Craft Quantities
Plan & Takeoffs

Quote check

Check a damp proofing and replastering 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.
  • 4Lines the job needs
  • 8Measurements
  • QuestionsNever a verdict

How the quote is read

Each line of a damp proofing and replastering quote is matched to the line of the job it names, or marked as something the Damp remediation and replastering 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 8 measurements — room length, room width, wall height, floor to ceiling, length of the walls treated, height of the strip-out and replastering, as the specification sets it, doors, windows, loose waste, as a depth over the band — run through the same calculators as the takeoff, so the two give the same figure for the same job.

Reading a damp proofing and replastering quote

A damp quote is only as sound as the diagnosis behind it, so the first thing worth having in writing is who found the cause and how: readings taken into the depth of the masonry and its mortar, or a meter pressed to the plaster's face, which salts alone can push high. Worth asking whether the survey was made by someone who also sells the treatment, whether an independent surveyor would look at the same wall, and whether the outside causes it should have looked at, the ground against the wall, the gutters and downpipes, a bridged course, condensation, are named with who puts each right.

Two quotes for the same room can name different remedies, an injection, a slurry or a membrane, and they are not interchangeable prices for one job. Worth seeing each named: which walls, to what height the plaster comes off, what goes back on in the backing coat and in the finish, and whether a gypsum plaster is anywhere in it. Worth asking how long the walls are left before decorating, who reads them first, and whether the painting is the whole room or only the patch.

The paperwork is worth settling before work starts. A guarantee is only as good as whoever stands behind it, so worth asking who issues it, whether it is insured if the firm stops trading, and what it covers and does not, since an injection guarantee may say nothing about the plaster or the decoration. Worth confirming as well who takes off and refits the radiator and the sockets, whether the electrician's certificate is included, and, where the wall is shared with a neighbour, whether a party wall notice is needed and who serves it.

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 damp proofing and replastering 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

Damp proofing and replastering · Room length 15 ft · Room width 11.5 ft · Wall height, floor to ceiling 8 ft · Length of the walls treated 26 ft · Height of the strip-out and replastering, as the specification sets it 3.5 ft · Doors 1 · Windows 1 · Loose waste, as a depth over the band 2 inRoom length 4.5 m · Room width 3.5 m · Wall height, floor to ceiling 2.4 m · Length of the walls treated 8 m · Height of the strip-out and replastering, as the specification sets it 1 m · Doors 1 · Windows 1 · Loose waste, as a depth over the band 0.05 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

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.

  • Diagnosing the cause and choosing what answers it
  • Ground and path levels, gutters, downpipes and render that bridge the DPC, and their repair
  • Leaking pipes, and condensation and its causes in the room's air
  • Decay in joists, lintels, floors or timber grounds (flagged)
  • A drained channel and sump at the foot of the floor
  • Moving a socket to a new place
  • Any promise that the wall stays dry
  • The party structure notice to a neighbour, and any award or agreement under the 1996 Act, which are the owner's to serve and settle
  • Dehumidifiers and temporary heaters beyond the job's own

The reference

Every line the reading looks for

For Room length 15 ft · Room width 11.5 ft · Wall height, floor to ceiling 8 ft · Length of the walls treated 26 ft · Height of the strip-out and replastering, as the specification sets it 3.5 ft · Doors 1 · Windows 1 · Loose waste, as a depth over the band 2 inRoom length 4.5 m · Room width 3.5 m · Wall height, floor to ceiling 2.4 m · Length of the walls treated 8 m · Height of the strip-out and replastering, as the specification sets it 1 m · Doors 1 · Windows 1 · Loose waste, as a depth over the band 0.05 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 Damp remediation and replastering 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 damp proofing and replastering job need?
It depends on the measurements, so this page asks for yours. At the size it opens on — Room length 4.5 m · Room width 3.5 m · Wall height, floor to ceiling 2.4 m · Length of the walls treated 8 m · Height of the strip-out and replastering, as the specification sets it 1 m · Doors 1 · Windows 1 · Loose waste, as a depth over the band 0.05 m — the lines come to: Skim finish coat (plaster), 21–23 kg; Skirting (baseboard), 8.4–9.2 m; Painting and decorating (decoration): emulsion to decorate the room, after a mist coat, 7.01–8.06 L; Skip (dumpster), 0.4 m³. In imperial units — Room length 15 ft · Room width 11.5 ft · Wall height, floor to ceiling 8 ft · Length of the walls treated 26 ft · Height of the strip-out and replastering, as the specification sets it 3.5 ft · Doors 1 · Windows 1 · Loose waste, as a depth over the band 2 in — they come to: Skim finish coat (plaster), 48.9–53.6 lb; Skirting (baseboard), 27.3–29.9 linear ft; Painting and decorating (decoration): emulsion to decorate the room, after a mist coat, 1.94–2.23 gal; Skip (dumpster), 0.56 yd³.
Which line on a damp proofing and replastering quote varies the most?
The Painting and decorating (decoration): emulsion to decorate the room, after a mist coat: 7.01–8.06 L for a job measured Room length 4.5 m · Room width 3.5 m · Wall height, floor to ceiling 2.4 m · Length of the walls treated 8 m · Height of the strip-out and replastering, as the specification sets it 1 m · Doors 1 · Windows 1 · Loose waste, as a depth over the band 0.05 m, depending on how much is allowed for loss over the net figure, up to 15%.
What does a damp proofing and replastering quote often leave out?
The reading names every line of the job that nothing on the quote reads as — any of the 4 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.