades'.
- To the ceiling or to the deck, and what happens at the head of the wall: the track, and any firestopping there.
- The level of finish, room by room, and a question wherever the finish schedule and the specification don't give it.
- Firestopping and rated joints: in your price, or another trade's?
- Which division the partition insulation sits in, and whether you supply it, install it or both.
- Temporary heat and protection for the temperatures the specification sets.
- Every addendum and every answer to bidders' questions, read before the number goes in.
For the items that go missing from the quantities themselves (backing, bulkheads, control joints, access panels and more), see the drywall takeoff checklist. The answers change with each revision, so build reading every addendum before close into the bid.
Quick answers
Do steel studs go in Division 05 or 09?
Whichever the project manual says. Non-structural framing is Division 09 in the NL master specification and both Winnipeg ones; load-bearing cold-formed framing is usually Division 05.
How much waste should I add for gypsum board?
There's no one figure, and the 12 per cent figures are averages across jobs. Work out a drywall waste factor from the job's wall heights against your sheet lengths, its openings and how cut-up its rooms are, and add it once.
Level 4 or Level 5?
GA-214 recommends Level 5 under gloss or sheen paint, dark colours or critical lighting, and Level 4 under flat paint and light texture. Your drawings and specification decide, and they can differ, as the Winnipeg one does.
Do you deduct doors and windows?
From the board, yes: take each opening off both faces, as the corridor wall does. Openings add studs at the jambs and head. Whether you deduct small cut-outs is your call, so write it in your assumptions.
Doing it on the drawings
In PreConstruct AI the job's partition types come first: each legend line becomes a type holding what it prints, and you approve it, edit it or leave it out of the bid before any wall is measured. Wall suggestions are a beta, so you tick that you will check every wall it suggests against the drawing, then confirm and approve each one (or a type's ready walls together, once you've looked at them) and draw the walls it missed. Each material line then carries the working shown above, in imperial, metric or both.
Studs and track land under 05, board and finishing under 09, insulation 07, backing 06 and access panels 08. It counts and measures from the types you approve, and never picks a stud, a gauge or a listed design. Here is a commercial drywall material takeoff, step by step, on the sample set, and what drywall and interiors takeoff software covers.