Job takeoff
Internal wall removal takeoff
Take out an internal wall, load-bearing or not: the protection, the rubble and the skip (dumpster), the beam casing, and making good the ceiling, the wall ends and the floor along the old wall line.
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.
- 9Measurements in
- 13Trades out
Choose the build-up
Each layer changes the materials below; the dimensions stay the same.
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 wall removal 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 and tape for both roomsMasking and Protection Materials CalculatorSheets over the whole of the joined room's floor and tape along its edges and round its doors and windows: cutting out a wall fills both rooms with dust, not just the strip where it stood.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
Change any other figure on the Masking and Protection Materials Calculator | 5 items | |
The wall, broken upDemolition Bulk Volume Swell CalculatorThe wall's volume, the opening by the room height by the thickness, bulked up at the calculator's brick setting of half again. Plaster and anything built into the wall come out with it and add to the load.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
Change any other figure on the Demolition Bulk Volume Swell Calculator | 2.04 cubic yards | |
Ceiling board along the old wall lineCeiling Plasterboard (Gypsum Board) Sheet CalculatorBoard for the band of ceiling cut out and made good along the opening, at the calculator's opening sheet and cutting allowance.
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 | 1 sheet | |
Fire-rated board casing the beamCeiling Plasterboard (Gypsum Board) Sheet CalculatorOne layer of board round the exposed beam, its girth by the opening, at the calculator's opening sheet and allowance. The board's type and how many layers it takes are set by the fire protection building control accepts for the steel; a second layer is this row again.
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 | 1 sheet | |
Angle bead on the beam casingPlaster Angle and Stop Bead CalculatorBead along the casing's two lower arrises, each the length of the opening, in stock lengths.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
Change any other figure on the Plaster Angle and Stop Bead Calculator | 4 lengths | |
Backing and finish coat on the wall endsFloat and Set Plaster CalculatorThe two wall ends the opening leaves, each the room height by the wall thickness, taken back to a clean line and plastered in two coats. A tiny area still buys a whole bag of each.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
The waste allowance: the calculator's working figure, a trade convention. Change any other figure on the Float and Set Plaster Calculator | 18.5 lb | |
Skim over the ceiling bandSkim Coat Plaster CalculatorFinish plaster over the re-boarded band, at the calculator's opening thickness and allowance; the row's working gives the bags it comes to.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
The waste allowance: the calculator's working figure, a trade convention. | 12.95 lb | |
Skim over the beam casingSkim Coat Plaster CalculatorFinish plaster over the boarded casing, at the calculator's opening thickness and allowance.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
The waste allowance: the calculator's working figure, a trade convention. | 9.72 lb | |
Levelling compound across the old wall lineSelf-Leveling Underlayment (SLU) Volume CalculatorA levelling coat over the band either side of the old wall line, at the calculator's opening average depth. The fill in the strip itself, where it is deeper than a levelling coat, is mortar or concrete and not this row.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
Change any other figure on the Self-Leveling Underlayment (SLU) Volume Calculator | 3.43 gal | |
Wall paint for the joined roomPaint CalculatorTwo coats over the joined room's four walls, less its doors and windows at the calculator's opening sizes. The mist coat on the new plaster comes first and is listed as work.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
| 2.44 gal | |
Ceiling paint for the joined roomCeiling Paint CalculatorThe whole joined ceiling, not the band alone, so the repair does not show as a stripe.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
| 1.38 gal | |
Skirting (baseboard) round the joined roomBaseboard & Trim CalculatorThe joined room's perimeter less its doorways, in stock lengths. Where the old skirting stays, only the lengths either side of the old wall line are new; read this as the most a matching run takes.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
The cutting waste: the calculator's working figure, a trade convention. | 70.5 linear ft | |
Skip (dumpster) for the rubbleSkip & Dumpster Size CalculatorSized on the bulked volume from the row above, as rubble, whose weight can fill a skip's limit before its volume does; the row's working says how many loads the weight takes.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
Change any other figure on the Skip & Dumpster Size Calculator | 2.04 yd³ | |
Dust sheets and tape for both roomsMasking and Protection Materials CalculatorSheets over the whole of the joined room's floor and tape along its edges and round its doors and windows: cutting out a wall fills both rooms with dust, not just the strip where it stood.
