AI tendering for dryliners

Price a drylining tender per m² of each partition type, built from your gang's cost and output, the board and metal per m² for that exact system, and a waste allowance, then add deflection heads, openings and attendances as separate lines. Price the specified system. Substituting a cheaper one can void its tested fire and acoustic performance.

What makes drylining tenders hard to price?

The drawings show where the walls go; the spec decides what they cost. A partition layout might carry six wall types with different studs, board layers and insulation, and each has a fire or acoustic rating that only holds if you build that system as tested.

The problems that come up on almost every drylining package:

• Type mix. A plan with type references (P1, P2, P3) that you must match to the spec for every run.
• System substitution. Main contractors ask for "or equivalent" savings, but the rating belongs to the manufacturer's tested system.
• Deflection heads. Slab movement needs a deflection head at the top of the wall; it adds cost per metre and its own detail.
• Waste. Boards, studs and offcuts on cut-up layouts.
• Labour-only vs supply and fit, and who provides hoisting, storage and waste removal.
• Programme. Return visits for services, out-of-sequence working and second-fix boarding after M&E.

Over-ordering on a drylining package usually comes from a take-off done by area without allowing for sheet sizes and layouts, then a round-number top-up "to be safe". A take-off that counts sheets by wall type, with a stated waste factor, fixes most of it.

How do you price a partition package from the drawings?

Measure the wall area for each type, multiply by board layers and faces to get board m², then price each type per m² of wall. Add deflection heads and other linear items by the metre.

Run the calculator once for each wall type. Output is the figure to check hardest: two layers each side with a deflection head is far slower per m² than a single-layer wall, and pricing them at the same output is the most common drylining tender mistake.

Can you substitute the specified partition system?

Usually not at tender, and never without written approval. Fire and acoustic performance is claimed for the whole system as tested, so changing the board, stud, insulation or even the accessories can leave you with an untested wall.

British Gypsum's SpecSure warranty terms, for example, say its systems must comprise only genuine components it specifies, and that if any part of the system, including accessories, insulation and finish, is substituted, the installation won't qualify for the warranty. The performance it guarantees is the performance tested in UKAS-accredited labs and installed as its White Book sets out. Other manufacturers set out their own terms: check theirs.

What should a drylining tender qualify?

The system, the attendances, the deflection heads and making good. Those four cover most disputes on partition packages.

Tender: project name, drylining and partitions package
Our price: £amount excluding VAT, dated date

1. Priced from partition layouts drawing numbers and revisions and specification reference, wall types list.
2. Systems priced as specified: manufacturer and system references. No substitution is included. Alternatives offered separately are subject to written approval and the manufacturer's test evidence.
3. Deflection heads priced for mm mm deflection as detail reference. Different deflection requirements will be valued as a variation.
4. Openings, access panels and pattresses priced as listed: numbers. Additional items at our schedule rates.
5. Fire stopping of service penetrations excluded unless listed. Or: included to [system] for penetrations shown.
6. Hoisting, distribution to floors, secure storage and waste removal by the main contractor.
7. Floors and soffits assumed level and to tolerance; packing beyond mm mm excluded.
8. Price assumes number visits per area. Return visits after services are installed, or out-of-sequence working, at £rate per visit.
9. Taping, jointing and finish to level or standard only; decoration excluded.
10. Making good after others' work excluded.
11. Price valid for number days; board and metal subject to supplier price changes after that date.

Supply and fit carries the material risk; labour-only carries the output risk. Under CIS, a contractor deducts from your labour but not from materials you paid for directly, so show them as separate figures on supply-and-fit invoices. If you're unsure which to bid, see supply-and-fit vs labour-only.

What can AI do on a drylining tender, and what can't it?

AI is strong at measuring wall runs, matching types to the spec and counting sheets; it can't tell you what the slab is doing or whether the M&E will be in on time.

What it does well:

• Partition take-offs. Lengths by type from a clear layout, times the height from sections, giving wall m² per type. See testing an AI take-off for how to check it.
• Board and metal counts per system, by layer and face, with waste.
• Spec clashes. A type shown as 60-minute on the plan and 30-minute in the spec, or a deflection head on the detail but not in the schedule.
• Drafting the qualifications from your list, with the wall types filled in.

What still needs you:

• Output per type. Your fixers' speed on two-layer fire walls is your figure.
• Buildability. Head details around beams, services and curtain walling.
• Substitution calls. Whether an alternative is acceptable is for the designer, with your judgement on risk.
• Sign-off. The price and the qualifications go out under your name.

Before you trust it on a live tender, run an AI take-off alongside your own on a package you've already priced and compare wall m² per type.

How do you win more drylining tenders?

Bid compliant, price each wall type at its true output, and make the qualifications easy to compare. Read the pack for ten minutes before measuring, using the 10-minute tender read, and walk away from packages with no wall-type spec, or where "value engineering" means swapping a fire system without evidence. For how Nexley works for drylining firms more widely, see the drylining trade page.

Common questions