What Is a Takeoff in Construction? How One Is Built, Step by Step

A takeoff in construction is the measured list of the work a drawing set calls for: doors by the each, base by the foot, floors by the square foot, concrete by the yard. Every price in a bid stands on that list, so a mistake in it travels into every number after it.

This guide builds one takeoff from the sheet index to the order list. You will see the quantity takeoff that measures the work in place and the material takeoff that turns those measures into what a supplier sells. Each line prints its inputs, so you can re-add any total yourself.

What is a takeoff in construction, in plain terms

A takeoff turns drawings into quantities. You read the plans and specifications, then write down how much of each thing the job needs, in the unit that thing is bought or bid in. The same list sets the bid price, the buyout list for suppliers and the scope you hand to subs, so one miss shows up in all three.

Most lines are one of four kinds of measure. Steel and reinforcing add a fifth, weight, in pounds or tons. The table shows the four with their usual unit and source, using lines from the example you will build below.

The terms get used loosely. Some writers treat a quantity takeoff and a material takeoff as one thing. Lecture notes from an estimating course at King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals draw a line. A quantity takeoff is measured net in place, and a material takeoff works in gross quantities of what you buy. Whatever a document calls itself, ask what it contains before you rely on it.

A takeoff holds no prices. Price the quantities, add general conditions, overhead and profit, and you have an estimate. Put terms on it and send it, and you have a bid. Some guides also list labor and equipment takeoffs. Those are hours and machine time worked out from these quantities, so they belong to the estimate. Some contractors send part of the work to an outside desk, and the page on how an outsourced takeoff works covers that route. The method here is the same whoever holds the pencil.

Read the drawing set before you measure anything

Open the sheet index first. It lists the sheets and the discipline behind each. Sets that follow the U.S. National CAD Standard use letters for disciplines, as this summary of the sheet-number pattern shows: A is architectural, S structural, M mechanical, E electrical and P plumbing. A digit after the letters marks plans, details and schedules. However, not every set follows the pattern, so confirm it against the index in front of you.

Read in a fixed order. Start with the instructions to bidders, the general notes and symbols, and the specification sections for your trades, because they set what you measure and which alternates and allowances apply. Then read the floor plans and the schedules for doors, windows, finishes, equipment and fixtures, and last the details the plans point to. Write the issue date and the addendum number on your index before you measure a line. Measuring a superseded sheet is an error that arithmetic checks will not catch.

Drawings and specifications sometimes disagree, and the contract decides which one wins. A federal fixed-price construction contract that includes FAR clause 52.236-21 makes the specifications govern when they differ from the drawings. It sends a discrepancy in the figures, drawings or specifications to the contracting officer for a written decision. It also treats an item named in one document and missing from the other as shown in both, so measure what either one calls for.

The text linked here is the acquisition.gov version, and the clause in your solicitation is the one that applies. A private contract sets its own order of precedence, so read yours. This section explains how the documents work. It is not legal advice. Your contract and the law that applies to it control, so check the current text.

Check scale before you trust a measurement. A reduced print measures short against its stated scale, yet nothing on the sheet looks wrong. Compare a dimension the drawing prints with what the sheet gives you, and repeat on every sheet. Prefer printed dimensions to scaled ones. Where a dimension is not printed, work it out from the ones that are and write the calculation beside the line.

How to do a construction takeoff, step by step

Each step catches a different kind of error, and skipping one pushes its error into a later step, where it costs more.

1. Index the sheets. List every sheet and mark it in scope, reference only, or not yours.

2. Confirm scale on each sheet. A late reissue or a reduced detail can be off scale while the rest of the set is true.

3. Write the scope boundary. Trades, alternates, allowances and exclusions go on paper before the first measurement.

4. Pick a sort order. Group lines by building, floor and assembly, and file each under its division. The Construction Specifications Institute's MasterFormat groups specifications by the work they describe, such as concrete, openings and finishes, so a contractor can price each group, buy for it and build it.

5. Measure by condition. Keep each wall type, door mark and finish apart. For example, a rated wall lumped in with plain partitions gets priced as the cheaper one.

6. Write every line the same way. Give a description, the dimensions in the order length, width, height, any deductions, the net quantity, the unit and the sheet it came from.

7. Cross-check plan, schedule and detail. A count from the plan must match the schedule, and both must match the detail. Write down every conflict instead of settling it quietly.

8. Convert and round. Turn net quantities into purchase units, with allowances in their own column.

Steps 1 to 3 start a cover sheet at the top of the takeoff. Seven fields are enough:

• Project and deadline: name, owner and the local closing time.

• Documents: issue date, addenda received and specification sections read.

• Sheets: the index, each marked in scope, reference only, or not yours.

• Scope boundary: trades, alternates, allowances and exclusions.