Why this quantity? | 5 items | |
The wall, broken upDemolition Bulk Volume Swell CalculatorThe wall's volume, the opening by the room height by the thickness, bulked up at the calculator's brick setting of half again. Plaster and anything built into the wall come out with it and add to the load.
Why this quantity? | 1.53 m³ | |
Ceiling board along the old wall lineCeiling Plasterboard (Gypsum Board) Sheet CalculatorBoard for the band of ceiling cut out and made good along the opening, at the calculator's opening sheet and cutting allowance.
Why this quantity? | 1 sheet | |
Fire-rated board casing the beamCeiling Plasterboard (Gypsum Board) Sheet CalculatorOne layer of board round the exposed beam, its girth by the opening, at the calculator's opening sheet and allowance. The board's type and how many layers it takes are set by the fire protection building control accepts for the steel; a second layer is this row again.
Why this quantity? | 1 sheet | |
Angle bead on the beam casingPlaster Angle and Stop Bead CalculatorBead along the casing's two lower arrises, each the length of the opening, in stock lengths.
Why this quantity? | 4 lengths | |
Backing and finish coat on the wall endsFloat and Set Plaster CalculatorThe two wall ends the opening leaves, each the room height by the wall thickness, taken back to a clean line and plastered in two coats. A tiny area still buys a whole bag of each.
Why this quantity? | 8.18 kg | |
Skim over the ceiling bandSkim Coat Plaster CalculatorFinish plaster over the re-boarded band, at the calculator's opening thickness and allowance; the row's working gives the bags it comes to.
Why this quantity? | 5.87 kg | |
Skim over the beam casingSkim Coat Plaster CalculatorFinish plaster over the boarded casing, at the calculator's opening thickness and allowance.
Why this quantity? | 4.89 kg | |
Levelling compound across the old wall lineSelf-Leveling Underlayment (SLU) Volume CalculatorA levelling coat over the band either side of the old wall line, at the calculator's opening average depth. The fill in the strip itself, where it is deeper than a levelling coat, is mortar or concrete and not this row.
Why this quantity? | 12.24 L | |
Wall paint for the joined roomPaint CalculatorTwo coats over the joined room's four walls, less its doors and windows at the calculator's opening sizes. The mist coat on the new plaster comes first and is listed as work.
Why this quantity? | 8.84 L | |
Ceiling paint for the joined roomCeiling Paint CalculatorThe whole joined ceiling, not the band alone, so the repair does not show as a stripe.
Why this quantity? | 5.04 L | |
Skirting (baseboard) round the joined roomBaseboard & Trim CalculatorThe joined room's perimeter less its doorways, in stock lengths. Where the old skirting stays, only the lengths either side of the old wall line are new; read this as the most a matching run takes.
Why this quantity? | 21.34 m | |
Skip (dumpster) for the rubbleSkip & Dumpster Size CalculatorSized on the bulked volume from the row above, as rubble, whose weight can fill a skip's limit before its volume does; the row's working says how many loads the weight takes.
Why this quantity? | 1.53 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 and tape for both rooms1.0 h (0.5–2.1)
- Ceiling board along the old wall line0.3 h (0.2–0.6)
- Fire-rated board casing the beam0.3 h (0.2–0.6)
- Backing and finish coat on the wall ends0.1 h (0.1–0.2)
- Skim over the ceiling band0.3 h (0.2–0.7)
- Skim over the beam casing0.3 h (0.2–0.5)
- Levelling compound across the old wall line0.4 h (0.2–0.9)
- Wall paint for the joined room8.2 h (4.5–18)
- Ceiling paint for the joined room4.6 h (2.6–10)
- Skirting (baseboard) round the joined room3.9 h (2.1–8.6)
- Skip (dumpster) for the rubble1.6 h (0.8–4.7)
About 21 person-hours in all, between 12 and 47.
Trade by trade
- Labourer1 labourerhalf a day
- Drywaller1 drywaller + 1 labourerunder a quarter of a day
- Plasterer1 plastererunder a quarter of a day
- Painter1 painter1½ days
- Carpenter1 carpenterhalf a day
About 2½ days, one trade after another at eight hours a day. Left out: drying and curing, deliveries, inspections, trades overlapping.
