Job takeoff
Basement or cellar conversion takeoff
Turn a cellar or basement into a habitable room: strip it out, keep water out with a drained cavity membrane, a barrier coating or both, insulate and line the walls on studs or with boards, board the ceiling as a fire separation, finish and decorate, with any underpinning, lowering, new slab and escape window listed and never sized.
A takeoff is the trade word for the shopping list a job produces — every material, and how much of each, worked out by its own cited calculator.
- 6Measurements in
- 1312Trades out
Choose the build-up
Each layer changes the materials below; the dimensions stay the same.
Calculators behind the other choices:
Calculators behind the other choices:
Compare one layer at these dimensions, with the rest of the build-up held as you have it:
Give the job once
Every figure on the right follows these, in the units you choose.
Been given a quote for this job?
Paste it into the basement conversion quote check: each line is read against these same calculators — what it leaves out, what it adds, and what to ask.
Check the quoteEvery trade, from those dimensions
then change a dimension, and each line shows what moved.
| Trade | Quantity | |
|---|---|---|
Skip (dumpster) for the strip-outSkip & Dumpster Size CalculatorNo measurement stands behind this one: it allows as much as a layer 150 mm (6 in) deep over the cellar floor, for old shelving and linings, dead pipes and cables, hacked-off plaster and the new work's offcuts, all as mixed waste in a skip that is there from the first day. Each bag is carried up the stair and through the house, hence the protection listed as work. Spoil from any lowering belongs to that provisional item, not to this skip.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
Change any other figure on the Skip & Dumpster Size Calculator | 4.62 yd³ | |
Drainage channel round the room's edge (interior drain tile)Perimeter Weeping Tile Pipe Segment CalculatorA channel cut in round the edge of the floor at the foot of the old walls, or perforated pipe laid in clean stone there (interior drain tile, in North America), falling to the sump, counted in the page's opening 3.05 m (10 ft) lengths: a system sold in other lengths is the cellar's perimeter divided by its own. The corners' rodding points, the membrane over it and the sump are listed as work.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
Change any other figure on the Perimeter Weeping Tile Pipe Segment Calculator | 7 segments | |
Floor insulation boards, under the finished floorFoam Board Insulation CalculatorRigid boards over the whole floor, wall to wall, on the membrane or the coating, at the calculator's opening sheet and cutting allowance, under a screed or a floating board floor, both listed as work. How thick they are comes from the energy rules or the designer, and whatever they choose comes straight out of the cellar's headroom.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
The cutting waste: the calculator's working figure, a trade convention. Change any other figure on the Foam Board Insulation Calculator | 9 sheets (4x8 ft) | |
Studs or battens for the stand-off wallFraming Stud CalculatorStuds at the calculator's opening centres round the room on the line of the new lining, with the page's four extra studs at each door and window, fixed at head and foot so nothing punctures a drained membrane. The corner studs and the head and sole plates are not in the count, and no member is sized.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
| 56 studs | |
Insulation batts between the studsMineral Wool Insulation Batt CalculatorBatts filling the stud bays round the room less the doors and windows, at the calculator's opening pack and allowance, kept clear of the membrane behind so the cavity still drains.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
The waste allowance: the calculator's working figure, a trade convention. Change any other figure on the Mineral Wool Insulation Batt Calculator | 9 packages | |
Ceiling board, the fire separation (plasterboard or drywall)Ceiling Plasterboard (Gypsum Board) Sheet CalculatorBoard under the joists over the room inside the new lining, at the calculator's opening sheet and cutting allowance. It is the fire separation from the rooms above, so its type and layers are the ones building control or the code sets, not chosen here.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
The waste allowance: the calculator's working figure, a trade convention. Change any other figure on the Ceiling Plasterboard (Gypsum Board) Sheet Calculator | 8 sheets | |