• Scale and units: sheets verified, and the units the bid form asks for.

• Assumptions and questions: each with the sheet that raised it.

• Sign-off: who measured, who checked, the date and the version.

This method measures what the drawings show, and no more. A set with missing schedules turns every count into an assumption, so list each one.

A worked takeoff: the building and its inputs

This example is illustrative. The building, its rooms and every input are invented to show the arithmetic. It leaves out windows, ceilings, the slab, wall and roof framing, reinforcing steel, sitework and roofing accessories such as underlayment, flashing and ridge cap, so a real set holds many more lines.

The lines run in the order that builds the arithmetic: count, length, area, volume, slope. A real takeoff sorts them by division, as step 4 says.

The inputs:

• Building: 40 ft by 24 ft outside, one story, slab on grade.

• Walls: exterior walls and partitions both 6 in thick, drywall hung 8 ft high.

• Doors: every opening is 3 ft by 7 ft, which is 21 SF.

• Footing: 2 ft wide and 1 ft deep, centered under the wall.

• Roof: gable, 6:12 slope (6 in of rise for every 12 in of run), with a 1 ft overhang on all four sides.

• Layout, west to east: Office A, Office B and the Conference room sit along the north wall. The lobby and then the restroom sit along the south wall. One full-width partition separates the two rows. Every interior door opens off the lobby, and the one exterior door is in the lobby's south wall.

The room schedule below gives the clear size of each room. The perimeter is 2 x (length + width).

A worked takeoff: doors and wall base

Count: doors from the schedule

Doors are a count, in EA. Take them from the door schedule, then tally the swings on the plan. The schedule shows mark D1 once (the exterior door) and mark D2 four times (Office A, Office B, Conference and Restroom). The plan shows the same 1 + 4 = 5 swings, so the count is 5 EA. Each door also needs a frame and a hardware set, which are lines of their own on the same count.

Watch the trap in the room schedule. Counted room by room, you see 1 + 1 + 1 + 5 + 1 = 9 openings, because each interior door is seen from both sides. Nine is the right number for drywall deductions and the wrong number for doors. Counts of devices follow the same rules; counting devices and conduit shows them on an electrical set.

Length: wall base

Wall base is a length. Take the room perimeter and subtract the door openings, because base stops at a door. In this example, restroom base comes with the tile package, so it is not counted here.

Pipe is taken the same way, as lengths by system and size with fittings counted apart. Fixtures and pipe by system shows that version.

A worked takeoff: floors, drywall, footing and roof

Area: floor finish and drywall

Floor finish is area by room and by finish, never one lump. Carpet tile is 12 x 11 + 12 x 11 + 14 x 11 = 132 + 132 + 154 = 418 SF. Vinyl plank is 29 x 11.5 = 333.5 SF. Ceramic tile is 9.5 x 11.5 = 109.25 SF. The floor total is 860.75 SF.

Drywall is wall length times height, less the openings. Each room's walls are its own faces, so a partition shared by two rooms is counted once for each side, and board goes on both. The exterior walls get board on the inside face only.

Net board is 1,931 SF against 860.75 SF of floor. That is 2.24 SF of board for every SF of floor in this building, a ratio you will use in the check. It is not a benchmark for other buildings.

Volume: the footing run

A continuous footing is length times width times depth. Measure along the centerline of the strip, which runs under the centerline of the wall. The wall centerline measures 39.5 ft by 23.5 ft, so the run is 2 x (39.5 + 23.5) = 126 LF. The volume is 126 x 2 x 1 = 252 CF. Divide by 27 to get cubic yards: 252 / 27 = 9.333 CY, which the tables show as 9.33. Adding up the outside faces of the building instead gives 128 LF, which overstates the strip by 2 LF.

Roofing: area on a slope

Roofing is bought by the square, which the National Roofing Contractors Association glossary defines as 100 SF of roof area. Measure the roof surface, not the footprint. The plan area with the overhang is 42 x 26 = 1,092 SF. A 6:12 slope stretches that area by a factor equal to the square root of (1 + 0.5 x 0.5), which is 1.118. The roof surface is 1,092 x 1.118 = 1,220.9 SF, or 12.21 SQ. Measuring the plan area alone gives 10.92 SQ, which is 10.6 percent short.

From net quantity to order quantity: waste and stock sizes

Net quantity is what the drawings show. Order quantity is what you buy, and it runs higher for reasons the drawings cannot show: cuts, breakage, stock sizes and overrun. Keep the two in separate columns. An allowance buried in a total cannot be tested or adjusted.

