Job takeoff
Repaint a room takeoff
Paint for redecorating a room: the walls with the openings taken out, the ceiling, and the doors, frames and skirting, with the primer, the dust sheets and the tape, and the stripping, filling and making good listed as work.
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
- 5Trades 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 room repaint 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 tapeMasking and Protection Materials CalculatorSheets over the floor and tape round the doors, the windows and the skirting before the first brush goes on.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
Change any other figure on the Masking and Protection Materials Calculator | 3 items | |
Paint Primer CalculatorOne full coat over the gross wall, at a previously painted surface's rate of 350 sq ft per US gallon (8.6 m²/L). That is the most this job takes: spot-priming the filler and bare board, as the sequence does, takes a fraction of it.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
| 1.5 gallons | |
Ceiling Paint CalculatorCeiling paint over the room's floor area at the page's opening coats and spread rate; a ceiling going over a stain or a dark colour may take more.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
| 1.07 gal | |
Paint CalculatorWall paint for the coats you set, with the openings deducted.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
| 2.18 gal | |
Woodwork paintWoodwork Paint CalculatorEach door on the room's side, its frame on that side and the skirting round the room less the doorways, at the page's opening door size, girths, coats and spread rate.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
| 0.2434 gal | |
Dust sheets and tapeMasking and Protection Materials CalculatorSheets over the floor and tape round the doors, the windows and the skirting before the first brush goes on.
Why this quantity? | 3 items | |
Paint Primer CalculatorOne full coat over the gross wall, at a previously painted surface's rate of 350 sq ft per US gallon (8.6 m²/L). That is the most this job takes: spot-priming the filler and bare board, as the sequence does, takes a fraction of it.
Why this quantity? | 5.68 L | |
Ceiling Paint CalculatorCeiling paint over the room's floor area at the page's opening coats and spread rate; a ceiling going over a stain or a dark colour may take more.
Why this quantity? | 4 L | |
Paint CalculatorWall paint for the coats you set, with the openings deducted.
Why this quantity? | 7.97 L | |
Woodwork paintWoodwork Paint CalculatorEach door on the room's side, its frame on that side and the skirting round the room less the doorways, at the page's opening door size, girths, coats and spread rate.
Why this quantity? | 0.9004 L |
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 tape0.8 h (0.4–1.6)
- Ceiling Paint3.6 h (2.0–8.0)
- Paint7.3 h (4.1–16)
- Woodwork paint0.8 h (0.5–1.8)
About 12 person-hours in all, between 6.9 and 28.
Trade by trade
- Labourer1 labourerunder a quarter of a day
- Painter1 painter1½ days
About 1½ 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
- Paint Primer: counted with Ceiling Paint and Paint and Woodwork paint
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 tape0.8 h (0.4–1.6)
- Ceiling Paint3.6 h (2.0–8.0)
- Paint7.2 h (4.0–16)
- Woodwork paint0.8 h (0.5–1.8)
About 12 person-hours in all, between 6.8 and 27.
Trade by trade
- Labourer1 labourerunder a quarter of a day
- Painter1 painter1½ days
About 1½ 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
- Paint Primer: counted with Ceiling Paint and Paint and Woodwork paint
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
Repainting is the one interior job where the quantity is almost entirely decided by something nobody measures: what is already on the wall. The same room takes one coat over a like-for-like colour and three over a dark one going light, and the paint calculator below cannot see either. The coats figure is yours to set, and setting it honestly is worth more than any refinement in the area.
Primer is the row people skip and then need. Bare filler, new board and any patch large enough to see all drink the first coat unevenly, so a room that has been made good is a room that wants a primer whether or not it wanted one before the filling started. The filling itself is listed as work and not measured: how much a room takes follows the damage, not the area of the wall.
The woodwork is a different paint in a different sheen, measured by its faces and girths rather than by the wall. Each door is painted on the room's side, its frame on that side, and the skirting all round less the doorways, which is why the woodwork has a row of its own and the wall row takes the openings 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.
- Wash down, then fill and sand — the paint will not hide what you left.
- Mask and sheet up. The time here is what decides whether cutting in is quick.
- Spot-prime the filler and any bare board before the first full coat.
- Paint the ceiling first, so anything that drips lands on walls not yet painted.
- Cut in the edges of each coat, then roll while the cut-in is still wet.
- Give each coat its stated recoat time; rolling too soon lifts the one underneath.
- Paint the woodwork last, in its own paint and sheen: the doors, the frames, then the skirting.
- Pull the tape while the last coat is soft, not after it has cured.
What this takeoff does not cover
- Window frames and window boards. A uPVC window takes no paint, and a timber window's frame and sashes are a job of their own.
- Preparation beyond filling, a skim and stripping paper: stabilising a chalky surface, or sealing a stain that would otherwise bleed through.
- The colour change. Going light over dark can need an extra full coat, and no figure here knows what is on the wall now.
- The filler's quantity. Filling is listed as work, and how much a room takes follows the damage, not the area.
Quote check
Been given a quote for this job?
Paste it into the room repaint 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
Room fit-out
7 tradesBoard, fill, paint and floor a rectangular room, walls and ceiling, from one set of dimensions.
Run this takeoffStud partition
3 tradesStuds, jointing compound and outlets for a single run of internal partition.
Run this takeoffTile a floor
4 tradesBacker board, the thinset it is bedded in, tile and adhesive for a rectangular floor from one measurement.
Run this takeoff
Frequently asked questions
- What does the room repaint takeoff give for a typical job?
- Opened at Room length 5 m · Room width 4 m · Wall height 2.4 m · Doors 1 · Windows 1 · Coats 2, it orders: Dust sheets and tape, 3 items; Paint Primer, 5.68 L; Ceiling Paint, 4 L; Paint, 7.97 L; Woodwork paint, 0.9 L. Opened at Room length 16.5 ft · Room width 13 ft · Wall height 8 ft · Doors 1 · Windows 1 · Coats 2: Dust sheets and tape, 3 items; Paint Primer, 1.5 gallons; Ceiling Paint, 1.07 gal; Paint, 2.18 gal; Woodwork paint, 0.24 gal. Every figure follows the dimensions you give it.
- Which calculators does the room repaint takeoff run?
- 5 calculators, one to a line: Masking and Protection Materials Calculator, Paint Primer Calculator, Ceiling Paint Calculator, Paint Calculator, Woodwork Paint 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 room repaint takeoff leave out?
- 4 things, each named on this page: Window frames and window boards; Preparation beyond filling, a skim and stripping paper; The colour change; The filler's quantity.
- Can I check a quote for this job against the takeoff?
- Yes. The room repaint 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.