Construction Material Takeoff Summary

What is a takeoff summary?

A takeoff summary is the list of materials a job needs, gathered on one page: how much of each to buy and roughly what it will cost. The net quantities from measurement are increased by a waste allowance, rounded to the pack they are sold in and grouped by part of the work.

How the tool calculates

For each line it does the following in order:

• Quantity with waste = net quantity × (1 + waste percentage)
• Number of packs = quantity with waste divided by pack size, rounded up
• Order quantity = number of packs × pack size
• Amount = order quantity × unit price

If no pack size is entered, the order quantity equals the quantity with waste. If no price is entered, the line stays in the list but is left out of the total. So you can also use the tool just to prepare an order list.

Why round to packs?

Cement comes in bags, tiles in boxes and paint in cans. If you need 1246 kg of cement you buy 25 bags of 50 kg and pay for 1250 kg. Pricing on the quantity with waste hides that difference. The tool prices the quantity you actually buy.

Example

48 m² of tiling with 10 percent waste needs 52.8 m². If a box holds 1.44 m², you buy 37 boxes, which is 53.28 m². At 320 per square metre the amount is 17,049.60. If the same group has an adhesive line with no price, the tool flags it with a warning.

Groups

Use the group column for the part of the work: structure, walls, floor, roof, services and so on. Lines with the same group name are listed together with a subtotal. Groups are optional.

Limits

This tool covers materials only. To add labour, equipment, overhead, profit and tax use the material and labour cost calculator. The tool does not work out the quantities themselves: find items such as concrete, paint and flooring with the relevant calculators and enter them here. Waste percentages vary by material and job, so set them from your own experience and the product data sheets.