Concrete shows the idea best. The National Ready Mixed Concrete Association's ordering guide, CIP 31, advises ordering 4 to 10 percent above the estimate from plan dimensions as a cushion for contingencies. Treat it as an ordering allowance and keep it out of the net quantity. For the footing, 9.333 x 1.04 = 9.71 CY and 9.333 x 1.10 = 10.27 CY. An order of 10 CY sits inside the range and is 7.1 percent above net.

Every other allowance in this table is an assumption made for the example, not a published rule. Your own job history, your supplier and the manufacturer's installation guidance replace them.

Three habits show in the table. First, round once, at the end, to the purchase unit. Wall base nets 199 LF, but two rolls give 240 LF, which is 20.6 percent over net, and any allowance up to 20 percent gives the same two rolls.

Second, match the factor to the method. Openings are 8.9 percent of the gross wall area here. A factor learned on gross area already absorbs the cut-outs. Apply 10 percent to the gross area, 2,120 SF, and you order 73 sheets. Apply the same 10 percent to the net area, 1,931 SF, and you order 67. Pick one method and keep its factor with it.

Third, let stock sizes lead where they drive the waste. Framing is the clearest case, and a framing list from plans works from the lengths a yard sells. Pricing comes next, and the seven-step pre-bid number follows these quantities through unit costs, labor and markup.

A delivered package follows the same rule: each quantity ties to a marked-up sheet, and the assumptions sit on their own page.

Check the takeoff before it becomes a price

A takeoff that adds up can still be wrong. These twelve checks look for the errors that survive arithmetic: the wrong sheet, a missed schedule line, a count taken twice. Copy the list into your own sheet, or start from a takeoff sheet layout you can copy.

• Every sheet in the index is marked in scope, reference only, or not yours.

• The issue date and addendum number on the takeoff match the bid documents.

• Each sheet's scale is confirmed against a printed dimension.

• The scope boundary and the exclusions are written down.

• Every line shows a description, dimensions, a unit and a sheet reference.

• Units match the bid form and your cost codes, not a house habit.

• Areas reconcile. Rooms, partitions and exterior walls add up to the gross footprint: 860.75 + 36.25 + 63 = 960 SF.

• Plan counts match the schedules: 5 door swings on the plan and 5 on the schedule.

• Nothing is counted twice because it shows on two sheets, such as a plan and its enlarged plan.

• The three lines that will carry the most money are re-derived from the sheets, not from your own worksheet.

• Ratios are sane: 2.24 SF of board per SF of floor and 5.8 doors per 1,000 SF here. A line far from its neighbors, or from your past jobs, is a mis-hit until proven otherwise.

• Allowances sit in their own column, and each quantity is rounded to its purchase unit once.

In the example, the exterior walls take 960 - 39 x 23 = 63 SF. The partitions take 0.5 x 39 + 2 x (0.5 x 11) + 0.5 x 11.5 = 36.25 SF: the long wall between the two rows, the two between the north rooms and the one beside the restroom. The area check catches a missed room or a wrong dimension, and the scale check catches a shrunken sheet. Neither replaces the other.

When the plan and the schedule disagree, carry the count that protects you, write the question and the assumption on the takeoff, and send the question to the designer if the bid process allows it.

Paper, on-screen or sent out: choosing a method

The table shows when each of four methods fits, where it breaks, and which check still applies.

Speed changes how soon you reach the list, not whether it is right, so every row ends in the same checks. For a longer comparison of measuring in house against sending the set out, read software versus outsourcing for takeoffs.

When the set is bigger than your week

Takeoff Services LLC sells outsourced takeoffs, so read this section as coming from a seller. The test looks only at your hours, your trades and your calendar, so it works the same whichever provider you consider, and it can end with the answer "keep it in house."

Run three triggers on the set in front of you.

1. Hours. Take the average hours of your last three comparable sets and subtract the hours you can protect before your lock date, the day your quantities must be final. Illustrative numbers: the last three sets took 38, 44 and 41 hours, an average of 41. You can protect 4 hours a day for 3 days: 4 x 3 = 12 hours. The gap is 41 - 12 = 29 hours. A gap larger than the overtime you would really work fires the trigger. Here, 29 hours fires it.

2. Trade. The set holds a trade you rarely measure, so you have no past jobs to test its ratios against.

3. Timing. You are about to decline an invitation you would otherwise chase because nobody is free to measure it.

Apply the rule this way. With no trigger, keep the work in house. When one fires, send that trade or division and keep the rest. Two or three triggers mean sending the set. Skip the outside desk for a scope you can measure faster than you can brief, and for a set that is still a sketch too thin to measure.

Count the delivery window back from your lock date and not from the bid date. Takeoff Services LLC delivers in 24 to 96 hours from an approved quote, so approval needs to land at least four days before your lock date. The checks above still run on whatever comes back. A break-even worksheet for outsourcing adds cost to the same test.

Frequently asked questions