Construction / Trade
Acoustical ceiling and ACT takeoff services
If you searched for this, you have probably been reading software pages. Here is the alternative nobody is offering you: pay for the takeoff on the one package you are bidding, and skip the licence entirely.
You do not need to buy takeoff software to bid one ceiling package
The search results for acoustical ceiling takeoff are almost entirely software vendors. That is a real choice worth making deliberately, so here it is laid out.
| Buying the software | Buying the takeoff | |
|---|---|---|
| What you pay for | A licence, usually annual, whether or not you bid this month | One package, once |
| Setup | Install, configure, build your own assemblies and templates | None |
| Learning curve | Real, and it is your evenings during bid week | None |
| Your hours | You or your estimator does the measuring | You review a finished markup |
| Breaks even when | You bid ceiling packages continuously | You bid them occasionally, or you are short handed this week |
| What you keep | A tool and the skill to use it | A markup set and a quantity basis you can reuse and defend |
What actually gets measured, and in what units
Ceiling quantities are not one square footage number. A ceiling sub buys these separately, so they are taken separately.
- Grid, square feet by type
- Standard 15/16 inch, narrow 9/16 inch, slot, and any concealed system, each carried on its own line because the material rate and the installation rate both differ.
- Tile, square feet by type
- Separated from the grid, because the tile schedule frequently specifies several products in one building. Mineral fibre in offices, scrubbable tile in a kitchen, a high NRC product in a conference room. One number hides all of that.
- Perimeter angle, linear feet
- Measured around every ceiling area, including around every column, every soffit return and every interior island. This is the item most commonly taken as a simple room perimeter, which understates it every time there is a column in the field.
- Hanger wire, count
- Derived from the grid layout and the spacing the specification requires, not carried as a lump allowance.
- Seismic bracing, count and linear feet
- Compression posts, splay wire sets and perimeter attachment requirements come from the seismic design category and the ceiling area size, and they are a genuinely significant cost in seismic jurisdictions.
- Cutouts, count by fixture type
- Light fixtures, air devices, sprinkler heads, speakers, sensors and access panels are counted individually and by type, because a 2 by 4 troffer drop in and a slot diffuser cut are not the same labour.
The interfaces that get missed
- Soffits and bulkheads
- The vertical faces are measured separately from the horizontal ceiling area, and the trim at every change of plane is measured in linear feet. A ceiling plan read as flat areas loses all of it.
- Transitions to gypsum ceilings
- Where an acoustical ceiling meets a gypsum ceiling there is a shadow line, a trim condition or a closure detail. It is linear footage, it is detail work, and it is slow.
- Ceiling height changes
- Different heights mean different hanger lengths and, above a certain height, different access equipment. Heights come off the sections, not the reflected ceiling plan.
Documents needed to price it
- Reflected ceiling plans for every floor.
- The finish schedule or ceiling schedule identifying tile and grid types by room.
- Sections or an interior elevation set, for ceiling heights.
- The specification section for the ceiling system, particularly for seismic requirements.
- Mechanical and electrical plans if the cutouts are not shown on the reflected ceiling plan.
Questions ceiling subs actually ask
Can you take off just the ceiling package and nothing else?
Yes. That is the normal case for this trade. You get grid, tile, perimeter, hangers, bracing and cutouts, and nothing you did not ask for.
What if the reflected ceiling plan does not show the diffusers?
Then the cutouts are counted from the mechanical and electrical plans and reconciled against the ceiling plan. Where the two disagree, the disagreement is listed rather than resolved silently.
Do you handle the seismic bracing quantities?
Yes, from the specification and the seismic design category. If the specification is silent, we say so rather than assuming the cheaper interpretation.
The service behind this
Estimating & TakeoffRelated trades
Bidding acoustical ceilings?
Send the documents and the bid date. A written fee and turnaround come back before anything is measured.