A material takeoff service that turns your drawing set into one consolidated buy list, in the units your suppliers sell in, with waste allowed for in a column you can see, so three vendors quote the same sheet line for line.
What ships with every buy list
A material takeoff is the procurement view of your drawings. It is the output you order once the bid is behind you and the job has to be bought out.
A material takeoff is a consolidated buy list read off your drawing set. Every quantity is rolled up by material and size, converted into the unit your supplier sells in, and given a stated waste allowance. Accurate material takeoffs are what let you procure with confidence instead of ordering against a rule of thumb.
Each row of the material quantity takeoff carries the description, the size or spec that decides which SKU a vendor pulls, the net measured quantity, the waste factor, the gross quantity to buy and the purchase unit.
Sheets, sticks, bags, rolls and tons instead of square feet, linear feet and cubic yards. A yard sells 2x6 in stock lengths, not board feet. Grout sells in bags at a stated yield. Both figures stay on the row, so measured and ordered sit side by side.
The document does a different job depending on which side of the purchase order you sit on.
Written for purchasing agents and builder owners in buyout. A material takeoff estimator's sheet goes out under your name as one file three suppliers can quote without a phone call, split by vendor package, with measured quantity and waste factor in separate columns.
You need to know what is coming, in what order, and what carries a lead time. The list flags long-lead material and phases, so the shell is ordered while the interiors are still being priced.
This page is for buyout. If you are still pricing the work and need counts, lengths, areas and volumes organized by trade rather than consolidated into a buy list, order the measured version instead.
See quantity takeoff servicesConsolidation is the work. Deciding what is genuinely the same purchase line, across every sheet in the set, is the part a supplier notices.
Suppliers do not sell square feet. Here is what the measured figure converts into, and what drives the count. Our construction material takeoff services run across CSI divisions 01-49.
| Lumber, engineered wood and connectors | Board feet, linear feet and counts | Sticks by length and grade, members by mark, hardware by catalog number | Cut list against stock lengths, hardware and shear wall schedules |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sheet goods and gypsum board | Square feet | Sheets by size and thickness | Sheet layout, not area divided |
| Rebar and mesh | Pounds | Tons, rolls and flat sheets | Laps, bends, stock length |
| Ready-mix, mortar and grout | Cubic yards | Yards by mix, bags by yield | Placement volume, cell fill, joint size |
| CMU and brick | Wall square feet | Units, cubes and straps | Unit size and coursing |
| Structural and miscellaneous steel | Linear feet by section | Tons, with joists and deck on their own lines | Linear weight by mark and section |
| Metal stud and track | Linear feet | Sticks by gauge and width | Wall height against stock length |
| Doors, frames and hardware | Openings by mark | Doors, frames and hardware sets | Door schedule, rating and the set per opening |
| Storefront, curtain wall and glass | Linear feet of member | Framing by member type, glass by unit | Elevation, glass makeup, gaskets, setting blocks |
| Insulation and ceilings | Square feet | Bags, rolls and batts, tile by the carton, grid by the length | Assembly, depth, coverage rate |
| Roofing and waterproofing | Square feet | Rolls, squares, boards and tubes | Laps, taper layout, edge metal |
| Conduit and wire | Linear feet | Stock lengths and reels, plus the boxes and disconnects an electrical material takeoff adds | Routing, fittings, pull slack |
| Pipe, valves and equipment | Linear feet and counts | Pipe by size, fittings and valves each, equipment by tag | Valve and equipment schedules, fittings off the plans |
| Ductwork | Square feet of metal | Pounds by gauge | Gauge schedule, seam allowance |
| Paint and flooring | Square feet | Gallons, boxes and rolls | Spread rate, coats, layout |
| Earth, base and paving | Cubic yards | Tons or yards, asphalt by the ton, site pipe and structures by size | Swell stated, depth |
Upload one drawing set and read the fixed figure before any work starts
A fixed price and a delivery date come back in writing before a row is measured.
Overage is the fastest way for an outsourced list to quietly cost you money. Here it is a number you can see, change or delete, not a decision someone made on your behalf.
