Job takeoff
Full house rewire takeoff
Rewire a house from the old wiring out: dust sheets over the floors, the outlet (socket) count by the North American spacing rule, fire-stopping where a cable crosses a fire-separating wall, the skim and mist coat where chased walls are replastered, and the skip, with the chases, the lifted boards, the consumer unit (panel), the bonding, the alarms and the test listed and never certified.
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
- 6Trades out
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 full rewire 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 | |
|---|---|---|
Dust sheets over the floorsMasking and Protection Materials CalculatorDust sheets over every floor of the house at the calculator's opening sheet size: chasing throws plaster dust through a whole storey, and every lifted board opens the room below to it. The count covers the floors only; the furniture that stays needs sheeting of its own, as the calculator's limitation says, unless sheets lifted from a finished room are carried on to it. The sheets are laid loose, so no tape is counted.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
Change any other figure on the Masking and Protection Materials Calculator | 9 items | |
Outlets (receptacles, sockets) by the North American spacing ruleOutlet Spacing CalculatorGeneral-use outlets for the living rooms' and bedrooms' walls added together, at the rule that no point along a wall is more than 6 ft (1.8 m) from one. The rooms go in as one wall space, so each room's own spaces, split again at every doorway and fireplace, can each add one; the kitchen worktop, bathrooms, the hall and the landing have rules of their own. BS 7671 sets no spacing, so in Britain read the count against the socket schedule rather than as a minimum.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
| 18 outlets (minimum) | |
Fire stopping: sealant round the sleevesPenetration Firestop Caulk Volume CalculatorSealant in the ring round each sleeve through a fire-separating wall or floor, the sleeves' girths added up, at the calculator's opening gap and depth, which the sealant's tested system replaces. The page models a ring round one sleeve; loose cables bunched through a hole take several times as much, as its own limitation says, which is why the runs here are sleeved. The putty or plug inside the sleeve belongs to the same system and is not in the figure. At the opening figures the volume is a small part of one cartridge, which is the least that is bought.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
Change any other figure on the Penetration Firestop Caulk Volume Calculator | 0.01061 gal | |
Skim over the replastered walls and ceilingsSkim Coat Plaster CalculatorFinish plaster over the area you gave as replastered, at the calculator's opening thickness, coats and allowance: kilograms with 25 kg (55 lb) bags in its working in metric, pounds with 50 lb (22.7 kg) bags in imperial. It is a finish, not a fill: the chases are filled flush first, which is listed as making good, and a wall whose old plaster has come away needs a backing coat, which the float and set page counts. Where the walls are drywall, the patches are taped and filled with joint compound instead; enter 0.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
The waste allowance: the calculator's working figure, a trade convention. | 188.43 lb | |
Mist coat or sealer on the new skimPaint Primer CalculatorOne sealing coat over the same replastered area once it is dry, at the primer page's opening spread rate, rounded up to the half gallon. A mist coat of thinned emulsion on new plaster soaks in and covers less than the tin says, as that page's own limitation warns, so set the rate from the product. The finish coats over it, and the rooms decorated round it, are listed as work.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
| 2 gallons | |
Skip (dumpster) or bags for the strip-outSkip & Dumpster Size CalculatorThe loose waste over the floor area at the depth you gave, as mixed construction waste: the old cable, accessories and board, the plaster out of the chases, and the packaging. It is light and bulky, and the working gives its weight against the container's limit. An old board or fuse carrier containing asbestos never goes in a general container.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
Change any other figure on the Skip & Dumpster Size Calculator | 1.17 yd³ | |
Dust sheets over the floorsMasking and Protection Materials CalculatorDust sheets over every floor of the house at the calculator's opening sheet size: chasing throws plaster dust through a whole storey, and every lifted board opens the room below to it. The count covers the floors only; the furniture that stays needs sheeting of its own, as the calculator's limitation says, unless sheets lifted from a finished room are carried on to it. The sheets are laid loose, so no tape is counted.
