Job takeoff
New-build service connections (water and sewer) takeoff
The trenches, bedding, backfill and pipe for a new house's water service and sewer lateral, from each run's length and depth, with the sewer's fall.
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
- 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 water and sewer connection 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 | |
|---|---|---|
Water service trench: dig, bedding and backfillTrench Excavation & Backfill Volume CalculatorThe water trench's volume, the bedding from its bottom to the cover over the pipe less the pipe, and the backfill above, at the trench page's loose-volume allowance.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
The loose-volume allowance: the calculator's working figure, a trade convention. Change any other figure on the Trench Excavation & Backfill Volume Calculator | 6.98 yd³ | |
Sewer lateral trench: dig, bedding and backfillTrench Excavation & Backfill Volume CalculatorThe same three for the sewer's trench at its average depth along the fall.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
The loose-volume allowance: the calculator's working figure, a trade convention. Change any other figure on the Trench Excavation & Backfill Volume Calculator | 9.33 yd³ | |
Water service pipePipe, Conduit and Cable Run Calculator (Length, Fittings and Supports from a Measured Route)The run plus its rise into the house at the trench's depth, in the lengths or coils you buy; buried, so no supports.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
| 53.96 ft | |
Sewer lateral pipePipe, Conduit and Cable Run Calculator (Length, Fittings and Supports from a Measured Route)The run plus its drop from the house at the trench's depth, in stock lengths; the junctions and chambers are the authority's fittings.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
| 54.96 ft | |
Water service trench: dig, bedding and backfillTrench Excavation & Backfill Volume CalculatorThe water trench's volume, the bedding from its bottom to the cover over the pipe less the pipe, and the backfill above, at the trench page's loose-volume allowance.
Why this quantity? | 5.19 m³ (loose) | |
Sewer lateral trench: dig, bedding and backfillTrench Excavation & Backfill Volume CalculatorThe same three for the sewer's trench at its average depth along the fall.
Why this quantity? | 6.91 m³ (loose) | |
Water service pipePipe, Conduit and Cable Run Calculator (Length, Fittings and Supports from a Measured Route)The run plus its rise into the house at the trench's depth, in the lengths or coils you buy; buried, so no supports.
Why this quantity? | 16.5 m | |
Sewer lateral pipePipe, Conduit and Cable Run Calculator (Length, Fittings and Supports from a Measured Route)The run plus its drop from the house at the trench's depth, in stock lengths; the junctions and chambers are the authority's fittings.
Why this quantity? | 16.8 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.
- Water service trench: dig, bedding and backfill1.2 h (0.5–3.7)
- Sewer lateral trench: dig, bedding and backfill1.7 h (0.7–5.0)
About 2.9 person-hours in the rows that carry them, between 1.2 and 8.7.
Trade by trade
- Plant operator1 plant operator + 1 labourerunder a quarter of a day
About under a quarter of a day, 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
- Water service pipe: Heating and plumbing first fix is not rated here: it is work for a competent heating engineer, to a loop or pipe design and a pressure test this page does not see.
- Sewer lateral pipe: Heating and plumbing first fix is not rated here: it is work for a competent heating engineer, to a loop or pipe design and a pressure test this page does not see.
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.
- Water service trench: dig, bedding and backfill1.2 h (0.5–3.6)
- Sewer lateral trench: dig, bedding and backfill1.6 h (0.6–4.9)
About 2.8 person-hours in the rows that carry them, between 1.1 and 8.5.
Trade by trade
- Plant operator1 plant operator + 1 labourerunder a quarter of a day
About under a quarter of a day, 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
- Water service pipe: Heating and plumbing first fix is not rated here: it is work for a competent heating engineer, to a loop or pipe design and a pressure test this page does not see.
- Sewer lateral pipe: Heating and plumbing first fix is not rated here: it is work for a competent heating engineer, to a loop or pipe design and a pressure test this page does not see.