2 rows carry no hours of their own
- The wall, broken up: counted with Skip (dumpster) for the rubble
- Angle bead on the beam casing: counted with Backing and finish coat on the wall ends and Skim over the ceiling band and Skim over the beam casing
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 and tape for both rooms1.0 h (0.5–2.0)
- Ceiling board along the old wall line0.3 h (0.2–0.6)
- Fire-rated board casing the beam0.3 h (0.2–0.6)
- Backing and finish coat on the wall ends0.1 h (0.1–0.2)
- Skim over the ceiling band0.3 h (0.2–0.7)
- Skim over the beam casing0.3 h (0.2–0.6)
- Levelling compound across the old wall line0.4 h (0.2–0.9)
- Wall paint for the joined room8.0 h (4.4–18)
- Ceiling paint for the joined room4.5 h (2.5–10)
- Skirting (baseboard) round the joined room3.8 h (2.1–8.5)
- Skip (dumpster) for the rubble1.5 h (0.8–4.6)
About 21 person-hours in all, between 11 and 47.
Trade by trade
- Labourer1 labourerhalf a day
- Drywaller1 drywaller + 1 labourerunder a quarter of a day
- Plasterer1 plastererunder a quarter of a day
- Painter1 painter1½ days
- Carpenter1 carpenterhalf a day
About 2½ days, one trade after another at eight hours a day. Left out: drying and curing, deliveries, inspections, trades overlapping.
2 rows carry no hours of their own
- The wall, broken up: counted with Skip (dumpster) for the rubble
- Angle bead on the beam casing: counted with Backing and finish coat on the wall ends and Skim over the ceiling band and Skim over the beam casing
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
Taking out a wall is two jobs that look like one. The first is structural, and there is nothing on this page to measure in it: whether the wall holds anything up — a floor, a wall standing on it upstairs, a strut from the roof — and, where it does, the props and needles (temporary shoring) that carry that load while the wall comes out, the beam that carries it afterwards, and the padstones (concrete bearing blocks) its ends sit on. Those are the engineer's figures. They appear here as items, never sized. The second job is everything the opening leaves behind, and that is where the quantities are: the rubble, a band of ceiling torn where the wall met it, the two wall ends, the floor strip where the wall stood, and whatever is built round the beam.
How thick a wall looks, or whether it sounds hollow, does not say whether it carries load. Joists landing on it, a wall above it, or a loft strut bearing down onto it do; and a stud partition can carry a floor as surely as a brick one. So the beam's girth below is a figure to take from the engineer's section once there is one, and a wall that carries nothing is entered with a girth of 0, which takes the casing, its fire protection and its beads off the list. Carrying nothing does not always mean no approval: a wall that encloses the stair or hall, the way out of a house with a floor more than 4.5 m (15 ft) up, protects the escape route, and taking it out is a matter for building control in England and Wales and for a permit in much of North America.
The wall's material decides the waste and the wall ends. Brick or block breaks into rubble that the demolition row bulks up by half and sends to a skip (dumpster) as heavy waste; a stud wall comes out as timber and plasterboard (drywall), light and bulky. Masonry ends cut back to a clean line take a backing coat before the finish, which the stud wall's boarded end does not.
The floor under the old wall is the part a plan of the room hides. On a solid floor there is a strip where the wall stood — often lower than the floors either side, because the wall sat on its own footing — to fill and then level; on a suspended timber floor the joists and boards have to be carried across the gap. And two rooms that had different floor coverings now meet in the middle of one room, where the join takes a threshold strip or one covering laid right through.
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.
- Establish what the wall carries, and have the engineer's design and building control's agreement in hand before touching a wall that carries load.
- Isolate the cables and pipes in the wall, and sheet both rooms' floors and the route out to the skip.
- Set the props and needles where the design puts them, and only then cut the wall away, from the top down.
- Build the padstones, set the beam, pack it tight to what it carries, and leave the props in until the engineer says the packing has taken the load.
- Case or coat the steel to the fire protection agreed, board the ceiling band, and make good the wall ends.
- Skim the new surfaces and let them dry; fill and level the floor strip once the plastering is finished, so no plaster drops onto the new levelling coat.
- Decorate the joined room as one room: ceiling, walls and skirting, so the old wall line does not show through in two shades.
