The exclusions that stop free work

Why customers assume more than you quoted

Not because they're difficult. Because they can't see the boundaries of a trade they've never worked in. "Replace the bathroom floor" reasonably sounds like it includes the toilet coming out and going back, the baseboard, the transition strip, and the soft spot by the tub. You know three of those are separate. They don't, and the moment to establish it is before they sign, not while you're standing in the bathroom holding a wax ring.

An exclusion isn't negative selling. It's a promise you're not quietly making.

Exclusions worth carrying on nearly every job

• Undisclosed conditions. Rot, mould, failed framing, old wiring, non-code plumbing found once things are open. Priced by change order at your stated hourly rate.
• Hazardous materials. Asbestos, lead paint, vermiculite: testing, abatement, and the schedule delay that follows. This is not work you absorb.
• Patching and painting after your work. Access holes, cut drywall, disturbed baseboard. If you do include it, say how far — "patch to a paint-ready finish, painting by others" is a complete sentence.
• Permits and fees. Say who applies and who pays, even when it's obvious. It's one line and it prevents the most common small dispute in the trades.
• Owner-supplied materials. Install them if you like, but exclude warranty on the part and any delay caused by a missing, wrong or damaged item.
• Moving heavy items. Appliances, pianos, furniture, and the shed that's in the way.
• Restoration of access routes. Lawn ruts, driveway damage from deliveries, the path the machine took to get to the back yard.
• Work outside the listed scope. The catch-all. Then honour it — an exclusions list you ignore the first time somebody pushes is worth nothing on the second.

Trade-specific lists matter too: sheathing on a roof, subfloor levelling on a floor, ductwork on a changeout, buried rock on an excavation. Each of the ten trade templates carries its own.

How to write one that doesn't read as hostile

Plain language, no legal register, and where it's cheap to do so, a price rather than a refusal. "Sheathing replacement beyond the 3-sheet allowance: $95 per sheet supplied and installed" is more useful to a homeowner than "sheathing excluded", and it converts a potential argument into a decision they've already been given the price for.

Keep it to the exclusions that plausibly apply to this job. Twenty generic lines get skimmed; six specific ones get read.

The follow-through

An exclusion only works if you use it the same way every time. When the extra comes up — and it does — price it, write it up, get it signed, then do it. The customer who agreed to a $95-per-sheet rate on Tuesday does not argue about four sheets on Thursday. The one who was told "we'll sort it out at the end" argues about all of it, at the end, when you're holding an invoice and no leverage.

That's the whole discipline: the awkward conversation happens once, in writing, before the work — or repeatedly, verbally, after it.