Drywall (plasterboard) on the new wallsCeiling Plasterboard (Gypsum Board) Sheet CalculatorDrywall (plasterboard) over the new lining from floor to ceiling all round, taking off 1.95 m² (21 sq ft) for each door and 1.4 m² (15 sq ft) for each window, at the calculator's opening sheet and cutting allowance; the ceiling-sheet page is used because it counts any area. Below ground a moisture-resistant board is worth choosing, which changes the product and not the count.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
The waste allowance: the calculator's working figure, a trade convention. Change any other figure on the Ceiling Plasterboard (Gypsum Board) Sheet Calculator | 15 sheets | |
Joint compound (mud) over the new boardDrywall Joint Compound CalculatorJoint compound (mud) for the whole lining, the ceiling and the new walls taken together: the bedding coat, the fill and the finish at the calculator's three-coat coverage, with its allowance for the pan and for sanding. Imperial shows it in whole boxes, metric as a weight of ready-mixed compound.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
The pan and sanding loss: the calculator's working figure, a trade convention. Change any other figure on the Drywall Joint Compound Calculator | 2 x 4.5 gal boxes | |
Joint tape over the new boardDrywall Joint Tape CalculatorJoint tape at the calculator's rate for its opening 8 ft (2.4 m) sheets, plus the internal angles, where the ceiling meets the new walls and down the room's four corners. The window reveals' outside corners are beaded, and that bead is not in this row.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
The waste allowance: the calculator's working figure, a trade convention. Change any other figure on the Drywall Joint Tape Calculator | 375.98 ft | |
Paint on the wallsPaint CalculatorTwo coats over the new walls, less the doors and windows at the page's own sizes, at the calculator's opening spread rate. A mist coat on a new skim, or a primer on taped board, goes first and is listed as preparation.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
| 2.14 gal | |
Paint on the ceilingCeiling Paint CalculatorTwo coats over the ceiling at the calculator's opening spread rate.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
| 1.14 gal | |
Laminate or vinyl plank floorLVP, Laminate & Engineered Floor CalculatorPacks for the floor inside the new lining at the calculator's opening pack coverage and a simple lay, over the screed or the floating floor; a plank made for a floor that can take damp is the one to choose below ground.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
The layout waste: the calculator's working figure, a trade convention. Change any other figure on the LVP, Laminate & Engineered Floor Calculator | 11 packs | |
Skirting (baseboard)Baseboard & Trim CalculatorSkirting round the room inside the new lining less each doorway, in stock lengths with the calculator's cutting allowance, fixed once the floor is down.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
The cutting waste: the calculator's working figure, a trade convention. | 64.77 linear ft | |
Skip (dumpster) for the strip-outSkip & Dumpster Size CalculatorNo measurement stands behind this one: it allows as much as a layer 150 mm (6 in) deep over the cellar floor, for old shelving and linings, dead pipes and cables, hacked-off plaster and the new work's offcuts, all as mixed waste in a skip that is there from the first day. Each bag is carried up the stair and through the house, hence the protection listed as work. Spoil from any lowering belongs to that provisional item, not to this skip.
Why this quantity? | 3.6 m³ | |
Drainage channel round the room's edge (interior drain tile)Perimeter Weeping Tile Pipe Segment CalculatorA channel cut in round the edge of the floor at the foot of the old walls, or perforated pipe laid in clean stone there (interior drain tile, in North America), falling to the sump, counted in the page's opening 3.05 m (10 ft) lengths: a system sold in other lengths is the cellar's perimeter divided by its own. The corners' rodding points, the membrane over it and the sump are listed as work.
Why this quantity? | 7 segments | |
Floor insulation boards, under the finished floorFoam Board Insulation CalculatorRigid boards over the whole floor, wall to wall, on the membrane or the coating, at the calculator's opening sheet and cutting allowance, under a screed or a floating board floor, both listed as work. How thick they are comes from the energy rules or the designer, and whatever they choose comes straight out of the cellar's headroom.
Why this quantity? | 10 sheets (2400x1200 mm) | |
Studs or battens for the stand-off wallFraming Stud CalculatorStuds at the calculator's opening centres round the room on the line of the new lining, with the page's four extra studs at each door and window, fixed at head and foot so nothing punctures a drained membrane. The corner studs and the head and sole plates are not in the count, and no member is sized.
