Division 03 concrete
A concrete takeoff separates concrete volume, reinforcement and form contact area. Measure placements in cubic yards, reinforcement by bar size and formwork by the surface that touches the pour.
Concrete packages get harder to review when slab volume, reinforcing and formwork are lumped together. We trace those quantities to the footing schedule, slab plan and details, then separate deductions, thickened edges, embeds and placement assumptions where the documents call for them.
Check slab edges, thickened areas and openings against the details.
Split spread footings, grade beams, stem walls and slabs by placement. Calculate thickened edges and depressed areas without double-counting their shared volume with the main slab. Keep exterior flatwork and interior slab quantities separate.
Use sections to identify form contact faces, edge forms, construction joints and cast-against-earth surfaces. Build reinforcement from bar size and spacing, and check where dowels or splice requirements differ between adjacent pours.
Identify which pours need pumping, special access, cold-weather provisions or multiple mobilizations. Track finish, cure and testing requirements so a subcontractor can carry them in the right part of the bid.
A concrete price is really three prices that arrive on the same truck: cubic yards from the ready-mix supplier, tons and bars from the rebar supplier, and the crew’s hours to set forms, place the concrete, finish it and strip the forms. Fold the three into one number and nobody can check it — or change one part of it without re-pricing the whole package. Each placement — footings, then walls, then slabs, then the flatwork outside — carries its own volume, form area and steel, so a thickness change on one sheet changes only that placement.
A slab and its thickened edges often appear in separate details. Assign the additional edge volume to a distinct line and reconcile it against the slab footprint before pricing the pour.
The slab is on the plan; the thickened edge is on a section, two or three sheets away. The plan gives the footprint, the section gives the extra depth. Measure the footprint once, the edge as its own line, and add them — never count the edge twice, and never take it out of the slab.
Most concrete is not placed in one day: a slab is poured in bays, a wall in lifts, a footing in one pass — and each pour break is a joint, a dowel and a day of curing before the next pour starts. The estimate follows that sequence: which placement goes first, where the joints fall, and what must cure before the next crew can work.
Access decides a lot of this. A pump reaches further than a chute but costs a line of its own, and a tight site prices very differently from an open lot. Say in the request how the concrete reaches each placement — chute, pump or buggy — and whether the pour has to happen in a clear window. That changes the labour before the bid is written, not on the day of the pour.
Rebar is priced by the bar schedule, not by the concrete volume: size, length, bends and count, followed line by line, with laps and hooks as the schedule shows them. Mesh is shown separately from bar — a roll of mesh and a ton of #5 bar are not the same purchase and should never share a line.
Waste on rebar is shown openly: cut lengths, bends that do not come out of a stock bar cleanly, and the extra bars at every splice. The measured weight is the weight on the schedule; waste sits on its own line with its basis stated, so the bid team can change it without losing the original measurement.
A ten-foot wall and a four-foot wall can hold nearly the same concrete and need very different formwork. That is why formwork is measured by contact area — the face of the form against the concrete — never by the volume behind it. One-sided, two-sided and gang forms are noted where they change the labour, and the form area for footings, walls and edges is kept apart.
Joints are measured by length and by type: a construction joint, a control joint and an isolation joint are three different scopes. Vapor barrier by area, dowels and embeds by count, waterstop by length. If the drawings do not say who supplies the embeds, that is written down as an open point, not buried in the concrete price.
If a revised sheet changes a slab thickness or a bar size, only the affected placements are re-measured. Send the revised sheet with the revision noted; the rest of the package stands.
Send foundations, structural sections, bar schedules and civil plans for exterior flatwork. Identify who supplies embeds and who owns excavation.
Yes. Request separate takeoff tabs for placements, rebar and forms. Pricing can then follow your supplier and installation packages.
Rebar can be separated by bar size and placement, with laps or dowels listed where the details support them. Track anchor bolts and embeds against the scope so supply and installation responsibilities are visible.
Each pour is its own placement, with its own volume, form area and joints. Where the drawings show a construction joint, the concrete on either side is measured separately, so the crew can price the stop and the restart.
No — and that is deliberate. The measured weight follows the bar schedule; waste from cutting, bending and laps is shown on its own line, so you can change the waste allowance without losing the schedule weight underneath it.
Whoever the scope assigns it to. Pump, placement and finishing labour are shown by placement, so a site that needs a pump prices out differently from one that pours straight from the chute.
Yes — footings, walls, building slabs and exterior flatwork are separate placements, because they carry different formwork, finishing and curing scope.
Send the revised schedule with the revision noted. Only the bars that changed are re-measured, and the concrete and formwork lines are checked against the same revision. The rest of the package is left alone.
Request an Estimate View Estimating Samples
Check whether the slab quantity includes thickened edges, turn-downs and footings. Confirm mix and strength by detail, then keep reinforcement, formwork, vapor barrier, excavation and placement separate. If you carry waste, show it beside the net measured volume and retain the drawing reference.
Page 1 lists slab thickness and reinforcement in the item description and shows dimensions, measured quantity and waste-adjusted quantity in separate columns.
Reference file adapted from the WorldEstimating.com sample library.
Open Concrete slab estimate PDFThe first slab line shows 4,952 SF measured and 5,447 SF after the stated 10% allowance and whole-unit rounding. The editable workbook extract reproduces that check for the four slab rows, using the quantities printed in the PDF.
The footing section uses cubic yards. On row 5, the listed length of 113 ft 8 in, width of 1 ft 6 in and depth of 1 ft produce about 6.31 CY before waste. Compare that calculation with the rounded 6 CY shown in the measured quantity column.
Tell us what you need priced, which drawings govern the bid and when it is due.