Craft Quantities
Plan & Takeoffs

Quote check

Check an EV charger installation 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
  • 5Measurements
  • QuestionsNever a verdict

How the quote is read

Each line of an EV charger installation quote is matched to the line of the job it names, or marked as something the EV charger installation 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 5 measurements — floor along the cable's route indoors, cable route above ground, straight legs added, bends in the route, buried run, house wall to the charger's post, trench depth — run through the same calculators as the takeoff, so the two give the same figure for the same job.

Reading an EV charger installation quote

A charger quote names a unit, and its make, model and rating are worth having in writing along with what the electrician found on the survey: the rating of the main fuse or service, what the household already uses at its busiest hour, and whether the unit will be set to slow its charging when the house is near that limit or a bigger supply comes first. Worth asking who tells the network operator or the utility, whether it has been done yet, and what happens to the price and the date if an upgrade is asked for.

Two lines decide whether two charger quotes describe the same installation. Worth seeing the protection named by type, including whether the unit detects a direct-current fault itself, and how the unit is earthed: through a device inside it, through an electrode outside, or as the survey decides, with the test that proves it. Worth seeing the route named as well: the cable's type and roughly how far it runs, the holes through walls and whether one goes into a garage, a spare way in the board or a new board, and whether a lockable switch is fitted beside the unit.

Where the cable goes under the ground, worth asking how deep, in what kind of duct, who scans for pipes and cables before digging, and how the drive, the path or the lawn is put back, and by whom; a tarmac surface is a surfacer's, and worth confirming as outside the price. What is handed over is worth confirming too: the electrical certificate and its notification in England and Wales, the permit's final inspection in North America, the app linked to the owner's account, and who to call when the unit shows a fault.

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 EV charger installation 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

EV charger installation · Floor along the cable's route indoors 65 sq ft · Cable route above ground, straight legs added 33 ft · Bends in the route 6 · Buried run, house wall to the charger's post 19.5 ft · Trench depth 1.5 ftFloor along the cable's route indoors 6 m² · Cable route above ground, straight legs added 10 m · Bends in the route 6 · Buried run, house wall to the charger's post 6 m · Trench depth 0.5 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.

  • A bigger supply to the house
  • The earthing arrangement's design, which the electrician chooses once the supply has been examined
  • The cable's size, the rating of the protective device at the board and the voltage drop along the route, all the electrician's from the wiring regulations; this site's gauge and voltage drop pages answer those, and none is reached here
  • A cable across the public footway (sidewalk) or a neighbour's land, and the permission for it
  • A supply to a detached garage or outbuilding with a board of its own
  • Tarmac (asphalt) over the trench, cut and patched by a surfacer; the drive's other surfaces put back are listed
  • The car's own lead, which comes with the car; a lead the installer supplies with the unit is listed with it
  • The app's paid subscriptions once it is set up, an energy tariff, and a grant with its forms
  • A second unit for another car, and a unit for a business, a workplace or a shared car park

The reference

Every line the reading looks for

For Floor along the cable's route indoors 65 sq ft · Cable route above ground, straight legs added 33 ft · Bends in the route 6 · Buried run, house wall to the charger's post 19.5 ft · Trench depth 1.5 ftFloor along the cable's route indoors 6 m² · Cable route above ground, straight legs added 10 m · Bends in the route 6 · Buried run, house wall to the charger's post 6 m · Trench depth 0.5 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 EV charger installation 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 an EV charger installation job need?
It depends on the measurements, so this page asks for yours. At the size it opens on — Floor along the cable's route indoors 6 m² · Cable route above ground, straight legs added 10 m · Bends in the route 6 · Buried run, house wall to the charger's post 6 m · Trench depth 0.5 m — the lines come to: Dedicated circuit: armoured cable (SWA) run, clipped or in duct (ducting), bends included, 17.4–20 m; Groundworks: trench excavation and backfill for the buried leg, warning tape laid, 1.03 m³ (loose). In imperial units — Floor along the cable's route indoors 65 sq ft · Cable route above ground, straight legs added 33 ft · Bends in the route 6 · Buried run, house wall to the charger's post 19.5 ft · Trench depth 1.5 ft — they come to: Dedicated circuit: cable run in EMT conduit, in duct (ducting) below ground, bends included, 57.2–65.8 ft; Groundworks: trench excavation and backfill for the buried leg, warning tape laid, 1.23 yd³.
Which line on an EV charger installation quote varies the most?
The Dedicated circuit: armoured cable (SWA) run, clipped or in duct (ducting), bends included: 17.4–20 m for a job measured Floor along the cable's route indoors 6 m² · Cable route above ground, straight legs added 10 m · Bends in the route 6 · Buried run, house wall to the charger's post 6 m · Trench depth 0.5 m, depending on how much is allowed for loss over the net figure, up to 15%.
What does an EV charger installation 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 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.