Job takeoff
Staircase replacement takeoff
Replace a house's staircase with a new timber flight: dust sheets, the new flight's risers and treads checked against the reader's own rules, the handrail up the pitch and a second one where the flight takes two, spindles (balusters) counted to the IRC's landing gap, the skim on the stairwell's walls, gloss on the strings and the landing's apron, and the skip, with the temporary way up, the strip-out, any trimming of the stairwell, the floor at the landing and the foot, the boards under the flight and the floor finishes listed, never sized 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.
- 10Measurements in
- 86Trades 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 staircase replacement 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 at the foot and the headMasking and Protection Materials CalculatorDust sheets over the hall and the landing at the calculator's opening sheet size: the old flight comes down in pieces onto the floor at its foot, and plaster falls from the stairwell's walls when the old wall string is prised off. The count is for the floors; the route in from the front door is protected with boards or a heavy film as listed work, and none of the sheets is taped.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
Change any other figure on the Masking and Protection Materials Calculator | 2 items | |
Risers and treads, checked against the rulesStair Rise & Run CalculatorThe rise you gave divided into equal risers near the page's opening target, with the treads one fewer, and the rise and going checked against the rules the build-up names: Approved Document K's rise, going, pitch and twice the rise plus the going, or the IRC's riser and tread. A figure outside them is flagged; a flight inside them is not certified, and its headroom, width and guarding are not checked. The flight itself is bought as one piece from the stair maker, strings (stringers), treads, risers and newels (newel posts) together, so this row counts no timber; for a flight that turns, check each straight part on its own.How this figure was reached
Resting on
| 14 risers | |
Plastering: skim, in patchesSkim Coat Plaster CalculatorFinish plaster over the wall area you gave, where the old wall string and balustrade came off, 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 goes on once the new flight is fixed and before the balustrade, so a knock from the rail's fitting lands on dry plaster. Deep holes where fixings were torn out are filled first; the soffit and the spandrel under the flight are boarded as listed work, not skimmed here.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
The waste allowance: the calculator's working figure, a trade convention. | 50.64 lb | |
Handrail up the pitch, each rail countedHandrail Length CalculatorEach rail's length up the pitch, the square root of the rise squared plus the flight's going squared, taken once for every rail you gave, with the page's cutting allowance, in the page's longest stock, 4.8 m in metric and 16 ft in imperial, since a stair's rail runs newel to newel in one piece; a flight whose rail is longer than that is spliced at a newel or a bracket. With two rails the working shows the rise and going doubled, which is the same arithmetic. The open side's rail runs between the newels (newel posts), which come with the flight; a second rail on the wall side, where the flight is wide enough for the rules to ask for one (1 m, about 3 ft 3 in, in England's Approved Document K), is fixed on brackets with no balusters under it. The landing's level rail along its open edge is its own length, which you gave, bought from the same stock; this page solves a sloped flight only, so it is not in the figure.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
The cutting waste: the calculator's working figure, a trade convention. | 15.29 linear ft | |
Balusters (spindles) under the railDeck Baluster CalculatorSpindles for the flight's bay between the newels, entered as the horizontal going (the run) rather than the length up the pitch, since the gap the page solves for is measured level: the fewest that keep every gap under a 4 in (101.6 mm) sphere at the page's opening spindle width. That is the IRC's limit along a landing; on a stair's open side it lets a 4 3/8 in (111 mm) sphere pass, so a stair maker spacing the flight to that fits a spindle or two fewer. The going also runs from riser to riser, a little more than the clear space between the newels, so the count errs high rather than low; the triangle under the bottom rail at each tread is not in it.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
| 24 balusters | |
Balusters (spindles) along the landing's open edgeDeck Baluster CalculatorSpindles for the landing's guard, entered as its length, newel to wall, at the same gap and width as the flight's. Shown only where the landing has an open edge.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
| 6 balusters | |
Painting and decorating (decoration): two paint coats, undercoat and gloss (trim enamel), on the strings and the apronWoodwork Paint CalculatorThe strings' painted faces and the landing's apron as a run on plan at the plumb depth you gave, which is exactly a raked string's face: the wall string's one face, and the open string's two, one to the treads and one to the hall, so the flight's going three times. A flight walled on both sides has no face to the hall, so there one string face in the three counted is not painted. The run is carried on the page's frame run, which its working calls frames; two coats at the page's spread rate, an undercoat and a gloss, on primed timber. The newels, the spindles and the handrail are painted or varnished as well, and no page counts a balustrade's surface: the painter measures it on site, and it takes more paint than the strings. Knotting and primer on bare softwood come first and are not in the figure, and nor is the wall paint over the new skim, a mist coat and two coats on the stairwell's walls, which the woodwork page does not take.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
| 0.1763 gal | |
Skip (dumpster) for what comes outSkip & Dumpster Size CalculatorThe loose waste over the flight's plan, its going times its width, at the depth you gave, as mixed construction waste: the old flight, newels and balustrade cut down to go out through the front door, the linings, the plaster that comes off with the old wall string and the new flight's wrapping. A textured coating or old boards that the survey finds contain asbestos never go in a general container.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
Change any other figure on the Skip & Dumpster Size Calculator | 3.06 yd³ | |
Dust sheets at the foot and the headMasking and Protection Materials CalculatorDust sheets over the hall and the landing at the calculator's opening sheet size: the old flight comes down in pieces onto the floor at its foot, and plaster falls from the stairwell's walls when the old wall string is prised off. The count is for the floors; the route in from the front door is protected with boards or a heavy film as listed work, and none of the sheets is taped.
