Craft Quantities
Plan & Takeoffs

Quote check

Check a basement conversion quote

Paste the quote you were given and enter your measurements. Every line is read against the job: what the quote leaves out, what it adds, which quantities sit outside the computed range, and what to ask. Quantities only — never prices.
  • 1312Lines the job needs
  • 6Measurements
  • QuestionsNever a verdict

How the quote is read

Each line of a basement conversion quote is matched to the line of the job it names, or marked as something the Basement or cellar conversion takeoff does not measure — labour, removal, hire, fees, or anything else. Work the takeoff lists as part of the job but gives no quantity for is read as that work, not as something the quote adds.

The job’s own figures come from 6 measurements — length, wall to wall, width, wall to wall, height, floor to the joists above, lining depth, old wall to new face, doors, windows — run through the same calculators as the takeoff, so the two give the same figure for the same job.

Reading a basement conversion quote

A cellar conversion quote rests on a way of keeping water out, and two quotes naming different systems are pricing different rooms. Worth asking which each proposes, a studded cavity membrane draining to a sump and pump, a coating on the stripped walls, or the two together, who designed it and to what grade, and whose guarantee stands behind it: whether that guarantee is insured, and what servicing of the pump and the drainage it expects each year.

Where the floor has to go down, the underpinning is priced before anyone has seen the ground under the walls. Worth asking whether it is a firm figure or provisional until the engineer's scheme and the dig, who pays the engineer and any party wall surveyor, and how the spoil leaves when every bucket climbs the stair and crosses the house. Worth seeing named as well: the escape window with its well and lintel, the fire-resisting ceiling, the alarms, the extract, the heating run down to the room, the electrician's certificate and the building control or permit fees.

Three steps

  1. Give your measurements. The page opens on a typical job so it has something to show.
  2. Paste the quote's lines as they came, or add them one at a time. Leave the prices in — they are taken out, never read.
  3. Read the report: what is left out, what is added, what sits outside the range, and one list of questions to send.

Your quote

The basement conversion quote you were given

Paste from an email, or open or drop a PDF, Excel, CSV or text file, or a photo of the quote. Amounts of money are taken out before anything is read — this page compares quantities, never prices.

Nothing you paste or open leaves this device.

or one the job needs:

The reading

What the quote says, against the job

Basement conversion · Length, wall to wall 19.5 ft · Width, wall to wall 13 ft · Height, floor to the joists above 7.5 ft · Lining depth, old wall to new face 4.75 in · Doors 1 · Windows 1Length, wall to wall 6 m · Width, wall to wall 4 m · Height, floor to the joists above 2.3 m · Lining depth, old wall to new face 0.12 m · Doors 1 · Windows 1

  • What it leaves out

    Every line the job needs that nothing on the quote reads as, with the quantity your measurements produce.

  • What it adds

    Lines this job's takeoff does not measure — labour, removal, hire, fees, anything else — each named for what it is.

  • What sits outside the range

    Quantities above or below the computed range, by how much, in the quote's unit or converted and shown.

  • What to ask

    One list of questions, in the quote's order, ready to copy and send. Questions, never a verdict.

Paste the quote above, or add its lines one at a time. The reading appears here as each line is read.

Outside what this takeoff measures

9

Nothing in the reading measures these. Whether the quote covers each is worth asking in its own right: a scope missing from a quote tends to become a cost after work has started. Why each is left out is on the takeoff.

  • Choosing the system and the grade
  • Underpinning, lowering the floor and the new slab's design
  • Anything done to the walls' outside face from a dig in the garden, such as a sheet bonded to it under a protection board
  • Radon
  • Flood protection, and the pump's duty, a second pump or battery backup, and where the discharge goes, beyond listing the sump and pump as work
  • The stair's geometry, headroom and guarding, and the fire separation's specification
  • Heating a room below ground
  • Moving a gas or electricity meter, the boiler or the consumer unit (service panel) out of the cellar
  • The floor's screed or floating board floor as a quantity, and where any vapour layer is placed

The reference

Every line the reading looks for

For Length, wall to wall 19.5 ft · Width, wall to wall 13 ft · Height, floor to the joists above 7.5 ft · Lining depth, old wall to new face 4.75 in · Doors 1 · Windows 1Length, wall to wall 6 m · Width, wall to wall 4 m · Height, floor to the joists above 2.3 m · Lining depth, old wall to new face 0.12 m · Doors 1 · Windows 1. Each is the calculator linked under it, run with those measurements; a range is that calculator at both ends of one choice, not a margin for error.

How the ranges are taken

Where the choice is cutting waste, the ends are the site’s own allowances: 5%, the tight buffer of a crew with a planned set-out, and 15%, the wider one a first-timer orders. Where the calculator decides between patterns or materials, the ends are the options it offers. Where it adds nothing for loss, the range runs from the net quantity to 15% over it.

