Job takeoff
Pool surround takeoff
Pool volume, cover or liner area, and the paving and edging for the deck around it.
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
- 4Trades 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 pool surround 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 | |
|---|---|---|
Pool Volume Calculator (Rectangular, Round, Oval or Kidney)The volume every running-cost figure follows from.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
Change any other figure on the Pool Volume Calculator (Rectangular, Round, Oval or Kidney) | 11377.87 gallons | |
Pool Cover & Liner Area CalculatorCover or liner area — the cover is the largest single saving on a heated pool.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
Change any other figure on the Pool Cover & Liner Area Calculator | 338 ft² | |
Paver CalculatorPavers at the default unit size for the surround's outer rectangle, less the pool and its coping band — the pool's length and width, each with the coping width added at both ends — taken off as the area left unpaved.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
The waste factor: the calculator's working figure, a trade convention. | 656 pavers | |
Paver Edging CalculatorRestraint around the outer edge — the coping does the inner one.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
The cutting allowance: the calculator's working figure, a trade convention. | 18 x 8 ft sections | |
Pool Volume Calculator (Rectangular, Round, Oval or Kidney)The volume every running-cost figure follows from.
Why this quantity? | 44800 L | |
Pool Cover & Liner Area CalculatorCover or liner area — the cover is the largest single saving on a heated pool.
Why this quantity? | 32 m² | |
Paver CalculatorPavers at the default unit size for the surround's outer rectangle, less the pool and its coping band — the pool's length and width, each with the coping width added at both ends — taken off as the area left unpaved.
Why this quantity? | 669 pavers | |
Paver Edging CalculatorRestraint around the outer edge — the coping does the inner one.
Why this quantity? | 19 x 2.4 m sections |
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.
- Paver77 h (44–155)
About 77 person-hours in the rows that carry them, between 44 and 155.
Trade by trade
- Landscaper1 landscaper + 1 labourer5 days
About 5 days, 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
- Pool Volume (Rectangular, Round, Oval or Kidney): no rate for its work here yet
- Pool Cover & Liner Area: no rate for its work here yet
- Paver Edging: counted with Paver
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.
- Paver79 h (45–158)
About 79 person-hours in the rows that carry them, between 45 and 158.
Trade by trade
- Landscaper1 landscaper + 1 labourer5 days
About 5 days, 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
- Pool Volume (Rectangular, Round, Oval or Kidney): no rate for its work here yet
- Pool Cover & Liner Area: no rate for its work here yet
- Paver Edging: counted with Paver
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 pool project is two jobs that get quoted as one, and they are measured completely differently. The water is a volume, and nearly everything about running the pool — the chemicals, the heater, the pump turnover — follows from it. The surround is an area, and everything about building it follows the same rules as any other paved surface. Putting both on one page is the point: the pool's dimensions give you the first, and they do not give you the second.
The cover row is worth more attention than it usually gets. An uncovered heated pool loses most of its heat by evaporation from the surface, so a cover is not an accessory but the single largest term in the running cost — and its area is the water surface rather than the pool's full wetted area.
The surround's own dimensions are asked for separately rather than derived from the pool, because a surround is a frame rather than a rectangle and its width is rarely the same on all four sides. Measure its outside edge, across the pool: that is the rectangle the edging runs round. The pool and the coping band round it come off that rectangle automatically before the pavers are counted: the pool's length and width, each with the coping width added at both ends.
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.
- Set the pool's finished water level and the surround's falls together — the deck drains away from the pool, always.
- Build the surround's base as a structure, not as bedding: it carries foot traffic and furniture right up to a tiled edge.
- Set the coping first and work the paving to it.
- Keep an expansion joint between the coping and the paving. They move independently.
- Lay to a fall and check it with water rather than with a level alone.
- Seal or leave unsealed according to the paving — but never use a slippery finish at the water's edge.
What this takeoff does not cover
- The pool structure itself, its shell, liner fixing and everything below water level.
- Plant: pump, filter, heater, pipework and the housing for all of it.
- Coping stones, the expansion joint and the detail where paving meets water.
- Barriers and fencing, which are a legal requirement in most places and are not a paving quantity.
- Drainage of the surround, and where the backwash goes.
Quote check
Been given a quote for this job?
Paste it into the pool surround 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 pool surround takeoff give for a typical job?
- Opened at Pool length 8 m · Pool width 4 m · Average depth 1.4 m · Surround outer length 12 m · Surround outer width 8 m · Coping width 0.3 m, it orders: Pool Volume (Rectangular, Round, Oval or Kidney), 44,800 L; Pool Cover & Liner Area, 32 m²; Paver, 669 pavers; Paver Edging, 19 x 2.4 m sections. Opened at Pool length 26 ft · Pool width 13 ft · Average depth 4.5 ft · Surround outer length 39 ft · Surround outer width 26 ft · Coping width 11.8 in: Pool Volume (Rectangular, Round, Oval or Kidney), 11,378 gallons; Pool Cover & Liner Area, 338 ft²; Paver, 656 pavers; Paver Edging, 18 x 8 ft sections. Every figure follows the dimensions you give it.
- Which calculators does the pool surround takeoff run?
- 4 calculators, one to a line: Pool Volume Calculator (Rectangular, Round, Oval or Kidney), Pool Cover & Liner Area Calculator, Paver Calculator, Paver Edging 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 pool surround takeoff leave out?
- 5 things, each named on this page: The pool structure itself, its shell, liner fixing and everything below water level; Plant; Coping stones, the expansion joint and the detail where paving meets water; Barriers and fencing, which are a legal requirement in most places and are not a paving quantity; Drainage of the surround, and where the backwash goes.
- Can I check a quote for this job against the takeoff?
- Yes. The pool surround 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.