A drywall estimate template that separates hang from finish.
Board count, finish level, and the corner and opening counts that predict hours better than square footage does.
Get the drywall estimate template
A working spreadsheet, not a picture of one. The totals, overhead, and margin are live formulas. We email it over, so no download to lose track of.
One email with the template attached. We will not pass your address on.
Drywall looks like the easiest trade to template. Flat surfaces, standard sheets, simple multiplication. Then you price a basement full of soffits and a stairwell at the same rate as a rectangular room and discover where the hours went.
The sheet below splits hang from finish, because they use different crews at different rates, and puts the real cost drivers on their own lines.
The template
| Section | Line item | Unit | What decides it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Quantities | Wall and ceiling area | Square feet | Measured, not floor area |
| Quantities | Board count | Sheets | Area divided by sheet coverage, plus 10-15% |
| Quantities | Sheet length | 8 / 10 / 12 ft | Longer means fewer butt joints |
| Quantities | Board type | Sheets | Standard, moisture, fire-rated, sound |
| Hang | Wall hang | Square feet | Area |
| Hang | Ceiling hang | Square feet | Slower than walls |
| Hang | Height surcharge | Square feet | Above 8 ft, stilts or staging |
| Finish | Finish level | 3 / 4 / 5 | Level 5 skims every square foot |
| Finish | Tape and coat, flat seams | Linear feet | Seam length |
| Finish | Inside corners | Linear feet | Corner count, the real driver |
| Finish | Outside corners and bead | Linear feet | Bead footage |
| Finish | Openings and returns | Count | Doors, windows, archways |
| Finish | Texture | Square feet | Type, and whether it must match existing |
| Site | Dust protection and cleanup | Room or job | Occupied or vacant |
| Site | Stocking and access | Hours | Stairs, tight turns, upper floors |
| Totals | Job cost, overhead, profit | Sum, percent, percent | Three separate lines |
Finish level is the line customers have never heard of
The industry defines finish levels 0 through 5, and the labor gap between them is large even though material cost barely moves. Level 4 is the normal residential finish. Level 5 adds a skim coat across the entire surface, which is what you need under gloss paint or raking natural light.
Put it on the sheet in plain language. If a customer with big windows and satin paint expects a glass-smooth wall and you priced Level 4, that disagreement surfaces after the painter has finished and it is expensive to settle.
Count corners, not just square feet
The best predictor of finishing hours is how many corners a space has. Every inside corner is taped and every outside corner takes bead, and both are slower per foot than a flat seam. That is why the sheet has separate lines for inside corners, outside corners, and openings rather than one finishing rate.
More on the reasoning in how to estimate a drywall job.
Patch and repair work
Repairs are priced by the visit, not the area. A small patch needs the same setup, dust protection, and three coats with drying time between them as a large one, which makes most patches a multi-visit job. Pricing one visit is the standard way to lose money on small work.
Texture matching deserves its own line and an honest conversation. A patch that is structurally perfect but visibly different is a callback, and if the texture cannot be blended, the real scope is refinishing to a break. Saying that upfront is much easier than saying it afterward.