Construction estimating and quantity takeoff

The measurement protocol

This is the part worth paying for, and the part no competitor describes. Speed is not a method.

1. 01

   Scale is calibrated before anything is measured

   Verified against printed dimensions on the sheet, in both the horizontal and the vertical axis. Sheets get rescaled during printing and plotting and a scale bar can simply be wrong. Checking one axis catches a uniform error. Checking both catches a distorted one.

2. 02

   Areas are verified two ways

   A measured area is checked against a second independent measurement of the same region, a vector polygon reconciled against a raster planimeter reading. If the two do not agree within tolerance the area is measured again rather than averaged.

3. 03

   Minimum sizes are applied consistently

   Where a scope has a practical minimum, for example a patch smaller than a crew will realistically cut and place, the minimum is applied, and applied the same way across the whole job so the quantities stay comparable.

4. 04

   Wastage is carried separately

   Measured quantity and wastage sit in different columns. You can see the geometry you are actually buying and change the wastage assumption without touching the measurement.

5. 05

   Every quantity gets a basis note

   Which sheet it came from, and which assumption. When a subcontractor or an owner’s representative challenges a number, the answer is already written down.

The markup exhibit

Drawn on the engineer’s own issued sheets. Geometry is never redrawn, because a redrawn plan is a second document that can disagree with the first.

Colour coded by scope

Each measured scope carries its own colour with a legend on the sheet, so you can see at a glance what was counted as what.

Traceable to the workbook

Markup regions correspond to takeoff lines, so a line in the file can be found on the drawing.

An exhibit, not a summary

It is how you check our work, and it is how you defend the number to somebody else.

The eight tabs, and what each one is for

The format is fixed. It does not change from job to job, and nothing gets buried in a tab you were not expecting.

1. Takeoff breakdown

The measured quantities in ten columns. Scope item, unit, measured quantity, wastage carried separately from the measured figure, and the basis note. This is the tab that gets checked when somebody challenges a number.

2. Summary

The cost cascade. Direct costs roll up by trade band and the markup cascade applies on top. Every figure is a formula pointing at the tabs below, so nothing is typed twice.

3. Unit prices

The rate applied to each item and where it came from. Market rates for the project area, not a national average applied everywhere.

4. Labor and crews

Crew composition and productivity behind the labour line. Where prevailing wage applies the determination is named here rather than folded into a blended rate.

5. Equipment

By item, with duration and rate separated so a longer or shorter programme can be tested without rebuilding the estimate.

6. Materials

With sales tax carried explicitly on the material line, because it is a real cost and it varies by jurisdiction.

7. Assumptions and exclusions

Written so it lifts directly into your bid qualifications.

8. Notes

Judgement calls recorded at the point they were made. If a drawing was ambiguous and a decision had to be taken, it is written here rather than left for you to discover.

The markup cascade sits in editable cells

This is the part contractors notice first, and it is deliberate.

You set your own overhead and profit

Built as open cells, not hard coded values. Change your overhead percentage and the whole workbook recalculates. Your margin is your business decision.

You can strip a band out

Trade bands roll up through formulas, so removing a scope removes it cleanly rather than leaving an orphaned number.

You can hand one band to a sub

A single trade band goes out for a check price without exposing the rest of your estimate.

How the pricing is sourced

• Market rates for the project area, because labour and material in the New York metro and in the Arizona high desert are not the same number.
• Prevailing wage bases applied where the project requires them, named on the labour tab rather than absorbed into a blended figure.
• Sales tax carried on the material line at the rate for the jurisdiction.
• Allowances carried as explicitly labelled allowances, never blended into a measured line, so you can see how much of the estimate is measured cost and how much is a placeholder.

What is excluded by default

Stated here rather than buried. An exclusion you discover at bid opening is worse than no estimate.

• Bonds and insurance, unless the bid documents make them priced items and you ask for them to be carried.
• Permit and agency fees.
• Design work of any kind. Northvex provides no engineering design.
• Escalation beyond the bid date, unless you ask for it and give the period.
• Anything not shown or reasonably inferable from the documents you supply. A scope described in words but not documented is flagged rather than priced.

Questions contractors actually ask