How to Quote a Drywall Job

A defensible drywall estimate is built from four buckets. Materials come first: measure the real quantity, add 8 to 12% waste, and price from a current supplier list, not last year's numbers. Labor is next: estimate crew hours for each phase and multiply by your loaded labor rate, which includes wages, payroll taxes, workers comp, and a share of overhead. Then permits, inspection time, and disposal. Finally a 10 to 15% contingency for the surprises every drywall job hides.

Only after those four buckets do you apply markup. Markup is your profit and the cost of running the business: the truck, the software, the insurance, the time you spend quoting. Folding markup into the labor rate hides it from you and makes it impossible to see whether a job actually made money.

Break the job into phases and estimate hours for each, then sum. Prep, the main install, and finish or cleanup almost always take longer than the eager estimate in your head. Pull the real hours from your last three similar drywall jobs instead of guessing. If you track time in the field, those numbers are already sitting in your job history.

Multiply phase hours by your loaded crew rate. A common mistake is using the bare wage. Your true cost per field hour is usually 1.4 to 1.7 times the wage once taxes, comp, and overhead are loaded in. Quote from the loaded rate or you are quietly working for free.

• Estimate hours per phase, then sum, instead of one lump guess.
• Use a loaded crew rate, not the bare hourly wage.
• Pull real hours from your last three similar jobs.

Most small drywall contractors need a 15 to 25% markup to stay healthy, and many should be higher. Markup is not greed. It is what keeps the business solvent between jobs, covers the quotes you write and lose, and pays for the equipment and software that let you work. Confusing markup with margin is the single most common reason contractors undercharge.

Markup and margin are not the same number. A 25% markup on cost is only a 20% margin on price. Decide your target margin first, then back into the markup that gets you there. ContractShield shows the markup line on every quote so you can see your real position before you send it.

Win rate is about clarity as much as price. A drywall client comparing three bids will pick the one they understand. Show materials, labor, permits, and contingency as separate lines. Spell out what is included and, just as important, what is not. Name your milestones and the payment tied to each.

Send it the same day if you can. Speed signals that you are organized and that you want the work. A clean, fast, line-itemed quote beats a cheaper number scrawled on the back of a business card almost every time.

Building a drywall estimate by hand takes most contractors 4 to 6 hours. ContractShield's AI quote builder drafts the labor and material line items from the scope you describe, then you adjust and set markup. Most jobs are quote-ready in about 25 minutes.

The quote does not die after it is sent. When the client accepts, it becomes a managed project with tasks, time tracking, a materials list, a photo timeline, and milestone invoicing through Stripe. You quote and run the drywall job in one place. The platform fee is 2% per job (1% each side), capped at $250, with no per-lead fees.