Quote check

Check a concrete driveway 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.
  • 2Lines the job needs
  • 3Measurements
  • QuestionsNever a verdict

How the quote is read

Each line of a concrete driveway quote is matched to the line of the job it names, or marked as something the Concrete driveway 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 3 measurements — driveway length, driveway width, slab thickness — run through the same calculators as the takeoff, so the two give the same figure for the same job.

Reading a concrete driveway quote

A driveway is quoted by area and thickness, and both need agreeing before quotes are compared: a thicker slab for heavier vehicles moves the concrete more than the size does.

Control joints are cut at a maximum spacing, and a quote can say how and when. What goes underneath matters most — the sub-base depth decides whether the drive cracks — and it is the line to have in writing.

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 concrete driveway 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

Concrete driveway · Driveway length 39 ft · Driveway width 10 ft · Slab thickness 5 inDriveway length 12 m · Driveway width 3 m · Slab thickness 0.13 m

  • 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

6

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.

  • The drainage design
  • The membrane's quantity
  • Ground conditions and any dig-out beyond the stated base depth
  • Edge restraint, kerbs and the junction with the footpath or road
  • Reinforcement design
  • Surface finish

The reference

Every line the reading looks for

For Driveway length 39 ft · Driveway width 10 ft · Slab thickness 5 inDriveway length 12 m · Driveway width 3 m · Slab thickness 0.13 m. 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 Concrete driveway takeoff runs the same calculators on the same measurements and shows what sits under each line here.

  • 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 concrete driveway job need?
It depends on the measurements, so this page asks for yours. At the size it opens on — Driveway length 12 m · Driveway width 3 m · Slab thickness 0.13 m — the lines come to: Concrete Driveway, 4.5–5.18 m³; Rebar, 16 x 12 m sticks. In imperial units — Driveway length 39 ft · Driveway width 10 ft · Slab thickness 5 in — they come to: Concrete Driveway, 6.02–6.92 cubic yards (concrete); Rebar, 32 x 20 ft sticks.
Which line on a concrete driveway quote varies the most?
The Concrete Driveway: 4.5–5.18 m³ for a job measured Driveway length 12 m · Driveway width 3 m · Slab thickness 0.13 m, depending on how much is allowed for loss over the net figure, up to 15%.
What does a concrete driveway quote often leave out?
The reading names every line of the job that nothing on the quote reads as — any of the 2 lines the takeoff measures. The takeoff also lists 6 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.