Craft Quantities
Plan & Takeoffs

Quote check

Check a flat roof replacement 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.
  • 8Lines the job needs
  • 7Measurements
  • QuestionsNever a verdict

How the quote is read

Each line of a flat roof replacement quote is matched to the line of the job it names, or marked as something the Flat roof replacement (warm roof) 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 7 measurements — roof length, along the gutter, roof width, the direction of fall, length against walls of the house, upstand height, membrane turned over each free edge, height of the roof edge above the ground, loose depth of the old roof, stripped — run through the same calculators as the takeoff, so the two give the same figure for the same job.

Reading a flat roof replacement quote

A flat roof quote names a waterproofing system as much as a quantity, and two quotes naming different systems are two different roofs rather than two prices for one. EPDM, torch-on, GRP and liquid-applied systems each bring their own trims, their own detail where the roof meets the wall and their own guarantee, so which system each quote names, and who stands behind its guarantee, is the first thing worth comparing.

The membrane lines on this check include the upstands and the strips dressed over the edge trims, so a membrane figure taken from the plan area alone reads lower for the same roof. Worth asking how each quote treats boards found rotten once the old layers are off — a provisional sum, a figure per board, or nothing named — and whether the insulation thickness, the vapour control layer, the edge trims and the skip are each in the quote by name. Whether notifying building control or taking out a permit is part of the quote, or left to you, is worth settling before the strip starts.

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 flat roof replacement 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

Flat roof replacement · Roof length, along the gutter 16.5 ft · Roof width, the direction of fall 13 ft · Length against walls of the house 16.5 ft · Upstand height 6 in · Membrane turned over each free edge 4 in · Height of the roof edge above the ground 10 ft · Loose depth of the old roof, stripped 2 inRoof length, along the gutter 5 m · Roof width, the direction of fall 4 m · Length against walls of the house 5 m · Upstand height 0.15 m · Membrane turned over each free edge 0.1 m · Height of the roof edge above the ground 3 m · Loose depth of the old roof, stripped 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

7

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 joists, the wall plates and whether they carry a warm roof's added weight
  • A cold roof, where the insulation stays between the joists under a ventilated void, and anything done inside the room
  • Rooflights (skylights) and their kerbs, which are listed as work with no quantity row
  • Quantities for the vapour control layer, the edge trims, the membrane adhesive and primers, and the insulation's fixings
  • Internal outlets, scuppers and any pipework inside the building
  • Parapet walls round the roof and their copings
  • The insulation's thickness and the thermal performance it reaches, which are a design choice for the rules where you build; the board count is the same at any thickness, and a two-layer build is this row twice

The reference

Every line the reading looks for

For Roof length, along the gutter 16.5 ft · Roof width, the direction of fall 13 ft · Length against walls of the house 16.5 ft · Upstand height 6 in · Membrane turned over each free edge 4 in · Height of the roof edge above the ground 10 ft · Loose depth of the old roof, stripped 2 inRoof length, along the gutter 5 m · Roof width, the direction of fall 4 m · Length against walls of the house 5 m · Upstand height 0.15 m · Membrane turned over each free edge 0.1 m · Height of the roof edge above the ground 3 m · Loose depth of the old roof, stripped 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 Flat roof replacement (warm roof) 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 flat roof replacement job need?
It depends on the measurements, so this page asks for yours. At the size it opens on — Roof length, along the gutter 5 m · Roof width, the direction of fall 4 m · Length against walls of the house 5 m · Upstand height 0.15 m · Membrane turned over each free edge 0.1 m · Height of the roof edge above the ground 3 m · Loose depth of the old roof, stripped 0.05 m — the lines come to: Insulation boards, flat, over a deck laid to falls, 8 sheets (2400x1200 mm); EPDM membrane, 1–2 rolls; Termination bar along the upstands, 5.25–5.75 m; Termination bar fixings, 19 fasteners; Cover flashing over the upstands, 2–3 sheets; Gutter along the low edge, 2–3 x 4 m sections; Gutter brackets (hangers), 10 hangers; Skip (dumpster) for the old roof, 1 m³. In imperial units — Roof length, along the gutter 16.5 ft · Roof width, the direction of fall 13 ft · Length against walls of the house 16.5 ft · Upstand height 6 in · Membrane turned over each free edge 4 in · Height of the roof edge above the ground 10 ft · Loose depth of the old roof, stripped 2 in — they come to: Insulation boards, flat, over a deck laid to falls, 8 sheets (4x8 ft); EPDM membrane, 1–2 rolls; Termination bar along the upstands, 17.3–19 ft; Termination bar fixings, 19 fasteners; Cover flashing over the upstands, 2–3 sheets; Gutter along the low edge, 2–3 x 10 ft sections; Gutter brackets (hangers), 10 hangers; Skip (dumpster) for the old roof, 1.32 yd³.
Which line on a flat roof replacement quote varies the most?
The EPDM membrane: 1–2 rolls for a job measured Roof length, along the gutter 5 m · Roof width, the direction of fall 4 m · Length against walls of the house 5 m · Upstand height 0.15 m · Membrane turned over each free edge 0.1 m · Height of the roof edge above the ground 3 m · Loose depth of the old roof, stripped 0.05 m, depending on how much is allowed for loss over the net figure, up to 15%.
What does a flat roof replacement quote often leave out?
The reading names every line of the job that nothing on the quote reads as — any of the 8 lines the takeoff measures. The takeoff also lists 7 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.