A guessed takeoff costs you on site. A measured one doesn't

You look at the drawings, form a rough sense of the quantities, and price from that. It's quicker than measuring properly, and most of the time it feels close enough. Then the concrete order comes up short, or the blockwork runs out two thirds of the way through, and you're back on the phone to the merchant explaining why you need more, on a job where the number's already fixed.

A guess isn't a quantity. It's a number that happens to be in the right area, until it isn't.

Guessing works right up until it doesn't

Nobody sets out to guess a takeoff. It happens because there's no time, or because the job looks straightforward enough that a rough measure feels safe. The trouble is you don't find out it was wrong until the material's ordered short or the labour allowance runs out before the work does. By then the shortfall is real, and it comes out of your margin, not the client's pocket.

Measuring means counting everything, properly

A measured takeoff isn't just more careful guessing. It means going through the drawings item by item, working out real quantities for every element, to a consistent standard, so the numbers you're pricing against are actually what the job requires. Done properly, that includes the obvious big items and the smaller ones that get skipped when time's short.

We measure it, you price with confidence

We take off every job to NRM2, measuring the whole thing off the drawings you send us, backed by 25+ years contractor-side. You get back a bill of quantities with every item measured and priced, laid out so you can see exactly what's in the number before it goes anywhere near a bid.

Price the job you're actually building

The difference between a guessed takeoff and a measured one doesn't show up in the tender. It shows up on site, when the materials either match the job or they don't.

Send your drawings and we'll measure the whole job to NRM2. See a sample estimate to see exactly how a measured takeoff is laid out.

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