In construction, ambiguity is expensive. The “gray areas” between trades are where General Contractors lose their contingency funds.
A plumber says their bid is “turnkey,” but they didn’t include the core drilling for their stacks. The concrete sub says they poured the slab, but they didn’t include the washout removal. Who pays for the core drilling and the trash removal? Usually, the General Contractor—because it wasn’t explicitly defined in the Scope of Work (SOW).
To help you tighten your contracts and eliminate these disputes, we have compiled a Master Subcontractor Scope of Work Checklist.
[Download the Scope of Work Checklist (PDF/Excel)]
This document is not a contract; it is a definition of responsibility. It is designed to be attached to your Invitation to Bid (ITB) or your Subcontract Agreement to ensure that nothing falls through the cracks between trades.
Our checklist breaks down the most frequent points of contention in residential and light commercial construction. Here are a few critical examples included in the template:
Mechanical, Electrical, and Plumbing (MEP) trades often clash over who is responsible for the connections.
“Daily Cleanup” is the most ignored phrase in a subcontract.
Step 1: The Pre-Bid Meeting Send this checklist to your subs before they bid. Force them to acknowledge the “Gap Items.” If a painter knows they are responsible for patching drywall dings before painting, their price will be accurate (and higher), but you won’t get hit with a change order later.
Step 2: The “Exclusions” Review When a bid comes in, look at the “Exclusions” section first. Compare their exclusions against this checklist. If they excluded “Hoisting,” and you don’t have a crane on site, you have a problem.
Step 3: Contract Attachment Do not rely on verbal agreements. Attach the filled-out checklist as “Exhibit B” in your Subcontractor Agreement. This supersedes their proposal.
What is the difference between specific scope and general conditions? Specific scope refers to the trade’s actual work (e.g., hanging drywall). General conditions refer to the support required to do that work (e.g., scaffolding, temporary light, water). Your SOW must define who pays for the General Conditions.
Can I use one checklist for all trades? We recommend a “Master” checklist that has sections for each trade. You can hide/delete the irrelevant tabs in the Excel version when sending it to a specific sub, but keeping a Master list helps the Project Manager see the whole picture.
What happens if a scope item is missed by both the Sub and the GC? Legally, if it isn’t in the plans or the contract, it is a Change Order. However, if it was in the plans but the Sub missed it, and you signed a contract saying “Per Plans and Specs,” the Sub is usually liable. The checklist is there to avoid the argument altogether.
While this checklist is a powerful tool, it relies on human vigilance.
When you are bidding a project with 30 subcontractors, you are processing hundreds of pages of documents. It is physically impossible for a human Project Manager to catch every single exclusion in every single PDF. Fatigue sets in, and you skim. That is when the $5,000 mistake happens.
An Excel checklist is a static document. It doesn’t know that the Architect just issued Addendum #2 changing the light fixtures. You might be checking scope against an old set of drawings while your sub is bidding on the new set.
Bid Bench acts as an automated “second set of eyes” on your subcontractor bids.
Instead of manually cross-referencing checklists, our AI analyzes the incoming proposals for you.
Stop paying for missed scope.
[Start your 30-day free trial of Bid Bench today. No credit card required.]