Why this quantity? | 2 items | |
Risers and treads, checked against the rulesStair Rise & Run CalculatorThe rise you gave divided into equal risers near the page's opening target, with the treads one fewer, and the rise and going checked against the rules the build-up names: Approved Document K's rise, going, pitch and twice the rise plus the going, or the IRC's riser and tread. A figure outside them is flagged; a flight inside them is not certified, and its headroom, width and guarding are not checked. The flight itself is bought as one piece from the stair maker, strings (stringers), treads, risers and newels (newel posts) together, so this row counts no timber; for a flight that turns, check each straight part on its own.How this figure was reached | 14 risers | |
Plastering: skim, in patchesSkim Coat Plaster CalculatorFinish plaster over the wall area you gave, where the old wall string and balustrade came off, 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 goes on once the new flight is fixed and before the balustrade, so a knock from the rail's fitting lands on dry plaster. Deep holes where fixings were torn out are filled first; the soffit and the spandrel under the flight are boarded as listed work, not skimmed here.
Why this quantity? | 23 kg | |
Handrail up the pitch, each rail countedHandrail Length CalculatorEach rail's length up the pitch, the square root of the rise squared plus the flight's going squared, taken once for every rail you gave, with the page's cutting allowance, in the page's longest stock, 4.8 m in metric and 16 ft in imperial, since a stair's rail runs newel to newel in one piece; a flight whose rail is longer than that is spliced at a newel or a bracket. With two rails the working shows the rise and going doubled, which is the same arithmetic. The open side's rail runs between the newels (newel posts), which come with the flight; a second rail on the wall side, where the flight is wide enough for the rules to ask for one (1 m, about 3 ft 3 in, in England's Approved Document K), is fixed on brackets with no balusters under it. The landing's level rail along its open edge is its own length, which you gave, bought from the same stock; this page solves a sloped flight only, so it is not in the figure.
Why this quantity? | 4.63 m | |
Painting and decorating (decoration): two paint coats, undercoat and gloss (trim enamel), on the strings and the apronWoodwork Paint CalculatorThe strings' painted faces and the landing's apron as a run on plan at the plumb depth you gave, which is exactly a raked string's face: the wall string's one face, and the open string's two, one to the treads and one to the hall, so the flight's going three times. A flight walled on both sides has no face to the hall, so there one string face in the three counted is not painted. The run is carried on the page's frame run, which its working calls frames; two coats at the page's spread rate, an undercoat and a gloss, on primed timber. The newels, the spindles and the handrail are painted or varnished as well, and no page counts a balustrade's surface: the painter measures it on site, and it takes more paint than the strings. Knotting and primer on bare softwood come first and are not in the figure, and nor is the wall paint over the new skim, a mist coat and two coats on the stairwell's walls, which the woodwork page does not take.
Why this quantity? | 0.6507 L | |
Skip (dumpster) for what comes outSkip & Dumpster Size CalculatorThe loose waste over the flight's plan, its going times its width, at the depth you gave, as mixed construction waste: the old flight, newels and balustrade cut down to go out through the front door, the linings, the plaster that comes off with the old wall string and the new flight's wrapping. A textured coating or old boards that the survey finds contain asbestos never go in a general container.
Why this quantity? | 2.24 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 at the foot and the head0.5 h (0.2–1.0)
- Plastering: skim, in patches1.4 h (0.8–2.8)
- Handrail up the pitch, each rail counted7.0 h (3.7–14)
- Painting and decorating (decoration): two paint coats, undercoat and gloss (trim enamel), on the strings and the apron0.6 h (0.3–1.3)
- Skip (dumpster) for what comes out2.3 h (1.2–7.0)
About 12 person-hours in the rows that carry them, between 6.3 and 26.