Every row carries three quantities: the net measured figure, the waste factor applied to it, and the gross quantity to buy. Set the middle column to zero and the gross quantity drops straight to the measured figure, with no formula to unpick. Fold waste into the total, the way most lists do, and you are ordering against a number nobody can audit.
The factor is chosen per material family rather than once for the whole sheet, because materials do not waste the same way. Sheet goods waste at the cut line, so the driver is wall height and opening density. Lumber wastes in offcuts, so the driver is stock length against the cut list. Rebar wastes in cut-offs against stock length, while laps are counted in the net quantity from the schedule, so the allowance is a length rather than a guess.
If you carry standing waste numbers, send them with the drawings and yours are applied. If you do not, a conventional allowance goes on per family, gets written into the assumptions sheet, and stays visible in the column.
Ask before you upload a single drawing sheet
Not sure whether you need a buy list or the measured version, or which waste factors apply? An estimator answers on the phone.
Between the measurement and the purchase order sit stock lengths, packaging quantities and lead times. Ignoring them is how a correct takeoff produces a wrong order.
A run needs what it needs. A yard stocks 8, 10, 12, 16 and 20. The row shows the measured run and the stock length it buys against, so the offcut is a number on the sheet rather than a surprise on the truck.
Required quantity and purchase quantity part company the moment packaging is involved. Thinset sells by the bag, tile by the box, block by the cube, wire by the reel. Rows round up to the package and show both numbers.
Switchgear, rooftop units, elevators, custom storefront, rated door assemblies and fabricated steel carry weeks nobody can compress later. Anything the specification calls out as long-lead, plus the equipment and fabricated assemblies that always carry weeks, gets its own flag, so it moves to the front of the buyout.
Buying out several jobs a month? Ask about the retainer
Shops buying out more than a couple of jobs a month usually pay less on a flat monthly retainer than package by package.
One job walked end to end, from a 240 sheet set to three quotes you can lay side by side. Take a two-story light commercial shell with an interior fit-out. This is a generic example, not a client project.
Framing comes off the wall type legend rather than off the plan alone. Wall type A is 6 inch 20 gauge stud at 16 inches on center with two layers of 5/8 type X each side. Wall type B is the same stud with one layer, and moisture-resistant board in the wet areas. Measured as one number those two walls buy the wrong material. Measured by type they produce a board line per type and layer, and a stud line per stock length.
Board converts into sheets at the length that suits a 14 foot deck height, so the count comes from a sheet layout rather than from dividing an area by 32.
The finished sheet groups by CSI division and then by vendor package, because that is how it goes out. Framing and board go out as one vendor package, doors and hardware as a second, storefront as a third. Each package goes to three suppliers as the same file, with the same line items, the same units and one empty price column. When the quotes come back the comparison is arithmetic rather than interpretation.
Three files, plus the coding structure you actually buy in.
Editable Excel and CSV. One row per purchase line carrying description, size or spec, net quantity, waste factor, gross quantity, purchase unit and an empty vendor pricing column.
The drawings come back marked up in color, one color per material family, so any row traces back to the place on the plan it was measured from. That is the file you send to a vendor who disputes a count.
Written assumptions, inclusions and exclusions. Waste factors applied, stock lengths and sheet sizes assumed, yields taken for bagged material, anything the drawings left open and anything deliberately left out.
Grouped by CSI MasterFormat division as standard, or by NAHB and trade-assembly order, or reordered to your vendor packages, phase codes, building and floor. Rows can carry your cost code, vendor package and phase, so raising a purchase order is a filter and a copy. Unlocked Excel and CSV that import into PlanSwift, Bluebeam or QuickBooks without re-keying. Send your template with the plans and the list is delivered in it.
The sheet is built so three suppliers price the same lines. What happens after you email it is where the saving shows up.
The questions purchasing agents ask before they send a set.
Short, practical write-ups on the questions that come up before a bid goes out.
Upload the set, tell us the trades and your buyout date, and a fixed quote comes back in writing. Nothing is billed until you approve it.
