PreConstruct AIA takeoff list is the drawing set turned into lines you can price. Get the lines right and the estimate is arithmetic. Get them wrong and every number after them is wrong too, however careful the pricing.
This post covers what belongs on the list, what doesn't, the columns each line needs, the unit for each interior item, and a worked set of lines.
What a takeoff list is, and what it isn't
A takeoff list is the quantities measured from the drawings, one line per item. It isn't an estimate, because it has no prices on it yet. It isn't a material order either, because it has no waste and no stock sizes in it yet.
That second part matters most. Measurement standards measure what ends up built, not what gets bought. Alberta Transportation's measurement rules put it in one line: unless the contract says otherwise, "products will be measured net, with no allowance for waste." The same net rule runs through the standard methods of measurement used for bills of quantities.
Keep your list net and anyone can check it against the drawings, line by line. Put waste into the quantities and nobody can tell a measuring mistake from an allowance. Then the waste gets added a second time when the order is made.
The columns every line needs
Each line answers the same questions, so the list can be sorted, priced and checked:
- Item and type, as the drawings name it: P1 partition, ACT-1 ceiling, door frame F1. Use the drawing's mark, not your own word for it.
- What it's made of: the build-up from the partition schedule or the finish schedule. For example, 3⅝-inch 25-gauge studs at 16 inches, one layer of ⅝-inch Type X each side.
- Quantity, as a number.
- Unit, one per line: LF, SF or EA, or m, m² and each. A wall gets a length line and an area line, never one number that's sometimes one and sometimes the other.
- Location: level, room numbers or gridlines.
- Source: the sheet and detail it came from, such as A101 or 3/A501. This is the column that lets someone else check your work.
- Height used: the wall or ceiling height you measured to. It changes the area more than anything else on the line.
- Notes and assumptions: U.N.O. notes applied, items by others, anything you excluded and why.
The unit for each interior item
| Item | Unit | Measured as |
|---|---|---|
| Partitions | LF and SF, by type | Length along the wall; area is length × height × faces boarded |
| Ceilings (drywall or acoustic) | SF, by type | Plan area of each ceiling type |
| Bulkheads and soffits | LF, by type | Length, with the profile written in the description |
| Insulation | SF, by type and R-value | Area of the walls or ceilings it fills |
| Door frames, doors, access panels | EA, by type | Counted from the plans and the schedules |
| Corner bead, control joints, trims | LF | Length of each |
Metric is the same list in m, m² and each. Pick one system for the whole list and convert once, at the end if you have to, not line by line.
A worked set of lines
Here are four lines from a made-up first floor, written the way the columns above say:
| Item | Made of | Qty | Unit | Location | Source | Height | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| P1 partition | 3⅝ in 25 ga studs at 16 in, ⅝ in Type X each side | 86 | LF | Level 1, rooms 101 to 106 | A101 | 10 ft | Typical U.N.O. note applied to the untagged walls |
| P1 board | ⅝ in Type X | 1,720 | SF | Level 1 | A101, partition schedule | 10 ft | Both faces |
| ACT-1 ceiling | 2 × 4 tile in a 15/16 in grid | 1,240 | SF | Rooms 101 to 104 | A201 | 9 ft | |
| Bulkhead B1 | Steel stud framing, ⅝ in board, see detail | 42 | LF | Corridor 110 | 3/A501 | — | Profile in the detail |
The board line is arithmetic you can see: 86 ft × 10 ft × 2 faces = 1,720 SF. In metric the same lines read 26.2 m of P1, 159.8 m² of board, 115.2 m² of ACT-1 and 12.8 m of bulkhead.
Each line can be checked by somebody who has never seen the job: open A101, find the P1 walls on Level 1, and measure.
Where waste and stock sizes come in
They come in after the list, when the quantities become an order, and the list stays as it is.
Take the P1 board. The order turns 1,720 SF into sheets: a 4 × 8 sheet is 32 SF. Then it adds your waste allowance for that kind of wall. With a 10 per cent allowance, (1,720 × 1.10) ÷ 32 = 59.1, so 60 sheets. The takeoff list still says 1,720 SF, which is what the drawings show. The order says 60 sheets, which is what you'll buy. Keeping both means a change on the drawings changes one line, and the order follows from it.
The allowance itself is your call, set by the wall heights, the sheet lengths available and how cut-up the layout is. The list is the place to keep it visible as a separate step, rather than hidden inside a quantity.
Mistakes that make a list hard to trust
- One "drywall" line for the whole job. Each partition type is built differently and prices differently, so it gets its own lines.
- No sheet reference. Without it, checking a line means measuring it all over again.
- Heights left out. A wall to the ceiling and a wall to the deck can differ by several feet, and the area changes with them.
- Openings deducted one way here and another way there. Pick a rule (for example, deduct openings over a certain size) and write it in the notes, so the whole list follows it.
- Waste inside the quantities. It gets added again at ordering, and the order comes out high.
For the items that most often go missing from an interior list, see the drywall takeoff checklist. For turning a partition type into its materials, see the guide to reading a partition schedule.