Trade by trade
- Labourer1 labourerhalf a day
- Plasterer1 plastererunder a quarter of a day
- Carpenter1 carpenter1 day
- Painter1 painterunder a quarter of a day
About 1½ 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
- Risers and treads, checked against the rules: Fitting a staircase is not rated here: how the old flight comes out, the trimming round it and the floors it meets set the time more than the count of steps.
- Balusters (spindles) under the rail: counted with Handrail up the pitch, each rail counted
- Balusters (spindles) along the landing's open edge: counted with Handrail up the pitch, each rail counted
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 at the foot and the head0.5 h (0.2–1.0)
- Plastering: skim, in patches1.4 h (0.8–2.8)
- Handrail up the pitch, each rail counted6.9 h (3.7–14)
- Painting and decorating (decoration): two paint coats, undercoat and gloss (trim enamel), on the strings and the apron0.6 h (0.3–1.3)
- Skip (dumpster) for what comes out2.2 h (1.1–6.7)
About 12 person-hours in the rows that carry them, between 6.2 and 26.
Trade by trade
- Labourer1 labourerhalf a day
- Plasterer1 plastererunder a quarter of a day
- Carpenter1 carpenter1 day
- Painter1 painterunder a quarter of a day
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
- Risers and treads, checked against the rules: Fitting a staircase is not rated here: how the old flight comes out, the trimming round it and the floors it meets set the time more than the count of steps.
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 a stair out of a lived-in house cuts the upper floor off from the lower one, so the work starts before the old flight is touched: a ladder or a temporary stair is fixed in the stairwell, tied at the top and footed below, with a guard across the landing's open edge, and the household agrees how it will get up and down in the days until the new flight and its balustrade are in. The old flight comes out in pieces, cut down on the spot, with its newels, its balustrade and the linings round it. A new flight is made to measure by a stair maker from the floor-to-floor rise, the going available and the headroom under the floor above, and arrives in one piece, which is why the route in from the front door is protected as carefully as the hall itself.
A replacement need not be a copy of the old stair. An old stair may be steeper, with shorter goings, than the rules now allow, and a flight made to today's figures needs more room on plan: where the new going runs past the old stairwell, the joists round the opening are cut back and new trimmers fixed, with the floor propped until they take it, and where the new flight takes less room, part of the old stairwell is floored over. Both are structural work, items here that the engineer or the stair maker's designer sizes. The stair row checks the flight's rise and going against the rules the reader chooses, Approved Document K in England or the IRC in the US: in England a private stair's rise is at most 220 mm (8.66 in), its going at least 220 mm (8.66 in) and its pitch at most 42 degrees, while the IRC sets a riser of at most 7 3/4 in (197 mm) and a tread of at least 10 in (254 mm). The verdict is a flag and never a certificate; headroom, width and guarding are not in it.
The strings (stringers, to a North American reader) are fixed to the trimmer at the top and the wall along the side, the newels (newel posts) set at the foot and the turns, and the handrail and the balusters (the balustrade, or railing) go in once the walls round the flight are plastered, between the newels and along the landing's open edge. The rows measure the rail up the pitch in the stock lengths each market sells, and the spindles under it where the IRC is chosen, counted bay by bay on the horizontal going (the run) to the gap the baluster page solves for. That gap is the 4 in (101.6 mm) sphere the IRC sets along a landing; on a stair's open side it lets a 4 3/8 in (111 mm) sphere pass, so the flight's count errs a spindle or two high. Approved Document K allows 100 mm (3.94 in), so on the Approved Document K option the spindles are counted from the stair maker's spacing, not by a row here. Once the flight is in, the stairwell's walls are patched and skimmed where the old strings came off, the soffit and the spandrel underneath are boarded, the skirting and string capping are fixed, the woodwork is painted, and the carpet or boards at the landing and the foot are made good round the new flight's footprint.
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.
- Measure before anything is ordered: the floor-to-floor rise from finished floor to finished floor, the going the stairwell allows, the width, and the headroom under the floor above; check whether the new flight changes position, pitch or configuration and needs building control told, and whether the underside of the old stair or the walls round it have a textured coating or boards old enough to need an asbestos check.
- Protect the route in from the front door and the floors at the foot and the landing, isolate the landing light or any socket on the stair wall, and fix the temporary ladder or stair with its guard across the landing's open edge before the old flight is touched.
- Take out the old balustrade, newels and flight, cutting them down to go out, and strip the linings round the stairwell.
- Where the new going runs past the old opening, prop the floor, cut back the joists and fix the new trimmers to the design; where the new flight takes less room, fit new joists and deck over the part of the stairwell no longer used.
- Carry the new flight in, offer it up, fix the strings to the trimmer and the wall and set the newels plumb; make up the floor at the landing and the foot to meet it.
- Board the soffit and the spandrel where they are boarded, and patch and skim the stairwell's walls where the old strings and balustrade came off; let the plaster dry.