Why this quantity? | 9 items | |
Outlets (receptacles, sockets) by the North American spacing ruleOutlet Spacing CalculatorGeneral-use outlets for the living rooms' and bedrooms' walls added together, at the rule that no point along a wall is more than 6 ft (1.8 m) from one. The rooms go in as one wall space, so each room's own spaces, split again at every doorway and fireplace, can each add one; the kitchen worktop, bathrooms, the hall and the landing have rules of their own. BS 7671 sets no spacing, so in Britain read the count against the socket schedule rather than as a minimum.
Why this quantity? | 18 outlets (minimum) | |
Fire stopping: sealant round the sleevesPenetration Firestop Caulk Volume CalculatorSealant in the ring round each sleeve through a fire-separating wall or floor, the sleeves' girths added up, at the calculator's opening gap and depth, which the sealant's tested system replaces. The page models a ring round one sleeve; loose cables bunched through a hole take several times as much, as its own limitation says, which is why the runs here are sleeved. The putty or plug inside the sleeve belongs to the same system and is not in the figure. At the opening figures the volume is a small part of one cartridge, which is the least that is bought.
Why this quantity? | 0.03927 L | |
Skim over the replastered walls and ceilingsSkim Coat Plaster CalculatorFinish plaster over the area you gave as replastered, at the calculator's opening thickness, coats and allowance: kilograms with 25 kg (55 lb) bags in its working in metric, pounds with 50 lb (22.7 kg) bags in imperial. It is a finish, not a fill: the chases are filled flush first, which is listed as making good, and a wall whose old plaster has come away needs a backing coat, which the float and set page counts. Where the walls are drywall, the patches are taped and filled with joint compound instead; enter 0.
Why this quantity? | 86.25 kg | |
Mist coat or sealer on the new skimPaint Primer CalculatorOne sealing coat over the same replastered area once it is dry, at the primer page's opening spread rate, rounded up to the half gallon. A mist coat of thinned emulsion on new plaster soaks in and covers less than the tin says, as that page's own limitation warns, so set the rate from the product. The finish coats over it, and the rooms decorated round it, are listed as work.
Why this quantity? | 7.57 L | |
Skip (dumpster) or bags for the strip-outSkip & Dumpster Size CalculatorThe loose waste over the floor area at the depth you gave, as mixed construction waste: the old cable, accessories and board, the plaster out of the chases, and the packaging. It is light and bulky, and the working gives its weight against the container's limit. An old board or fuse carrier containing asbestos never goes in a general container.
Why this quantity? | 0.9 m³ |
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.
- Dust sheets over the floors3.6 h (1.8–7.2)
- Skim over the replastered walls and ceilings5.1 h (3.0–10)
- Skip (dumpster) or bags for the strip-out0.9 h (0.4–2.7)
About 9.6 person-hours in the rows that carry them, between 5.2 and 20.
Trade by trade
- Labourer1 labourerhalf a day
- Plasterer1 plastererhalf a day
About 1 day, one trade after another at eight hours a day. Left out: drying and curing, deliveries, inspections, trades overlapping.
3 rows carry no hours of their own
- Outlets (receptacles, sockets) by the North American spacing rule: Electrical work is not rated here: it is work for a registered electrician, and access (open new walls against an occupied house being rewired) changes its time several-fold.
- Fire stopping: sealant round the sleeves: Fire protection is not rated here: it is installed by certified installers to a tested system's specification, and that system, not a rule of thumb, sets the time.
- Mist coat or sealer on the new skim: no rate measures this row
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.
- Dust sheets over the floors3.6 h (1.8–7.2)
- Skim over the replastered walls and ceilings5.1 h (3.0–11)
- Skip (dumpster) or bags for the strip-out0.9 h (0.5–2.7)
About 9.6 person-hours in the rows that carry them, between 5.3 and 20.
Trade by trade
- Labourer1 labourerhalf a day
- Plasterer1 plastererhalf a day
About 1 day, one trade after another at eight hours a day. Left out: drying and curing, deliveries, inspections, trades overlapping.