Why this quantity? | 56 studs | |
Insulation batts between the studsMineral Wool Insulation Batt CalculatorBatts filling the stud bays round the room less the doors and windows, at the calculator's opening pack and allowance, kept clear of the membrane behind so the cavity still drains.
Why this quantity? | 10 packages | |
Ceiling board, the fire separation (plasterboard or drywall)Ceiling Plasterboard (Gypsum Board) Sheet CalculatorBoard under the joists over the room inside the new lining, at the calculator's opening sheet and cutting allowance. It is the fire separation from the rooms above, so its type and layers are the ones building control or the code sets, not chosen here.
Why this quantity? | 9 sheets | |
Drywall (plasterboard) on the new wallsCeiling Plasterboard (Gypsum Board) Sheet CalculatorDrywall (plasterboard) over the new lining from floor to ceiling all round, taking off 1.95 m² (21 sq ft) for each door and 1.4 m² (15 sq ft) for each window, at the calculator's opening sheet and cutting allowance; the ceiling-sheet page is used because it counts any area. Below ground a moisture-resistant board is worth choosing, which changes the product and not the count.
Why this quantity? | 16 sheets | |
Skim (finish plaster) over the new boardSkim Coat Plaster CalculatorA finish coat of plaster over the new board, ceiling and walls alike, less the doors and windows, at the calculator's opening thickness and allowance. A cellar gives up moisture slowly, so the wait before it can be painted is listed as work.
Why this quantity? | 178.54 kg | |
Paint on the wallsPaint CalculatorTwo coats over the new walls, less the doors and windows at the page's own sizes, at the calculator's opening spread rate. A mist coat on a new skim, or a primer on taped board, goes first and is listed as preparation.
Why this quantity? | 8.09 L | |
Paint on the ceilingCeiling Paint CalculatorTwo coats over the ceiling at the calculator's opening spread rate.
Why this quantity? | 4.33 L | |
Laminate or vinyl plank floorLVP, Laminate & Engineered Floor CalculatorPacks for the floor inside the new lining at the calculator's opening pack coverage and a simple lay, over the screed or the floating floor; a plank made for a floor that can take damp is the one to choose below ground.
Why this quantity? | 11 packs | |
Skirting (baseboard)Baseboard & Trim CalculatorSkirting round the room inside the new lining less each doorway, in stock lengths with the calculator's cutting allowance, fixed once the floor is down.
Why this quantity? | 19.95 m |
Estimates, not a quote. Each row gives its base, the allowance on top, the adjusted figure and what to order; change an allowance on the row, or open its reasoning to see every figure it rests on. A trade's own page carries what it does not cover — open the one you are about to order against.
Labour and programme
Person-hours for the rows going in, from trade rules of thumb: a range for each piece of work, never a price.
- Skip (dumpster) for the strip-out3.5 h (1.8–11)
- Drainage channel round the room's edge (interior drain tile)24 h (5.0–59)
- Floor insulation boards, under the finished floor4.2 h (2.4–12)
- Studs or battens for the stand-off wall10 h (5.7–21)
- Insulation batts between the studs4.0 h (2.0–8.7)
- Ceiling board, the fire separation (plasterboard or drywall)2.6 h (1.4–4.8)
- Drywall (plasterboard) on the new walls4.8 h (2.7–9.0)
- Joint compound (mud) over the new board9.8 h (5.5–20)
- Paint on the walls7.2 h (4.0–16)
- Paint on the ceiling3.8 h (2.1–8.5)
- Laminate or vinyl plank floor5.9 h (3.2–12)
- Skirting (baseboard)3.6 h (2.0–7.9)
About 83 person-hours in all, between 38 and 189.
