Job takeoff
Strip footing takeoff
Concrete, backfill and reinforcement for a continuous footing under a wall.
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.
- 5Measurements in
- 3Trades 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 strip footing 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 | |
|---|---|---|
Continuous Footing / Grade Beam Volume CalculatorThe concrete that goes in — the designed footing, not the hole.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
The waste factor: the calculator's working figure, a trade convention. Change any other figure on the Continuous Footing / Grade Beam Volume Calculator | 7.46 yd³ | |
Trench Excavation & Backfill Volume CalculatorThe backfill round the wall, above the footing, for a trench dug to the footing's width: the footing length, by the footing width less the wall's, by the trench depth less the footing's, with no pipe deducted. Its excavation line is that fill space, not the dig. A trench-fill footing, poured to the top, has no row.
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 | 11.42 yd³ | |
Rebar CalculatorA mesh-equivalent across the footing's plan — not a bar schedule.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
The lap-splice allowance: the calculator's working figure, a trade convention. | 19 x 20 ft sticks | |
Continuous Footing / Grade Beam Volume CalculatorThe concrete that goes in — the designed footing, not the hole.
Why this quantity? | 5.67 m³ | |
Trench Excavation & Backfill Volume CalculatorThe backfill round the wall, above the footing, for a trench dug to the footing's width: the footing length, by the footing width less the wall's, by the trench depth less the footing's, with no pipe deducted. Its excavation line is that fill space, not the dig. A trench-fill footing, poured to the top, has no row.
Why this quantity? | 8.28 m³ (loose) | |
Rebar CalculatorA mesh-equivalent across the footing's plan — not a bar schedule.
Why this quantity? | 10 x 12 m sticks |
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.
- Continuous Footing / Grade Beam Volume13 h (6.5–27)
About 13 person-hours in the rows that carry them, between 6.5 and 27.
Trade by trade
- Labourer2 labourers + 1 mason + 1 plant operatorhalf a day
About half 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
- Trench Excavation & Backfill Volume: no rate for its work here yet
- Rebar: Fixing reinforcement is not rated here: the bar schedule, the shapes and laps it sets, and the inspection before the pour change its time several-fold.
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.
- Continuous Footing / Grade Beam Volume13 h (6.5–27)
About 13 person-hours in the rows that carry them, between 6.5 and 27.
Trade by trade
- Labourer2 labourers + 1 mason + 1 plant operatorhalf a day
About half 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
- Trench Excavation & Backfill Volume: no rate for its work here yet
- Rebar: Fixing reinforcement is not rated here: the bar schedule, the shapes and laps it sets, and the inspection before the pour change its time several-fold.
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 strip footing is two volumes that are not the same number, and conflating them is the classic groundworks error. The dig is what comes out and has to go somewhere — the footing's length by its width by the trench depth, a figure no row here totals — priced by the load, bulked up by a quarter or a third from its in-situ state. The concrete volume is what goes back in, which is the designed footing rather than the hole: dig 200 mm (8 in) wider than the footing for working space and you have not created that much more footing, you have created spoil and a formwork problem. The backfill row is the rest of a hole dug to the footing's width: the trench above the footing, less the wall standing in it. Working space dug wider is fill this row does not count.
The depth is not a quantity decision at all. A footing goes below the depth at which the ground moves — frost heave in a cold climate, seasonal shrinkage in a clay one, and deeper again near a tree that is drinking from the same soil. Nothing on this page knows any of that; the depth you type is an input and the ground is the authority.
The reinforcement row uses the slab calculator across the footing's plan, which gives a mesh-equivalent quantity rather than a bar schedule. A real strip footing is usually longitudinal bars with links, and the two are not interchangeable — read this row as an order of magnitude, and take the schedule from the drawing.
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 out the lines and check the diagonals before anything is dug.
- Dig to the depth the ground demands, not to the depth the drawing hoped for.
- Inspect the bottom: it must be firm, level and free of loose spoil and water.
- Place the reinforcement on spacers so it sits where the design put it, not on the ground.
- Pour in one continuous run per elevation where you can; a cold joint in a footing is a plane of weakness.
- Cure it, and keep it from drying too fast in heat or freezing in cold.
- Backfill round the wall in compacted layers once it is built, not against green masonry.
What this takeoff does not cover
- The depth the ground actually requires — frost, clay shrinkage, trees and made ground all govern it and none of them is in these figures.
- The reinforcement schedule. The row here is a mesh-equivalent across the plan, not the longitudinal bars and links a footing is really built from.
- Formwork, which a trench-poured footing may not need and a stepped or above-ground one certainly does.
- Muck-away. The dig is an in-situ volume — the footing's length by its width by the trench depth, which no row totals — and what leaves the site is bulked up by a quarter or more.
- Dewatering, and any ground improvement the inspection turns out to require.
Quote check
Been given a quote for this job?
Paste it into the strip footing 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 strip footing takeoff give for a typical job?
- Opened at Footing length 30 m · Footing width 0.6 m · Footing depth 0.3 m · Trench depth 0.9 m · Wall thickness below ground 0.2 m, it orders: Continuous Footing / Grade Beam Volume, 5.67 m³; Trench Excavation & Backfill Volume, 8.28 m³ (loose); Rebar, 10 x 12 m sticks. Opened at Footing length 98 ft · Footing width 2 ft · Footing depth 11.8 in · Trench depth 3 ft · Wall thickness below ground 7.75 in: Continuous Footing / Grade Beam Volume, 7.46 yd³; Trench Excavation & Backfill Volume, 11.4 yd³; Rebar, 19 x 20 ft sticks. Every figure follows the dimensions you give it.
- Which calculators does the strip footing takeoff run?
- 3 calculators, one to a line: Continuous Footing / Grade Beam Volume Calculator, Trench Excavation & Backfill Volume Calculator, Rebar 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 strip footing takeoff leave out?
- 5 things, each named on this page: The depth the ground actually requires; The reinforcement schedule; Formwork, which a trench-poured footing may not need and a stepped or above-ground one certainly does; Muck-away; Dewatering, and any ground improvement the inspection turns out to require.
- Can I check a quote for this job against the takeoff?
- Yes. The strip footing 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.