3 rows carry no hours of their own
- Outlets (receptacles, sockets) by the North American spacing rule: Electrical work is not rated here: it is work for a registered electrician, and access (open new walls against an occupied house being rewired) changes its time several-fold.
- Fire stopping: sealant round the sleeves: Fire protection is not rated here: it is installed by certified installers to a tested system's specification, and that system, not a rule of thumb, sets the time.
- Mist coat or sealer on the new skim: no rate measures this row
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
A full rewire takes out every circuit in the house and puts new ones in while the plaster and the floors stay, and the household too where it can. What makes it disruptive is the route the cable takes, not the cable. In a house with solid walls each new cable is buried in a chase cut into the plaster from the ceiling or the floor to its box; along the floors and up to the lights it runs in the voids, reached by lifting boards in strips and through holes drilled in the joists, and in the loft it is clipped to the timbers. That builder's work, the chases, the lifted boards and the holes, is the half of a rewire the rows here follow; the electrician's half is listed.
The products are each market's own, and neither is a row. In Britain the cable is flat twin-and-earth, clipped in the voids and buried in the chases, and every circuit ends at a consumer unit with RCD or RCBO protection. Across North America it is NM cable (Romex), stapled to studs and joists behind drywall or fished through the closed walls of an old house, ending at a service panel with AFCI and GFCI protection where the code calls for it. How much cable and which board both follow the circuit design, which is the electrician's, so the page lists the work of running and fitting them and measures neither.
The one figure a rule sets from the rooms is the outlet count: the North American requirement that no point along a wall is more than 6 ft (1.8 m) from an outlet, run here over the living rooms' and bedrooms' walls added together. It is a floor, not a layout, and BS 7671 sets no spacing at all, so in Britain it is only a figure to read a socket schedule against. Smoke and heat alarms go the other way: the US rule puts one in every bedroom and on every level, while BS 5839-6 starts from the hall and every landing and adds the main living room and a heat alarm in the kitchen at its higher grade. No single count serves both, so the alarms are listed as work and not counted.
Filling the chases is always part of the job, and a wall is skimmed over only where its old plaster came away with the chasing or the patches would show through paint; that replastered area is what the skim and mist coat rows take. The electrical work is listed and never certified. In England and Wales a rewire is notifiable, and an electrician registered with a competent person scheme notifies it and issues the installation certificate; across North America it is permitted work, with a rough-in inspection before any wall or floor is closed over the new cable and a final one after second fix. Changing the board also needs the supply isolated by the network operator or the utility, booked ahead, and that date fixes the day the old board comes out.
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.
- Walk the house with the electrician before a board is lifted: the old circuits, where the supply enters and whether its earthing is adequate, which ceilings, old boards and floor tiles are of an age to need an asbestos check, and a marked-up plan of every new point.
- Book the supplier's isolation for the day the board is changed, and agree which room keeps a working socket and a light while the house is lived in.
- Sheet the floors and the furniture, clear a path to the door, then make the old circuits dead and take the old accessories and cable out room by room.
- Cut the chases and lift the boards along the marked routes, keeping each chase straight up or across from its box and within the depth the wall allows, and drilling joists only in the zone the rules allow.
- First fix: run the cable, set the back boxes, run the main bonding conductors to the gas and water pipes where they enter, seal every sleeve through a fire-separating wall or floor, and hold the rough-in inspection where a permit calls for one before anything is covered.
- Fill the chases, screw the boards back down and skim wherever walls are replastered; let the new plaster dry and mist-coat it before the rooms are decorated.
- On the booked day change the board, connect the bonding to it and move each new circuit onto it; second fix then fits the accessories, the lights and the alarms.
- Test and inspect every circuit, restore the power, and hand over the certificate or the final inspection record with the board's schedule of circuits.
What this takeoff does not cover
- The supply side: the incoming cable, the cut-out, the meter and the meter tails in Britain, the utility's drop or lateral and the meter across North America, and anything else the network operator or the utility owns. The job books the supplier's isolation for the day the board changes and does no work on the supply itself.
