What Is a Scope of Work? The Exclusions List Is the Part That Saves You

What it does

A scope of work is the part of the contract that describes the work itself. Not the price, not the schedule, not the payment terms: the work. It is what the customer is buying and what you are promising to hand over.

It sits underneath everything else. The estimate prices the scope. The change order amends the scope. The punch list checks the scope. If the scope is vague, every one of those documents inherits the vagueness and you argue about all four.

A good one is boring to read and short to write. It is a list of what will exist when you leave, in the order the work happens, in words a customer can check.

The exclusions are the money

Everybody writes what is included. Almost nobody writes what is not, and that is where the losses come from, because the customer's assumption fills any gap you leave.

Painting a room does not include moving furniture, patching drywall the previous owner damaged, or priming bare plaster, unless you say it does or say it does not. Replacing a roof does not include replacing rotten decking you have not seen yet. Running a new circuit does not include a panel upgrade. Every trade has five of these and you already know yours.

Write them down as a short exclusions list and the conversation happens at the estimate, where it costs nothing, instead of on the last day, where it costs the balance of the invoice.

• Anything hidden behind a finished surface until it is opened up.
• Permits and fees, unless you are pulling them and have priced them.
• Disposal of material that was already on site when you arrived.
• Work by other trades that yours depends on, named individually.
• Making good to a standard higher than what was there before.

It is not the estimate and it is not the contract

An estimate is a price. A scope is a description. They are usually stapled together and that is fine, but they answer different questions and confusing them is why so many contractor disputes are unwinnable.

If the only description of the work is a line on the estimate that says kitchen remodel with a number next to it, then whatever the customer imagined a kitchen remodel to be is what you sold. A written scope attached to the same document turns an argument about intent into an argument about a list, and a list can be read.

The scope also belongs in every subcontract you issue, in the same words. A general who agrees one scope with the owner and a looser one with the sub has bought the gap between them.

The three ways a scope fails

Vague verbs. Repair, update, refresh and finish mean nothing measurable. Replace, install, remove and supply do. If a line cannot be checked by looking at the building, rewrite it.

No quantities or grades. Install tile is not a scope. Install customer supplied tile to 400 square feet of floor, on a levelled substrate, with a straight lay pattern, is. The grade of material is half the price of most jobs and it is the half that gets assumed.

No procedure for changing it. A scope with no change order clause is a scope that will be amended verbally, which means it will be amended in the customer's favor and remembered differently by both sides.

The sections that carry the weight

Most of a scope of work is prose. These are the parts that decide who pays when something turns up.

Work included

The list, in the order the work happens, with quantities and grades. Checkable by looking at the building.

Work excluded

The short list that prevents the arguments. Name the specific things, not a general disclaimer.

By others

Work that has to happen for yours to proceed but is not yours. Naming who is doing it fixes the schedule blame in advance.

Materials and who supplies them

Customer supplied material is the most common source of delay claims. Say who buys it and who is responsible when it is wrong or late.

Assumptions and site conditions

What you are assuming is true behind the wall or under the ground. If the assumption is wrong, this is the sentence that makes it a change order instead of your problem.

Changes

One line saying changes are priced and agreed in writing before they are carried out. This is what makes the change order procedure part of the deal.

What it looks like

This is the blank form as this site actually prints it, drawn from the same file the download button gives you. It is not a picture of somebody else's document.

What to do with it

Questions people ask

What is the difference between a scope of work and a statement of work?

In construction they are the same document and the terms are used interchangeably. Statement of work is more common in professional services and software contracts, where it usually also carries deliverables, milestones and acceptance criteria. On a building job, scope of work is the phrase everybody uses.

How detailed should a scope of work be?

Detailed enough that a stranger could walk the finished job with it and tick every line. That is a useful test because it rules out both extremes: a one line summary fails it, and so does a specification so long that nobody reads it before signing.

Does a scope of work have to be signed?

If it is an attachment to a signed contract, it is already part of the deal. If it is standing alone, get it signed or at least acknowledged in writing, because an unsigned scope is evidence of what you intended rather than proof of what was agreed.

What happens if work comes up that is not in the scope?

That is exactly what a change order is for. Price it, get it agreed in writing and then do it. Work performed outside the scope without a change order is work you may not be paid for, and in a dispute it is the weakest kind of claim to bring.

Related terms