Quantities For Estimating

Why Quantity Takeoffs Are Essential for Accurate Estimating

In this blog, we’re diving into one of the most important—yet often overlooked—parts of the estimating and bidding process: quantity takeoffs. I talk a lot about estimating, bid leveling, and selecting the right trade partners, but none of it works if we don’t have accurate quantities.

The Problem: No Control Estimate = No Real Comparison

I was recently talking with a great general contractor who shared something telling: “We do a good job inviting trade partners to price the work, but we don’t do a good job yet of getting quantities or having control estimates.” That’s a common issue.

When bids come in without a control estimate, you don’t really know if a price is high or low. You’re flying blind. To fix that, you need a baseline—an independent quantity takeoff—to compare each bid against.

Why Many Teams Struggle:

• Large companies often have reduced capacity due to heavy workloads.
• Smaller companies might not have the technical capability in-house.

Either way, the task is necessary. You must know your quantities.

A Simple Fix: Third-Party Help or Software:

Here’s the good news: You don’t have to do it all yourself. There are affordable services and tools that can help with takeoffs. On a recent Lean Built project, we were short on time and used a third-party to perform takeoffs—and they nailed it. We double-checked and hit our budget targets. It wasn’t even that expensive.

The Core of the Issue: Bid Validation:

Trade partners are great, but even the best of them can submit bids with:

• Incorrect quantities.
• Incomplete scope.
• Misleading per-square-foot numbers (especially in development, where usable vs. total square footage varies).

That’s why control estimates and quantity takeoffs are crucial. They help us avoid comparing apples to oranges.

My Key Advice: Build a Schedule of Quantities:

Here’s what I recommend:

1. List the critical scope items that will impact pricing.
2. Reference quantity survey manuals (many companies have them).
3. Do takeoffs for each key item so you can validate trade partner bids.
4. Leverage your designers. They already have much of this info—cut/fill volumes, material estimates, and more.

Tools You Can Use (Recommended Software):

I asked ChatGPT to help me find the most common quantity takeoff tools in construction. Here are a few great options:

• PlanSwift.
• Bluebeam Revu.
• STACK.
• Autodesk Takeoff.
• On-Screen Takeoff.
• Procore Estimating.

These tools can save time, reduce errors, and help you create internal benchmarks to compare against trade bids.

Final Thoughts:

This isn’t about mistrusting your trade partners. It’s about doing your job right—verifying scope, square footage, and quantities before locking in pricing. That’s how you prevent mistakes and set up your project for financial success.