How much does a drywall crew get through in a day: what actually sets the output, and when to buy scope instead of people

There is no single number and this article does not give one. The daily output of a drywall crew is not a constant but a function of at least seven site variables, and anyone quoting one figure is in fact quoting the conditions of their last project. On your project those conditions are different.

This is not evasion. A number taken from somebody else's conditions breaks on the first floor where the ceiling is higher or the hoist belongs to another trade, and then the argument is not about output but about assumptions.

The usable answer has four parts, and they are the remaining chapters of this article: the variables that move the output, the take-off method, the mobilisation list and the choice of contract model.

And one sentence up front: a completion date is not fixed by an output figure, it is fixed by a contract. A matrix of stage deadlines in a written contract is the only place where a date becomes enforceable.

Each variable below moves the output in one direction, and several at once multiply rather than add. A tender that does not name these assumptions is incomplete.

The last two variables cannot be accelerated with people: the finish level is a number of coats, and drying is calendar time.

A take-off does not give you a daily output, it gives you a quantity. The quantity is what tenders can be compared against and what makes a matrix of deadlines possible in the first place.

The last step is deliberately the one many people put first. The number does not come from a table or an article, it comes from the crew that will actually build that wall in your conditions and is willing to put it in the contract.

A crew is not a headcount, it is a make-up: boarders, a filler and a finisher, in a ratio that depends on the stage.

Novashop publishes its own crew range on the crew service page: from a two-person specialist crew to a combined team of twelve. That is a range, not a make-up promised to a project. The make-up for a specific project is set against the scope and the stage programme and written into the contract, together with the crew leader who acts as a single point of contact for the client.

The market asks for a headcount too, and that can be evidenced with one dated example. On the construction portal hange.ee there is private tender number 38259, with a bid deadline of 18 November 2016, located in Parnu, Parnu county, for painting works. The buyer wrote that they were looking for a subcontractor or several firms and that the team should have at least 4 to 6 painters. That is ten years old, it is painting rather than drywall, and it says at least, not exactly.

We quote it for one reason: the buyer puts a make-up requirement into the tender document, so make-up belongs in the contract. And then comes the honest continuation: a headcount in a contract is a weak instrument, because presence is not a result.

The stronger trio is scope, stage deadlines and acceptance points. Alongside them go the questions that actually say something about make-up: how many people in the crew do the filling, who the crew leader is, who is on site every day, and who is responsible for giving notice of covered works.

The output of the first day is decided by what was ready on site the day before. Every missing line in the list below costs more than any difference between crews.

Two lines on the list are legal and they are not for the site manager to decide. Under the construction registration requirement of the Estonian Tax and Customs Board, a construction site has to be registered in the TTKI information system where the work lasts at least 30 working days and at least 20 builders are on site at the same time; where those conditions are not met, the site still has to be registered if the total volume exceeds 500 person-days. The main contractor also enters the contracting chain, meaning its subcontractors, into the system.

For the site manager that comes down to one sentence: the crew does not come through the gate before the chain is entered and the passes exist. Entering the chain and issuing the passes belong in the mobilisation programme as separate lines, exactly like material delivery.

The two contract forms are not the same thing in a cheaper and a more expensive version. In subcontracting you buy a result. In labour hire, sold on this market as rented labour, you buy hours. The difference lies in who holds the liability.

Estonian market material describes the labour hire model briefly: rented labour is generally paid for at an agreed hourly rate covering payroll and taxes, insurance and other social guarantees and, where needed, the transport and accommodation of the worker, while the administrative burden of recruitment stays with the hire company. What you are not buying is a result: management, sequencing and quality control remain with your site manager.

In subcontracting that line moves to the other side. Clause 4.9.1 of ETU 2013 places the quality obligation on the contractor, clause 9.3 makes documenting covered works their duty, and clause 9.1.6 leaves them liable for defects appearing after handover even where the client has approved and accepted the works. That line is precisely what subcontracting is paid for.

If you do choose labour hire, the same Estonian material recommends checking the hire company's background, worker numbers and turnover, its registration in the register of economic activities and whether a deposit exists, and adds that you always have the right to ask for the formalised documents of every worker.

Novashop works in both forms, and that is also why the published crew range runs from two to twelve. Project capacity is assembled contract by contract: a core of our own specialist crew, extended with contracted crews according to the scope. Capacity is not held on a bench; it is committed by contract. So the fair question to a supplier is not how many people do you have, but what the contract says when the date slips.