A minimum — the fewest hangers a spacing allows, the least airflow a room needs — has no upper end. A single figure carries an allowance the material itself needs, such as a lap, and names it.

What a reading like this cannot see

  • It does not know your prices, your market, or what the work ought to cost.
  • It does not know the building — the access, the condition of what is there, or what has to happen first.
  • It cannot check a lump sum, because there is no quantity in one.
  • A line it reads as missing may be priced under another name. A quantity outside the range is not evidence of anything. Each is a reason to ask a question.
  • Two quotes are not comparable until their scopes are.
  • It is not advice, and it is no substitute for a second quote.

The full takeoff

Every quantity for this job, with its working

The Basement or cellar conversion takeoff runs the same calculators on the same measurements and shows what sits under each line here.

Open the takeoffEvery quote check

  • Base, allowance, order

    Each line's quantity before and after its allowance, and what to buy.

  • Every allowance editable

    Change a waste figure and the order follows, with its source named.

  • Into a project

    Add the whole job to a workspace with your own prices.

Frequently asked questions

What quantities does a basement conversion job need?
It depends on the measurements, so this page asks for yours. At the size it opens on — Length, wall to wall 6 m · Width, wall to wall 4 m · Height, floor to the joists above 2.3 m · Lining depth, old wall to new face 0.12 m · Doors 1 · Windows 1 — the lines come to: Skip (dumpster) for the strip-out, 3.6 m³; Drainage channel round the room's edge (interior drain tile), 7–9 segments; Floor insulation boards, under the finished floor, 9–10 sheets (2400x1200 mm); Studs or battens for the stand-off wall, 56–65 studs; Insulation batts between the studs, 10–11 packages; Ceiling board, the fire separation (plasterboard or drywall), 8–9 sheets; Drywall (plasterboard) on the new walls, 15–17 sheets; Skim (finish plaster) over the new board, 163–179 kg; Paint on the walls, 8.09–9.3 L; Paint on the ceiling, 4.33–4.98 L; Laminate or vinyl plank floor, 11–12 packs; Skirting (baseboard), 19–20.9 m. In imperial units — Length, wall to wall 19.5 ft · Width, wall to wall 13 ft · Height, floor to the joists above 7.5 ft · Lining depth, old wall to new face 4.75 in · Doors 1 · Windows 1 — they come to: Skip (dumpster) for the strip-out, 4.62 yd³; Drainage channel round the room's edge (interior drain tile), 7–9 segments; Floor insulation boards, under the finished floor, 9–10 sheets (4x8 ft); Studs or battens for the stand-off wall, 56–65 studs; Insulation batts between the studs, 9–10 packages; Ceiling board, the fire separation (plasterboard or drywall), 8–9 sheets; Drywall (plasterboard) on the new walls, 15–16 sheets; Joint compound (mud) over the new board, 2 x 4.5 gal boxes; Joint tape over the new board, 359–393 ft; Paint on the walls, 2.14–2.46 gal; Paint on the ceiling, 1.14–1.31 gal; Laminate or vinyl plank floor, 11–12 packs; Skirting (baseboard), 61.8–67.7 linear ft.
Which line on a basement conversion quote varies the most?
The Drainage channel round the room's edge (interior drain tile): 7–9 segments for a job measured Length, wall to wall 6 m · Width, wall to wall 4 m · Height, floor to the joists above 2.3 m · Lining depth, old wall to new face 0.12 m · Doors 1 · Windows 1, depending on how much is allowed for loss over the net figure, up to 15%.
What does a basement conversion quote often leave out?
The reading names every line of the job that nothing on the quote reads as — any of the 13 lines the takeoff measures. The takeoff also lists 9 things it does not measure, shown under the reading, and each is worth asking about: a scope missing from a quote tends to become a cost after work has started.The reading names every line of the job that nothing on the quote reads as — any of the 12 lines the takeoff measures. The takeoff also lists 9 things it does not measure, shown under the reading, and each is worth asking about: a scope missing from a quote tends to become a cost after work has started.
Can I paste the quote exactly as it came?
Yes — from an email, a PDF or a spreadsheet, one item to a line. Amounts of money are taken out before anything is read, headings and totals are skipped, and each line is shown with what it was read as, so a misreading is one correction. Quantities in the other unit system are converted and the conversion is shown; a count of boxes is never compared with a count of tiles.
Does this check the price as well?
No. It reads quantities, never prices, and this site publishes none: an installed price moves with the market, the season, the access and the specification, so a figure for what the work ought to cost would give you confidence in a number nobody can defend. A quantity against your own measurements is checkable, and every figure here links to the calculator that produced it.