Concrete estimating & takeoff services
Footings, slabs, walls, grade beams, reinforcement and formwork, measured by system and location rather than as one running volume.
What a concrete package looks like.
Concrete is the division where a small measurement error compounds fastest. A slab thickness misread by an inch across 18,000 square feet is 55 cubic yards nobody priced, and it shows up on the day the pump arrives. So every element is taken off separately: pad footings by each, strip footings by linear foot converted to volume, slabs by area and thickness, walls by contact area.
Reinforcement is measured by bar size and weight, not estimated as a percentage of concrete volume. Formwork is measured by contact area, because that is what the forming subcontractor prices against. Concrete carries 5–10% wastage depending on placement method, and that percentage sits in its own column so you can change it.
Measured in
What we look for specifically
- Slab thickness read from the wrong detail
- Rebar estimated as a percentage instead of measured by bar
- Formwork priced by volume rather than contact area
- Waste factor applied once at the bottom instead of per placement
Concrete
- Pad, strip and continuous footings by size and count
- Grade beams and pile caps
- Slab on grade by area, thickness and mesh or bar reinforcement
- Suspended slabs, decks and toppings
- Foundation and retaining walls by contact area
- Columns, piers and pilasters
- Reinforcing steel by bar size, length and weight
- Formwork by contact area, with re-use assumptions stated
- Vapour barrier, sand bed and compacted subgrade
- Curing, finishing, sealing and joint treatment
- Embeds, anchor bolts and waterstop
Turnaround
24–48 hours on a single-trade package
Who it is for
Concrete subcontractors, general contractors self-performing structure, and formwork and rebar suppliers pricing supply-only packages.
Every concrete package ships the same four things.
Whatever the trade, the deliverable is consistent, so a package from us always drops into how you already work.
Excel workbook
Line-item detail with quantities, wastage, labour hours and material priced on separate columns.
Colour-marked sheets
Every measured item marked on the drawing with a count legend, so any figure can be checked against the plan.
Assumptions & exclusions
Written down, including anything the drawings did not answer, rather than absorbed into a rate.
Planswift source file
On request, so your team can re-measure a revision without coming back to us.
Common questions on concrete takeoffs.
Each element is measured in its own units first: footings by linear foot or each, slabs by area and thickness, walls by contact area. Those convert to cubic yards, then a wastage percentage is applied per placement type rather than once at the bottom of the estimate. Pump-placed slabs and hand-placed footings do not waste at the same rate.
Yes. Rebar is measured by bar size, length and count, converted to weight in pounds or tonnes, with laps and bends included. It is never estimated as a percentage of concrete volume, because that only holds for the one project the rule of thumb came from.
Yes, measured by contact area in square feet, which is how forming is priced and how re-use is calculated. The number of assumed re-uses is written into the assumptions so you can adjust it against your own form stock.
Structural drawings with foundation plans, sections and the reinforcement schedule. The specification section for concrete if you have it, and any geotech report on sitework-heavy jobs. A partial set is fine; we price what exists and write down what we assumed.
Packages that usually travel with this one.
Most enquiries cover more than one division. Bundling them into a single engagement keeps the assumptions consistent across the whole bid.
Send us one concrete package.
A fixed fee, a firm delivery date and a written scope statement, usually back the same working day. Judge us on the file that comes back.
CSI Division 03 · 24–48 hours on a single-trade package · Unlimited revisions within scope