What this takeoff does not cover
- The structural design: whether the wall carries load, the beam's size and grade, its bearings and padstones, and the temporary props. Each is an item here with no quantity, because each is the engineer's figure, and the page sizes none of them.
- A beam that bears into a party wall, which brings a notice to the neighbour under the rules where you build — in England and Wales, the Party Wall etc. Act 1996.
- The cables, pipes and any radiator rerouted out of the wall, which are listed as work and not measured.
- The mortar, concrete or screed that fills a deep floor strip below the finish. The levelling row covers a thin levelling coat across the band, not the fill under it.
- The corners of any piers left at the ends of the opening, each a length of angle bead; the bead row counts the casing's two arrises only. And on a stud wall, the cut ends boarded over the last stud, a strip of board and skim no wider than the wall.
- A floor covering laid right through the joined room, and the threshold strip where two coverings meet, which are listed as work and not measured.
Quote check
Been given a quote for this job?
Paste it into the wall removal 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 wall removal takeoff give for a typical job?
- Opened at Length of wall taken out 3.4 m · Floor to ceiling 2.4 m · Wall thickness, finish to finish 0.13 m · Joined room, across the old wall line 7 m · Joined room, along the old wall line 3.6 m · Doors in the joined room 2 · Windows in the joined room 2 · Band made good along the wall line 0.6 m · Beam girth to finish 0.5 m, it orders: Dust sheets and tape for both rooms, 5 items; The wall, broken up, 1.53 m³; Ceiling board along the old wall line, 1 sheet; Fire-rated board casing the beam, 1 sheet; Angle bead on the beam casing, 4 lengths; Backing and finish coat on the wall ends, 8.18 kg; Skim over the ceiling band, 5.87 kg; Skim over the beam casing, 4.89 kg; Levelling compound across the old wall line, 12.2 L; Wall paint for the joined room, 8.84 L; Ceiling paint for the joined room, 5.04 L; Skirting (baseboard) round the joined room, 21.3 m; Skip (dumpster) for the rubble, 1.53 m³. Opened at Length of wall taken out 11 ft · Floor to ceiling 8 ft · Wall thickness, finish to finish 5 in · Joined room, across the old wall line 23 ft · Joined room, along the old wall line 12 ft · Doors in the joined room 2 · Windows in the joined room 2 · Band made good along the wall line 2 ft · Beam girth to finish 1.5 ft: Dust sheets and tape for both rooms, 5 items; The wall, broken up, 2.04 cubic yards; Ceiling board along the old wall line, 1 sheet; Fire-rated board casing the beam, 1 sheet; Angle bead on the beam casing, 4 lengths; Backing and finish coat on the wall ends, 18.5 lb; Skim over the ceiling band, 13 lb; Skim over the beam casing, 9.72 lb; Levelling compound across the old wall line, 3.43 gal; Wall paint for the joined room, 2.44 gal; Ceiling paint for the joined room, 1.38 gal; Skirting (baseboard) round the joined room, 70.5 linear ft; Skip (dumpster) for the rubble, 2.04 yd³. Every figure follows the dimensions you give it.
- Which calculators does the wall removal takeoff run?
- 11 calculators, for 13 lines: Masking and Protection Materials Calculator, Demolition Bulk Volume Swell Calculator, Ceiling Plasterboard (Gypsum Board) Sheet Calculator, Plaster Angle and Stop Bead Calculator, Float and Set Plaster Calculator, Skim Coat Plaster Calculator, Self-Leveling Underlayment (SLU) Volume Calculator, Paint Calculator, Ceiling Paint Calculator, Baseboard & Trim 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 wall removal takeoff leave out?
- 6 things, each named on this page: The structural design; A beam that bears into a party wall, which brings a notice to the neighbour under the rules where you build; The cables, pipes and any radiator rerouted out of the wall, which are listed as work and not measured; The mortar, concrete or screed that fills a deep floor strip below the finish; The corners of any piers left at the ends of the opening, each a length of angle bead; the bead row counts the casing's two arrises only; A floor covering laid right through the joined room, and the threshold strip where two coverings meet, which are listed as work and not measured.
- Can I check a quote for this job against the takeoff?
- Yes. The wall removal 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.