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
Two pipes leave a new house underground, and each is a trench before it is a pipe. The water service runs from the main or the meter to the house below the frost, or at the depth of cover the water supplier asks for; the sewer lateral runs from the house to the public sewer or the plot's treatment system at a steady fall. Each trench is dug, a bed of selected granular fill laid under the pipe, the pipe laid, surrounded and covered with the same fill, and the rest backfilled. The trench rows count the dig, the bedding and the backfill; the pipe rows the lengths to buy.
The sewer is the one with a figure the ground cannot change: its fall. A lateral laid too flat leaves solids behind; codes set the least fall by the pipe's size, and the drain slope page gives that drop over the run's length. The depth at the house end and the sewer's depth at the connection decide whether that fall is even available, which is a question to answer on site before any digging.
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.
- Find the main, the meter position and the sewer connection, and mark every buried service on the route before digging.
- Dig each trench to its depth and width, the sewer's bottom cut to the fall, keeping the two trenches apart as the local rules ask.
- Lay the bedding to its depth and check the sewer's line and fall on it.
- Lay each pipe, jointing as the maker asks, with the tracer and the warning tape the supplier calls for on the water service.
- Surround and cover each pipe with the bedding material before any ordinary backfill.
- Pressure-test the water service and test the sewer before they are covered over.
- Backfill in layers, compacting each, and reinstate the surface.
What this takeoff does not cover
- The sizes: the water pipe's diameter, the sewer's, the depth of cover and the falls are the water supplier's, the sewer authority's and the code's, and this page takes them as entered.
- The separation the two services must keep from each other, and from other buried services, which the local rules set.
- The connections themselves: the tapping on the main, the meter and its box, the sewer junction or saddle, inspection chambers and cleanouts, each a fitting the supplier or the authority specifies.
- Work in the road or on land that is not the plot, which needs the highway authority's or the owner's consent.
- The surface over the trenches once they are backfilled: turf, paving or a drive.
- The sewer's least fall, which the drain slope page gives for the pipe's size over this length; the depths at each end must allow it.
Quote check
Been given a quote for this job?
Paste it into the water and sewer connection 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 water and sewer connection takeoff give for a typical job?
- Opened at Water service run, main to house 15 m · Water trench depth 0.9 m · Sewer lateral run, house to connection 15 m · Sewer trench depth, average 1.2 m · Trench width 450 mm · Bedding under the pipe 100 mm · Surround over the pipe 100 mm · Water pipe outside diameter 32 mm · Sewer pipe outside diameter 110 mm, it orders: Water service trench: dig, bedding and backfill, 5.19 m³ (loose); Sewer lateral trench: dig, bedding and backfill, 6.91 m³ (loose); Water service pipe, 16.5 m; Sewer lateral pipe, 16.8 m. Opened at Water service run, main to house 49 ft · Water trench depth 3 ft · Sewer lateral run, house to connection 49 ft · Sewer trench depth, average 4 ft · Trench width 18 in · Bedding under the pipe 4 in · Surround over the pipe 4 in · Water pipe outside diameter 1.25 in · Sewer pipe outside diameter 4.25 in: Water service trench: dig, bedding and backfill, 6.98 yd³; Sewer lateral trench: dig, bedding and backfill, 9.33 yd³; Water service pipe, 54 ft; Sewer lateral pipe, 55 ft. Every figure follows the dimensions you give it.
- Which calculators does the water and sewer connection takeoff run?
- 2 calculators, for 4 lines: Trench Excavation & Backfill Volume Calculator, Pipe, Conduit and Cable Run Calculator (Length, Fittings and Supports from a Measured Route). 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 water and sewer connection takeoff leave out?
- 6 things, each named on this page: The sizes; The separation the two services must keep from each other, and from other buried services, which the local rules set; The connections themselves; Work in the road or on land that is not the plot, which needs the highway authority's or the owner's consent; The surface over the trenches once they are backfilled; The sewer's least fall, which the drain slope page gives for the pipe's size over this length; the depths at each end must allow it.
- Can I check a quote for this job against the takeoff?
- Yes. The water and sewer connection 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.