How to Outsource a Blueprint Takeoff (And What to Check When It Comes Back)

Most specialty subcontractors do not have an estimator. The owner measures plans at the kitchen table after the crew goes home, or the one person who can read a set is the reason every bid waits a week. Sending the measuring out is an old answer to that problem, older than takeoff software, and it has become easier to buy well now that the deliverables are files rather than a marked-up roll of paper on a courier.

This guide is about buying it well: what a takeoff service actually does, when it is the right call, what to send, what to insist on getting back, how the services are priced, and the handful of checks that keep a stranger's quantities from walking straight onto your bid.

What you are actually buying

A takeoff is the measuring step of estimating. Someone reads the plan set, finds every piece of scope that belongs to your trade, and turns it into quantities: square feet of wall and ceiling, linear feet of footing, cubic yards of concrete, a count of piers. That is the whole product. Pricing those quantities, deciding what to leave out, and signing the bid are still yours, whether or not the service also puts a rate beside each line.

It helps to be clear about that with yourself before you order, because the two most common disappointments come from expecting more. A takeoff service will not know that this builder always wants the garage ceiling foamed, or that you never bid the retaining wall because your crew cannot form it. It knows what is on the drawings. Everything you know and the drawings do not has to be written down and sent with them.

When it makes sense

• Bid volume has outrun the one person who measures. A builder sends four sets in a week, and the choice is to measure two of them or to bid all four from a guess.
• There is no estimator at all, and the owner's evenings are the estimating department. A fixed price per set is cheaper than the jobs that never got bid.
• A trade you do not usually bid. The concrete sub who has been asked to price the insulation, or the other way round, can order the takeoff for that trade and bid from the quantities without learning the trade's measuring conventions on a live bid.
• The deadline is before anyone is free. Most services sell a rush, and a rush on one set is cheaper than a lost bid or a weekend.

When it does not make sense: a set you want to understand yourself, because the job is unusual or the builder is new and you need to know every room by the time you walk it. Outsourcing the takeoff is what you do with the sets that would otherwise not get bid, not a reason to stop knowing your own numbers.

What to send

1. 1
   The current set, as PDFCheck the plan room or the transmittal for anything dated after the set you downloaded. A takeoff of superseded sheets is a takeoff of a building that will not be built, and the service cannot tell the difference.
2. 2
   One trade per orderEven where a service measures several trades, each has its own conditions and units, and a mixed order is how the slab ends up in the insulation workbook. Two trades is two orders.
3. 3
   A scope noteWhat you bid, what you do not, and what the builder said on the phone that is not on the drawings. "Open cell at the roofline, no attic floor. Garage ceiling under the bonus room, yes. Detached shed, no." Two minutes of typing saves a revision.
4. 4
   Your rates, or a decision not to price itIf you want the estimate priced, send your unit rates once and tell the service to use them. If you would rather price it yourself, ask for quantities only. What you should not accept is a stranger's rates presented as yours without being told which they are.
5. 5
   The real deadlineStandard turnaround on most services is measured in business days. Say when the bid is due, and buy the rush when you need it rather than hoping.

What to ask for back

• Marked-up plan sheets. Every measured shape drawn on the sheet it came from, colour-keyed by condition, with a legend. A workbook with no marked sheets cannot be checked, and a takeoff that cannot be checked is a number you are taking on faith.
• Quantities by sheet as well as in total. When the total looks wrong, the sheet breakdown is how you find out which floor was measured twice or not at all.
• The basis on every line. A concrete takeoff that gives you "foundation: 1,240" without saying whether that is square feet, linear feet or cubic yards is not finished.
• Your assemblies, in your words. If you bid "R-38 blown, attic floor" the line should say that, not a code the service uses internally.
• Everything on your letterhead if it is going to a customer, and nothing on your letterhead that you have not read.
• A revision path with a record. Plans change after the bid goes in; ask how a revised sheet is handled and whether the earlier round is kept.

How takeoff services are priced

There is no standard model, and the model tells you something about how the service thinks about the work.

Whichever model, the question to ask is the same: is the price known before the work starts, and what happens when the set turns out to be larger than expected? A service that re-prices without asking is one you will stop using after the second surprise.

The checks before the number reaches a bid

A takeoff from a service deserves the same checks as a takeoff from a new hire, which is to say more than the one from your own hands. None of these take long.

• Pick one dimension you can see printed on the plan and confirm the takeoff's measurement of it. A wrong scale is wrong everywhere by the same ratio, which is exactly why it does not look wrong.
• Measure one sheet yourself, by hand or in your own software, and compare. One sheet is enough to catch a systematic problem and cheap enough to do every time.
• Add the lines up and compare the sum to the total on the document. If they disagree, one of them is a typo and you do not yet know which.
• Look for zeros. A condition that reads zero is usually an uncalibrated sheet or an unclosed shape rather than a genuinely absent scope.
• Walk the scope you know is there. The bonus room over the garage, the band joist, the knee walls, the porch slab the plan calls a "patio": the items that get argued about after the job are the items a stranger is most likely to miss, so check for them by name.
• For concrete, check the basis and the waste. A slab in square feet and a pour in cubic yards should both be there, and you should know whether a waste allowance is already folded into the yardage.
• Read the pricing, if there is any, line by line. A rate you did not set is a rate you have not agreed to.

Insulation sets: what to specify

Insulation is the trade where the drawings say the least and the scope note matters most. The architect shows a wall assembly and an R-value; where the thermal boundary actually falls on this job is often a conversation you had with the builder.

• The boundary: attic floor or roofline, and which rooms sit under which.
• Product and R-value per assembly: open cell, closed cell, batt, blown, rigid, and the thickness or R-value for each.
• Garage walls and garage ceilings under living space, and whether the bonus room is in or out.
• Deductions: whether openings come off the wall area or the wall is measured gross.
• Units: square feet per assembly for everything, and board feet as well for spray foam, so you can order from the same document you bid from.

Concrete sets: what to specify

Concrete measures three ways and bills a fourth: a slab is area, a footing is length, a pour is volume, and what you place is more than what you measured. A concrete takeoff that collapses those into one number is not usable.

• Thickness for every slab and depth for every footing, because the drawings sometimes give one and not the other.
• Which elements you bid: flatwork only, foundation only, or the lot, and whether retaining walls and site concrete are in.
• Supplements: rebar, mesh, vapor barrier, edge forming, and whether you want them measured with the pour they belong to.
• Piers and pads as counts, each one a pour, with the size.
• Waste: whether the service applies an allowance to the yardage and at what rate, or leaves the net volume for you to gross up.

Who sees your plans

A plan set is a builder's document, and some builders care who it goes to. Ask the service where plans are stored, who can open them, and whether the company measuring your set also bids work in your market. The honest services will tell you in plain language; a service that will not answer has answered.

The short version

• You are buying the measuring step. The scope decisions, the rates and the signature are still yours.
• Send the current set, one trade per order, with a scope note and either your rates or an instruction not to price it.
• Insist on marked-up sheets, quantities by sheet, and the basis on every line.
• Prefer a price you can see before the work starts, and ask what happens when the set is bigger than expected.
• Check one dimension, measure one sheet, add the lines up, look for zeros, and walk the scope you know is there.
• Ask who sees the plans before you upload them.

Written by the team at Opulence Built, who also run an insulation and concrete contracting business. We mention our own software where it is relevant and say so when we do.