What is a scope of work?
A scope of work is the document that says exactly what will be done, with what materials, and — critically — what will not be done. On residential work it is the only thing standing between an agreed job and a disputed one.
What a scope of work must contain
1. Work to be performed, per area
Organised room by room or trade by trade, not as one list. A homeowner reading "paint the interior" and a contractor reading it are picturing different jobs. Per-area line items force the specifics out into the open.
2. Materials and specifications
Brand, product line, colour, finish, quantity. Where the homeowner is supplying something, say so per item — supply responsibility is one of the most common sources of a stalled job.
3. Exclusions
The section that earns its keep. Exclusions belong per section, not as a block of boilerplate at the end, because the exclusion that matters is the one attached to the work it limits: subfloor repair under flooring, hidden plumbing under bathroom, deck replacement under roofing.
4. Assumptions and open items
Anything discussed but not confirmed, and anything inferred rather than agreed. Writing these down feels like admitting uncertainty. It is actually the cheapest insurance in the document — an open item is a conversation, an unwritten assumption is a change order argument.
Scope of work vs estimate vs quote
The scope defines the work. The estimate puts an approximate cost on it. The quote is a fixed price against a specific scope. The order matters: pricing work that has not been scoped is how contractors end up absorbing the difference. Get the scope agreed, then price it.
Why walkthroughs are the weak point
The scope is decided during the walkthrough — standing in the room, talking it through. But that conversation is captured, at best, in a few notes typed one-handed, and written up hours later from memory. Everything that was agreed in passing and never written down was still agreed, as far as the homeowner is concerned.
That gap is what WalkProof closes. Record the walkthrough, and the conversation becomes a structured draft scope — work, materials and exclusions per area, with everything uncertain flagged for you rather than smoothed over.