- The circuit design: how many circuits, what each carries, the cable sizes and each circuit's rating, which the electrician takes from the wiring regulations or the electrical code; and the cable, boxes and accessories as quantities, which follow from it.
- The certificate or the inspection record itself, and the building control or permit fee behind it. The work is listed; the paper comes from the electrician, the scheme or the inspector.
- Circuits outside the house or for a new appliance: garden lighting, an outbuilding's supply, an EV charger, or a shower or cooker circuit upgraded, each sized on its own load.
- New floor coverings where boards are lifted. A carpet that can be relaid by hand goes back with the boards; a fitted carpet, sheet vinyl or a glued floor that cannot is the floor layer's.
- Decorating as a quantity. The chases filled, the skim and its mist coat are here; painting whole rooms afterwards is listed as work, because the paint page paints one room at a time and a rewire decorates a house.
- Taking out asbestos. A survey is listed where textured ceilings, the old board or floor tiles are old enough to contain it; removing any of it is a licensed or specialist job with its own programme.
- Notches, holes and chases beyond the limits the building regulations or code set for joists and walls. Where a route cannot stay inside them, the route changes or an engineer is asked; nothing here allows a deeper cut.
Quote check
Been given a quote for this job?
Paste it into the full rewire 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.
More takeoffs
Other job takeoffs
Electrical rough-in
3 tradesA starting outlet count by the North American spacing rule, the lighting load and the conduit run for first-fixing a single room.
Run this takeoffService panel upgrade
3 tradesCalculated service load by the NEC methods, a simplified floor to read it against, and the main breaker for the service being considered.
Run this takeoffRecessed lighting layout
3 tradesWhether the fittings you plan give the room enough light, how many a target level needs and at what spacing, and whether the circuit will carry them.
Run this takeoff
Frequently asked questions
- What does the full rewire takeoff give for a typical job?
- Opened at Floor area of the house, every storey added up 90 m² · Wall round the living rooms and bedrooms, added up 64 m · Sleeved runs through a fire-separating wall or floor 2 · Each sleeve across, outside 0.03 m · Walls and ceilings replastered after the chases 30 m² · Loose waste, as a depth over the floor area 0.01 m, it orders: Dust sheets over the floors, 9 items; Outlets (receptacles, sockets) by the North American spacing rule, 18 outlets (minimum); Fire stopping: sealant round the sleeves, 0.04 L; Skim over the replastered walls and ceilings, 86.3 kg; Mist coat or sealer on the new skim, 7.57 L; Skip (dumpster) or bags for the strip-out, 0.9 m³. Opened at Floor area of the house, every storey added up 970 sq ft · Wall round the living rooms and bedrooms, added up 210 ft · Sleeved runs through a fire-separating wall or floor 2 · Each sleeve across, outside 1 in · Walls and ceilings replastered after the chases 320 sq ft · Loose waste, as a depth over the floor area 0.39 in: Dust sheets over the floors, 9 items; Outlets (receptacles, sockets) by the North American spacing rule, 18 outlets (minimum); Fire stopping: sealant round the sleeves, 0.01 gal; Skim over the replastered walls and ceilings, 188 lb; Mist coat or sealer on the new skim, 2 gallons; Skip (dumpster) or bags for the strip-out, 1.17 yd³. Every figure follows the dimensions you give it.
- Which calculators does the full rewire takeoff run?
- 6 calculators, one to a line: Masking and Protection Materials Calculator, Outlet Spacing Calculator, Penetration Firestop Caulk Volume Calculator, Skim Coat Plaster Calculator, Paint Primer Calculator, Skip & Dumpster Size 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 full rewire takeoff leave out?
- 8 things, each named on this page: The supply side; The circuit design; The certificate or the inspection record itself, and the building control or permit fee behind it; Circuits outside the house or for a new appliance; New floor coverings where boards are lifted; Decorating as a quantity; Taking out asbestos; Notches, holes and chases beyond the limits the building regulations or code set for joists and walls.
- Can I check a quote for this job against the takeoff?
- Yes. The full rewire 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.