Home › Resources › Take-off checklist
Quantity take-off checklist for a building.
A consistent order stops items being missed or counted twice. This checklist follows the order a building is built, with the unit each item is measured in.
Take-off order and units
| Stage | Items | Units |
|---|---|---|
| Substructure | Excavation, piles, pile caps, ground beams, blinding, ground slab | m³, number, m², m |
| Frame | Columns, beams, suspended slabs, stairs, parapet | m³, m² |
| Formwork | All concrete surfaces that need a mould | m² |
| Reinforcement | Bars by diameter, mesh | tonne, m² |
| Walls | Blockwork, lintels, openings deducted | m², number |
| Openings | Doors, windows, glazing | number, m² |
| Finishes | Plaster, paint, tiles, ceilings, skirting | m², m |
| External | Waterproofing, paving, kerbs, drainage | m², m |
| Services | Sockets, lights, fixtures, cable and pipe runs | number, m |
Habits that keep numbers right
- Set the scale first on every page and check it against a known dimension.
- Work level by level so each floor can be priced and checked on its own.
- Mark off as you measure. A coloured overlay shows what is done and what is left.
- Deduct openings once and use the same net area for plaster, paint and blocks.
- Cross-check totals. Wall area divided by floor area, or steel kilograms per cubic metre of concrete, should look reasonable against past jobs.
- Keep a note of assumptions such as slab thickness read from a section.
Finish with a bill
When the quantities are checked, they go into a bill of quantities where rates, overhead and profit turn them into a price.
Guides by TapeLine, quantity take-off software from Natha & Co, founded by Natha Mohamed M.M.
Try Free Beta Version See the 3D take-off
Keep reading
What is quantity take-off?
Quantity take-off is measuring the materials and work shown on drawings so they can be priced. The basics, the three kinds of measurement and where software helps.
2 min readBasicsBill of quantities explained
What a BoQ contains, how it grows out of take-off, and how rates, overhead and profit turn quantities into a price.
2 min readMethodHow to set the scale on a drawing
What 1:50 and 1:100 mean, how to set scale from a known dimension, the pitfalls of printed PDFs, and ISO paper sizes.
2 min read