Trade by trade
- Labourer1 labourer1½ days
- Waterproofing operative1 waterproofing operative + 1 labourer1½ days
- Carpenter2 carpenters1 day
- Drywaller1 drywaller + 1 labourerhalf a day
- Taper1 taper + 1 labourerhalf a day
- Painter1 painter1½ days
- Floor layer1 floor layerhalf a day
About 7 days, one trade after another at eight hours a day. Left out: drying and curing, deliveries, inspections, trades overlapping.
1 row carries no hours of its own
- Joint tape over the new board: counted with Joint compound (mud) over the new board
Labour and programme
Person-hours for the rows going in, from trade rules of thumb: a range for each piece of work, never a price.
- Skip (dumpster) for the strip-out3.6 h (1.8–11)
- Drainage channel round the room's edge (interior drain tile)24 h (5.0–60)
- Floor insulation boards, under the finished floor4.3 h (2.4–12)
- Studs or battens for the stand-off wall10 h (5.7–21)
- Insulation batts between the studs4.0 h (2.0–8.9)
- Ceiling board, the fire separation (plasterboard or drywall)2.9 h (1.6–5.4)
- Drywall (plasterboard) on the new walls5.1 h (2.9–9.6)
- Skim (finish plaster) over the new board11 h (6.2–22)
- Paint on the walls7.3 h (4.0–16)
- Paint on the ceiling3.9 h (2.2–8.7)
- Laminate or vinyl plank floor6.1 h (3.2–12)
- Skirting (baseboard)3.6 h (2.0–8.0)
About 86 person-hours in all, between 39 and 194.
Trade by trade
- Labourer1 labourer1½ days
- Waterproofing operative1 waterproofing operative + 1 labourer1½ days
- Carpenter2 carpenters1 day
- Drywaller1 drywaller + 1 labourerhalf a day
- Plasterer1 plasterer1½ days
- Painter1 painter1½ days
- Floor layer1 floor layer1 day
About 8 days, one trade after another at eight hours a day. Left out: drying and curing, deliveries, inspections, trades overlapping.
Setups you have saved
The build-up, the dimensions and any allowance you changed — kept on this device, and reusable on any job. Your prices are not copied in: they stay in your price book, so a setup never holds a stale one.
How far does a budget go?
At your own prices, with this build-up unchanged.
About this job
Turning a cellar into a room is first a question of water. Its walls and floor sit below the ground outside, the soil against them is often damp and after heavy rain can be wet, so how the room is kept dry is decided before any lining is bought. In the UK that decision follows BS 8102, which names three kinds of protection: a barrier bonded to the walls and floor (Type A, tanking), a structure watertight in itself (Type B), and a drained cavity that lets water through the wall and carries it away (Type C). In North America the same choice is between a waterproofing coating and an interior drain tile behind a dimple membrane, draining to a sump.
This page offers the two a conversion can add from inside, and both together, and opens on the drained cavity. The studded membrane goes over the walls and floor on sealed plugs, a channel round the floor's edge carries what it collects to a sump, and a pump lifts it out: the channel is counted, and the membrane, the sump and the pump are listed as work, because their layout and the pump's duty are the designer's. A barrier coating is laid on masonry cleaned back to the bare wall, so hacking off the old plaster is part of it, and it is counted by the litre over the walls and the floor. Which of these a given cellar needs, and the grade of protection its use calls for, the page flags for the designer and never chooses.
Headroom comes next. Where the floor has to go down to give it, the walls are underpinned and the floor dug out in the order an engineer's scheme sets, which this page lists as provisional work and never sizes, stopping at the formation level; a new slab on a stone bed is then one choice in the build-up. A cellar with height enough keeps its slab and gives a little of that height to the new floor instead.
Inside the waterproofing, the walls are lined either with a stud wall standing clear of the membrane, insulated between its studs, or with insulation boards fixed to the wall, and the floor is insulated under a screed or a floating board floor. The ceiling is boarded as the fire separation from the rooms above, and the units pick the finish: board skimmed in plaster in metric, taped and finished drywall in imperial. A room below ground that people use also needs a way out in a fire, an escape (egress) window with a well outside it or a protected route up the stair, smoke alarms, and a carbon monoxide alarm where the rules ask for one; each is listed as work.
