Quantity takeoff services, Australia-wide
Commercial quantity takeoff, measured once and measured properly.
Send us the drawing set for your trade package. You get back a quantity schedule you can price straight off, colour-coded marked-up drawings so you can check every number against the plan yourself, the crew hours to build it, and a written statement of exactly what was measured. Fixed fee, quoted off your actual drawings before you commit.
Get a fixed-fee quote or call 0494 779 423
- Written proposal in 2 hours
- Delivered in 2 business days
- Fixed fee, never hourly
- Every quantity human-verified
What a takeoff actually is
The measurement underneath the price.
A quantity takeoff is the measurement of everything in your package, taken off the drawings: lengths, areas, volumes and counts, set out line by line so they can be priced. The takeoff establishes how much of each item there is. Pricing applies your rates to those quantities. Keeping the two separate is the point, because it means the quantities stay yours to price however you choose, at whatever margin you decide.
Takeoff
How much is there?
Objective measurement off the drawing set. Two competent measurers should arrive at materially the same numbers, because the drawings say what they say. This is the part we do.
Estimate
What should it cost?
Your rates, your productivity, your margin, your read on the client and the programme. This stays with you, unless you ask us to price the bill using rates you provide.
What lands in your inbox
Four documents, each doing a different job.
Every takeoff comes back as a complete package, not a bare list of numbers.
- Quantity schedule (.xlsx) Your working pricing document, formulas intact, ready for your rates. Not a locked PDF you have to retype.
- Colour-coded marked-up drawings (PDF) Every measured item shown on the plan in colour. You can audit any line in the schedule back to the drawing it came from, and so can anyone you hand it to.
- Assumptions & exclusions page The precise scope of what was measured, in writing, including what was not. This is the page that decides arguments later.
- Labour-hours schedule (crew hours, standard) Crew size by elapsed days, with the production-rate basis stated on every line. Included as standard, never charged as an extra.
Drawing revision and date recorded on every page of every deliverable, so there is never a dispute about which drawings were measured.
How it works
Drawings in, priceable schedule out.
Send the set
Tell us what you are pricing and when it closes. There is nothing to upload on the enquiry form; we come straight back with where to send the drawings. A link to Drive, Dropbox or WeTransfer is fine.
Fixed price in 2 hours
A written, fixed-price proposal within 2 hours of the drawings landing, 8am to 5.30pm Monday to Friday. Priced off the actual set, not off a description of it, so the number does not move later. No obligation.
We measure, then verify
Measured in professional takeoff software with AI-assisted counting, never hand-scaled. Then every quantity is checked line by line by a trade-qualified estimator before it ships.
Delivered in 2 business days
The full package lands within 2 business days of payment clearing and the complete drawing set being confirmed. Need it faster? A 24-hour turnaround is available at a 50 percent surcharge.
Scope
Trades we measure.
Commercial packages are the core of what we do. Residential is accepted case by case.
Carpentry & fitout
Carpentry, joinery, commercial fitout, shopfitting, demolition and strip-out. Partitions, ceilings, wall linings, flooring, painting, tiling and glazing.
Building fabric
Roofing and cladding, including sheet areas, flashings and penetrations measured off the same architectural sets.
Earthmoving & civil
Bulk and detailed excavation, trenching and site strip, with volumes taken off levels and ground-condition exclusions stated on the assumptions page.
Services trades such as electrical and hydraulic are measured following a short scoping call with the trade, so the basis of measurement is agreed before we start. If your package is not listed here, send it through anyway and you will get a straight answer on whether we are the right people to measure it.
Why not an offshore takeoff mill
Human-verified is the product.
Plenty of services will sell you numbers measured by someone who has never stood on a site, and none of them are anywhere to be found once the tender turns into a contract. Every Innovate schedule is verified by a trade-qualified estimator who has priced and physically built this work. Every quantity traces back to a marked-up drawing you can audit. The same people stay with you through the pricing, the submission and what comes after it. Australian, accountable, and checkable line by line.
There is a second reason to care about who measured it, and it only shows up later. A takeoff is not just a pricing document, it is the evidentiary baseline for the whole job. You can only prove a variation sits outside scope if someone measured the scope at the start. You can only prove disruption against planned hours if someone recorded the planned hours. When a final account is argued twelve months from now, the original measured quantities are the record it is argued against. Numbers bought cheaply from an anonymous mill will not carry that weight, because nobody will stand behind them.
Pricing
Fixed fee, quoted off your drawings.
Most single-trade takeoffs land between $900 and $2,500 + GST.
Every job is quoted as a fixed-fee proposal off the actual drawing set, so the number you accept is the number you pay. Larger full trade packages are priced on the same basis. Crew hours are included in every takeoff. Work beyond the takeoff, such as a priced bill of quantities or a full tender package, is quoted the same way, off what is actually in front of us. We do not charge hourly, and efficiency we gain from better tooling is not something you pay for.
After the takeoff
As much or as little of the rest as you want.
Almost every client starts with measurement, because that is where trust gets earned. From there, take as much of the ladder off your desk as suits you. Each step stands on the same verified numbers, so nothing has to be rebuilt.
Next step
Priced bill of quantities
The full bill with rates, extensions and preliminaries, built from your own rates or a recognised published library.
Next step
Tender support
Inclusions and exclusions set out the way a head contractor expects to receive them, with the qualifications written down instead of assumed.
Once you win
Keeping the margin you priced
Progress claims, a straight variation register, priced variations and delay claims, all resting on the quantities measured at the start.
Common questions
Quantity takeoff, answered.
What is a quantity takeoff?
The measurement of everything in a trade package from the drawing set: lengths, areas, volumes and counts, set out line by line so they can be priced. It is the measurement layer underneath an estimate.
How long does a commercial takeoff take?
Two business days for a standard job. The clock starts when payment clears and the complete drawing set is confirmed, and it runs on business days, so a set confirmed on Friday afternoon is delivered Tuesday afternoon. A 24-hour turnaround is available at a 50 percent surcharge.
How much does a quantity takeoff cost?
Most single-trade commercial takeoffs land between $900 and $2,500 + GST, quoted as a fixed fee off the actual drawing set. Larger packages are priced on the same basis.
Is it done by a person or by software?
Both, in that order. Measurement runs in professional takeoff software with AI-assisted counting rather than hand-scaling. Every quantity is then checked line by line by a trade-qualified estimator before it ships. Nothing leaves unverified.
Do you need the full drawing set?
Yes, and the 2-business-day clock only starts once the complete set is confirmed. Partial sets produce partial measurements and disputes later. If something is missing we tell you what and why before starting rather than measuring around the gap.
Can I use the schedule to price the job my own way?
That is the intention. You get a working .xlsx with formulas intact, not a locked file. The quantities are objective; the rates, productivity and margin are yours.
Working as a subcontractor? See how we work with subbies. Melbourne based? See estimating services in Melbourne. More on process, payment and scope is on the full FAQ.
Get started
Pricing a commercial tender right now?
Tell us what is closing soonest and how far you want us to take it. Send the set and you will have a written, fixed-price proposal within 2 hours, 8am to 5.30pm Monday to Friday, priced off your actual drawings. The work itself lands within 2 business days. No obligation.
Send us your drawings or call 0494 779 423