- Fit the handrail and the balusters between the newels and along the landing's open edge, a second rail where the flight is wide enough to take one, and fix the skirting and the string capping; take down the temporary access once the balustrade is in.
- Fill, sand and paint the strings, the apron and the rest of the woodwork, lay the carpet or boards at the landing and the foot with a strip where they meet the old finish, reconnect the light, clear the waste and hand over the stair maker's drawing and any building control certificate.
What this takeoff does not cover
- The size of any trimmer, joist or beam where the stairwell is altered or partly floored over. Each is an item here; the engineer or the stair maker's designer sizes it, and nothing on this page does.
- Building control's decision on the rise, going, pitch, width and headroom: the row that checks the geometry flags a figure outside the rules chosen and says nothing of one inside them.
- Fire protection of the stair's enclosure in a house of three or more storeys: the protected route, the fire doors onto it and the linings it needs are a fire-safety design of their own.
- An understairs cupboard, storage drawers or a WC built into the space under the new flight.
- New floor finishes in the hall or upstairs beyond making good round the new footprint; the made-good carpet or boards and the strip where they meet the old finish are listed.
- Decorating beyond the stairwell's walls and the flight's woodwork: the walls, ceilings and doors of the hall and the rooms above it.
- Steel, glass, concrete and spiral stairs, and loft ladders: a timber one carried into the house in one piece is this job.
- Removing any asbestos the survey finds in the old stair's soffit or the walls round it, which is licensed or specialist work with its own programme.
Quote check
Been given a quote for this job?
Paste it into the staircase replacement 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 staircase replacement takeoff give for a typical job?
- Opened at Floor of the hall and landing protected 12 m² · Rise, finished floor to finished floor 2.6 m · Going of each tread (its run) 0.26 m · Going of the whole flight (total run) 3.32 m · Width of the flight 0.9 m · Handrails on the flight 1 · Landing's open edge, guarded 0.9 m · Stairwell walls patched and skimmed 8 m² · Painted depth of a string, measured plumb 0.3 m · Loose waste, as a depth over the flight's plan 0.75 m, it orders: Dust sheets at the foot and the head, 2 items; Risers and treads, checked against the rules, 14 risers; Plastering: skim, in patches, 23 kg; Handrail up the pitch, each rail counted, 4.63 m; Painting and decorating (decoration): two paint coats, undercoat and gloss (trim enamel), on the strings and the apron, 0.65 L; Skip (dumpster) for what comes out, 2.24 m³. Opened at Floor of the hall and landing protected 130 sq ft · Rise, finished floor to finished floor 8.5 ft · Going of each tread (its run) 10 in · Going of the whole flight (total run) 11 ft · Width of the flight 3 ft · Handrails on the flight 1 · Landing's open edge, guarded 3 ft · Stairwell walls patched and skimmed 86 sq ft · Painted depth of a string, measured plumb 11.8 in · Loose waste, as a depth over the flight's plan 2.5 ft: Dust sheets at the foot and the head, 2 items; Risers and treads, checked against the rules, 14 risers; Plastering: skim, in patches, 50.6 lb; Handrail up the pitch, each rail counted, 15.3 linear ft; Balusters (spindles) under the rail, 24 balusters; Balusters (spindles) along the landing's open edge, 6 balusters; Painting and decorating (decoration): two paint coats, undercoat and gloss (trim enamel), on the strings and the apron, 0.18 gal; Skip (dumpster) for what comes out, 3.06 yd³. Every figure follows the dimensions you give it.
- Which calculators does the staircase replacement takeoff run?
- 7 calculators, for 8 lines: Masking and Protection Materials Calculator, Stair Rise & Run Calculator, Skim Coat Plaster Calculator, Handrail Length Calculator, Deck Baluster Calculator, Woodwork Paint 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.6 calculators, one to a line: Masking and Protection Materials Calculator, Stair Rise & Run Calculator, Skim Coat Plaster Calculator, Handrail Length Calculator, Woodwork Paint 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 staircase replacement takeoff leave out?
- 8 things, each named on this page: The size of any trimmer, joist or beam where the stairwell is altered or partly floored over; Building control's decision on the rise, going, pitch, width and headroom; Fire protection of the stair's enclosure in a house of three or more storeys; An understairs cupboard, storage drawers or a WC built into the space under the new flight; New floor finishes in the hall or upstairs beyond making good round the new footprint; the made-good carpet or boards and the strip where they meet the old finish are listed; Decorating beyond the stairwell's walls and the flight's woodwork; Steel, glass, concrete and spiral stairs, and loft ladders; Removing any asbestos the survey finds in the old stair's soffit or the walls round it, which is licensed or specialist work with its own programme.
- Can I check a quote for this job against the takeoff?
- Yes. The staircase replacement 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.