How each line reads
- Base
- What the calculator gives for these dimensions, before anything is added.
- Allowance
- Cutting waste, a lap or spare stock — named, with where it comes from, and changeable on the row.
- Adjusted
- The base with its allowance on top.
- Order
- What to buy: the adjusted figure in whole boards, bags, rolls or lengths.
The order this happens in
Quantities do not tell you the sequence, and on this job the sequence is where the money goes wrong.
- Have the waterproofing designed and any underpinning or lowering schemed by an engineer, serve the party wall notices where a wall is shared, notify building control or take out the permit, and have old lagging, pipe insulation or boarded linings surveyed for asbestos before they are touched.
- Protect the way down through the house, isolate the circuits and water that run through the cellar, and strip out the shelving, coal bunkers, old linings and redundant pipes and cables into the skip.
- Where the floor goes down, prop and underpin the walls in the engineer's sequence, dig out to formation, and lay the stone bed and the new slab.
- Cut the escape window's opening and set its lintel while the walls are bare; then hack off the old plaster and coat the walls and floor where the design has a barrier, and cut the drainage channel round the floor's edge, sink the sump chamber and fix the cavity drain membrane where it has a drained cavity.
- Insulate the floor and lay the screed or the floating floor over it, then build the stand-off stud walls clear of the membrane, or fix the insulation boards to the walls, with every fixing through the membrane sealed as its maker details.
- Run the first-fix cables and pipes, fire-stop every service through the ceiling, insulate between the studs, fix the vapour control layer where the design calls for one, then board the ceiling and the walls and skim or tape them.
- Let the room dry with air moving through it, decorate, lay the floor, fit the skirting, the doors and the stair's handrail, and connect the extract, the radiator and the alarms; wire the pump, fill its chamber and watch it start, discharge and raise its alarm.
- Test the electrics, commission the extract, have the completion inspection, and hand over the waterproofing guarantee with the pump's test record and the instructions for keeping the drainage clear.
What this takeoff does not cover
- Choosing the system and the grade: which kind of protection the room needs, and the grade its use calls for under BS 8102 in the UK or the code's dampproofing provisions in North America, are the designer's to decide. The page offers each system as a build-up, chooses none, and counts what the chosen one asks for.
- Underpinning, lowering the floor and the new slab's design: the engineer's scheme, the depth dug, the spoil from it and the old slab broken out are part of a provisional item, and the page stops at the formation level the new slab is laid on. A wall shared with a neighbour brings a party wall award in England and Wales.
- Anything done to the walls' outside face from a dig in the garden, such as a sheet bonded to it under a protection board: every row here works from inside the cellar.
- Radon. Where the house is in a radon-affected area in the UK, or a test under US EPA guidance finds a raised level, a barrier or a sump and fan beneath the floor is needed; no row covers it.
- Flood protection, and the pump's duty, a second pump or battery backup, and where the discharge goes, beyond listing the sump and pump as work.
- The stair's geometry, headroom and guarding, and the fire separation's specification: the stair, the handrail and guarding and the fire doors are listed as work where they are needed, and building control or the code sets each.
- Heating a room below ground: whether the boiler or heat pump can serve a circuit carried down the stair, and how large a radiator on a lined wall must be for a room with earth behind two or more of its walls, which the heating engineer works out.
- Moving a gas or electricity meter, the boiler or the consumer unit (service panel) out of the cellar.
- The floor's screed or floating board floor as a quantity, and where any vapour layer is placed: each follows the build-up the designer sets, and is listed as work.
Quote check
Been given a quote for this job?
Paste it into the basement conversion quote check. Every line of it is read against these same calculators and your measurements. Quantities only, never prices.
What it leaves out
Every line this takeoff has that nothing on the quote reads as.
What it adds
Labour, removal, hire, fees — each named for what it is.
What to ask
One list of questions, ready to copy. Never a verdict.
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Frequently asked questions
- What does the basement conversion takeoff give for a typical job?
