What the worksheets do
A takeoff has two halves. First you measure: lengths, widths, heights and counts from the drawings. Then you convert those measurements into things a supplier sells: yards of concrete, sheets of board, bundles of shingles, gallons of paint, cartons of flooring. The second half is where mistakes hide, in a forgotten waste factor, a roof measured flat, or rounding down instead of up.
These worksheets handle the conversion. You enter each area once, set the waste and coverage factors for your products, and get order quantities rounded up to whole units. The Excel download rebuilds every number as a formula, so it works like a takeoff sheet an estimator would build by hand.
Concrete
Each area is a slab or a footing with a count, length, width and depth in inches.
- Volume: count × length × width × (depth ÷ 12) ÷ 27 = cubic yards. Ready-mix is ordered in quarter yards after waste.
- Rebar in slabs: a grid at the spacing you enter, each way. Bars running the length are spaced across the width and vice versa, with one extra bar in each direction.
- Rebar in footings: the number of continuous bars × length. For square pads, enter the bars in both directions.
- Laps and splices add a percentage to rebar length. Weight uses standard pounds per foot (#4 = 0.668 lb/ft).
- Mesh: slab area plus laps, divided by the sheet size (an 8 × 20 sheet is 160 SF).
- Forms: perimeter of each area, and contact area (SFCA) = form length × depth.
Drywall
Walls are entered as wall length × height × sides, ceilings as room length × width. Deduct openings once, and choose layers and sheet length for each area. From the board area the worksheet works out sheets by size, joint compound (about 10 gallons per 1,000 SF for a level 4 finish with ready-mix), paper tape (about 370 LF per 1,000 SF), screws (about one per SF) and corner bead from the outside corners you enter.
Roofing
Enter the plan dimensions including overhangs, the pitch, and the ridge and hip, eave and rake lengths. Roof area = plan area × slope factor. Shingles are ordered in bundles, usually three per square. Accessories come from the edge lengths: starter along the eaves (and rakes if you install it there), drip edge on eaves and rakes, ridge cap on ridges and hips, and ice and water shield a set distance up from the eaves.
Paint
Each area is length × height (or length × width for ceilings) less deductions, with its own number of primer and finish coats. Gallons = area × coats ÷ coverage, plus waste, rounded up by product. Finish paint is totaled separately for walls, ceilings and other surfaces because they usually take different products and sheens.
Flooring
Each room has its own material and waste factor, since a diagonal tile layout wastes far more than plank in a square room. The worksheet totals order SF by material, cartons when you enter the carton size, underlayment rolls and transition strips.
A worked example
A flooring and interiors contractor is pricing a single-story dental office of about 3,200 SF, with an 80 × 40 ft slab on grade. Measured areas, with the default factors, produce:
| Trade | Key quantities |
|---|---|
| Concrete | 62.25 CY net, 65.5 CY ordered; 970 LF of rebar, 54 bars of 20 ft with laps (713 lb); 22 sheets of mesh; 848 LF of forms |
| Drywall | 9,062 SF of board: 245 sheets of 4 × 10 and 6 of 4 × 12; 21 buckets of mud, 7 rolls of tape, 10 boxes of screws, 20 sticks of corner bead |
| Roofing | 4,360 SF of roof (43.6 squares) from a 6/12 gable and a 4/12 canopy: 144 bundles (48 squares), 5 rolls of underlayment, 4 rolls of ice and water, 5 bundles of ridge cap, 4 of starter, 35 pieces of drip edge |
| Paint | 8,764 SF of surface: 30 gal primer, 50 gal wall finish, 1 gal ceiling, 5 gal doors and frames |
| Flooring | 2,166 SF of LVT (93 cartons), 739 SF of carpet tile (16 cartons), 161 SF of porcelain tile (11 cartons), 2 rolls of underlayment, 10 transitions |
A few details worth noticing. The roof is 11.4% bigger than its footprint because of the 6/12 pitch; measuring it flat would have come up about 5 squares short. The interior partitions are boarded on both sides, so 310 LF of wall is 5,780 SF of board after 420 SF of openings. And the restroom tile carries 12% waste while the LVT carries 7%, because small rooms with tile cut more.
Round up at the end, not along the way. The worksheet keeps full precision per area and rounds each order quantity once, so you don’t buy an extra bundle for every room.
Tips for a clean takeoff
- Name areas the way the plans do (room numbers, grid lines, wall types). It makes the takeoff checkable.
- Keep deductions honest. Deduct large openings. Most estimators ignore openings under about 20 SF on drywall and paint because the cutting waste eats the savings.
- Check factors against the product. Coverage, carton sizes and bundles per square vary by manufacturer. The defaults are rules of thumb.
- Save the Excel file with the bid. When an addendum changes a room, edit that row and every total follows.
Related tools
Turn quantities into a price with your crew’s true hourly cost from the labor burden calculator, then send it with clear inclusions and exclusions using the bid proposal builder. If the job needs a machine for the concrete or roofing, the equipment own vs rent calculator shows whether to buy or rent it.