In short:
- Takeoff Boost™ automates the time-consuming parts of drywall estimating, like measuring linear walls and calculating net ceiling areas.
- Estimators can generate precise Conditions and takeoffs for gypsum wallboard, ACT, and wall surface areas in minutes.
- AI acts as your assistant, handling the repetitive clicks so you can focus on pricing, labor, and strategy.
Manual takeoffs can be a grind. As a drywall contractor, you trace every linear foot of interior and exterior walls. You measure every ceiling. You count every door and window to deduct surface area. It takes hours just to get a baseline before you can even think about boarding, mudding, and finishing.
The answer isn’t working overtime. Estimators need a head start, and AI-powered takeoff tools are built to do just that. Takeoff Boost in On-Screen Takeoff® gives you an initial takeoff draft in minutes so you can skip the manual tracing and get straight to the details that win the job.
Why Use AI for Your Drywall Takeoffs?
Every hour spent drawing lines on a screen is an hour you aren’t dialing in your labor rates or reviewing project complexities.
Using On-Screen Takeoff with AI doesn’t replace your expertise, it supports it. Takeoff Boost reads your plans with our in-house AI models, originally built and tuned around drywall workflows before expanding to other trades. It instantly reads floor plans and reflected ceiling plans (RCPs), returning separate Conditions for different wall types and heights, ceilings, and counts.
AI can’t do everything you do. But it can take over the repetitive tasks, that eat up hours in your day, like drawing lines and counting objects. It’s an additive to your workflow:
- You get a fast, accurate head start with Takeoff Boost, which returns an initial draft in as little as 30 seconds up to 5 pages at a time.
- Then, you step in to adjust wall heights, assign specific finishes, refine tricky areas, and finalize the estimate.
How Takeoff Boost Works for Drywall Contractors
Takeoff Boost was designed specifically for drywall contractors before expanding to other trades. It helps get you 80% of the way there on walls and ceilings in seconds. Drywall estimators still review, tweak wall heights, adjust any tricky net areas, and add manual takeoff for edge cases like columns or specialty details.
Here’s exactly how it handles the heavy lifting for your drywall bids.
Walls: Linear Footage and Surface Area
Takeoff Boost automatically measures linear wall footage and splits out wall types from plan tags, returning separate Conditions for each type. It also supports taking off both sides of interior walls. The system computes the wall surface area based on length and height. This directly feeds into your board, mud, and labor calculations without making you manually double your measurements.
Existing Walls and Renovations
On tenant improvement and renovation jobs, you need to isolate new scope from existing structures. Takeoff Boost includes a dedicated Existing Walls feature that distinguishes between existing and new walls based on how they’re drawn on the plan. This helps you avoid bidding walls you shouldn’t touch, protecting your margins and controlling your scope.
Ceilings: GWB, ACT, and Net Areas
We know ceilings are historically one of the slowest parts of drywall estimating. When you run Takeoff Boost on a reflected ceiling plan, it detects Gypsum Wallboard (GWB) and Acoustical Ceiling Tile (ACT) patterns. It creates separate Conditions per ceiling type in about 30 seconds. It also returns net areas for complex rooms, automatically deducts the space taken up by walls so you can start from a close, review-ready baseline instead of tracing from scratch.
Doors, Windows, and Openings
Overestimating board and labor around openings can impact your profit margins. Takeoff Boost automatically counts doors and windows. You can then replace these counts with Attachments so the openings accurately reduce your wall surface area results, ensuring you only order the material you actually need.
Smart Wall Heights
Set a default wall height before you run Takeoff Boost. If the plan has height callouts, Takeoff Boost overrides the default to match the plan. If you have a wall that is 12 feet on one side and 9 feet on the other, you simply duplicate the Conditions and reassign the takeoff to get accurate material counts.
Take Your Drywall Business to the Next Level
Takeoff Boost gives you a massive head start on every project. By automating the extraction of walls, ceilings, net areas, and openings, you get a first-pass takeoff in seconds. Drywall contractors using Takeoff Boost report up to 95% faster takeoffs, allowing them to process more bids in less time.
We’ve seen first-hand that AI doesn’t replace estimators. It eliminates repetitive, time-consuming tasks. Everything about this workflow demonstrates that estimators become more capable, more competitive, and more strategic when AI handles what doesn’t require their expertise.
Try Takeoff Boost for Free. No Download Required.
Stop wasting hours clicking corners and tracing lines. See exactly how much time you can save on your next drywall project. Try a preview of Takeoff Boost today and let AI-powered takeoffs give you the running start you deserve.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes. While Takeoff Boost provides an excellent baseline by picking up height callouts, estimators can easily duplicate the generated Conditions. You can set one side to 9 feet and the other to 12 feet, ensuring your material quantities are perfectly accurate for framing and boarding.
Absolutely. Takeoff Boost is trained to read ceiling plans and automatically separate ACT grids from standard gypsum board ceilings, creating independent Conditions for each. If your plans include ceiling tags, Takeoff Boost separates these into unique Conditions, too.
No. Takeoff Boost serves as an AI assistant to generate a draft for review, not a replacement. It handles the time-consuming tasks of manual takeoff: finding the lengths, areas, and counts. Estimators are still needed to review the takeoff, build relationships and network, and find better projects.