- Opened at Length, wall to wall 6 m · Width, wall to wall 4 m · Height, floor to the joists above 2.3 m · Lining depth, old wall to new face 0.12 m · Doors 1 · Windows 1, it orders: Skip (dumpster) for the strip-out, 3.6 m³; Drainage channel round the room's edge (interior drain tile), 7 segments; Floor insulation boards, under the finished floor, 10 sheets (2400x1200 mm); Studs or battens for the stand-off wall, 56 studs; Insulation batts between the studs, 10 packages; Ceiling board, the fire separation (plasterboard or drywall), 9 sheets; Drywall (plasterboard) on the new walls, 16 sheets; Skim (finish plaster) over the new board, 179 kg; Paint on the walls, 8.09 L; Paint on the ceiling, 4.33 L; Laminate or vinyl plank floor, 11 packs; Skirting (baseboard), 20 m. Opened at Length, wall to wall 19.5 ft · Width, wall to wall 13 ft · Height, floor to the joists above 7.5 ft · Lining depth, old wall to new face 4.75 in · Doors 1 · Windows 1: Skip (dumpster) for the strip-out, 4.62 yd³; Drainage channel round the room's edge (interior drain tile), 7 segments; Floor insulation boards, under the finished floor, 9 sheets (4x8 ft); Studs or battens for the stand-off wall, 56 studs; Insulation batts between the studs, 9 packages; Ceiling board, the fire separation (plasterboard or drywall), 8 sheets; Drywall (plasterboard) on the new walls, 15 sheets; Joint compound (mud) over the new board, 2 x 4.5 gal boxes; Joint tape over the new board, 376 ft; Paint on the walls, 2.14 gal; Paint on the ceiling, 1.14 gal; Laminate or vinyl plank floor, 11 packs; Skirting (baseboard), 64.8 linear ft. Every figure follows the dimensions you give it.
- Which calculators does the basement conversion takeoff run?
- 12 calculators, for 13 lines: Skip & Dumpster Size Calculator, Perimeter Weeping Tile Pipe Segment Calculator, Foam Board Insulation Calculator, Framing Stud Calculator, Mineral Wool Insulation Batt Calculator, Ceiling Plasterboard (Gypsum Board) Sheet Calculator, Drywall Joint Compound Calculator, Drywall Joint Tape Calculator, Paint Calculator, Ceiling Paint Calculator, LVP, Laminate & Engineered Floor Calculator, Baseboard & Trim Calculator. Each has a page of its own with its formula and its sources; the takeoff runs them all on one set of dimensions.11 calculators, for 12 lines: Skip & Dumpster Size Calculator, Perimeter Weeping Tile Pipe Segment Calculator, Foam Board Insulation Calculator, Framing Stud Calculator, Mineral Wool Insulation Batt Calculator, Ceiling Plasterboard (Gypsum Board) Sheet Calculator, Skim Coat Plaster Calculator, Paint Calculator, Ceiling Paint Calculator, LVP, Laminate & Engineered Floor Calculator, Baseboard & Trim Calculator. Each has a page of its own with its formula and its sources; the takeoff runs them all on one set of dimensions.
- What does the basement conversion takeoff leave out?
- 9 things, each named on this page: Choosing the system and the grade; Underpinning, lowering the floor and the new slab's design; Anything done to the walls' outside face from a dig in the garden, such as a sheet bonded to it under a protection board; Radon; Flood protection, and the pump's duty, a second pump or battery backup, and where the discharge goes, beyond listing the sump and pump as work; The stair's geometry, headroom and guarding, and the fire separation's specification; Heating a room below ground; Moving a gas or electricity meter, the boiler or the consumer unit (service panel) out of the cellar; The floor's screed or floating board floor as a quantity, and where any vapour layer is placed.
- Can I check a quote for this job against the takeoff?
- Yes. The basement conversion quote check reads a quote's lines against these same calculators and your measurements, and reports what it leaves out, what it adds and what to ask. It reads quantities, never prices.