Craft Quantities
Plan & Takeoffs

Quote check

Check a masonry wall 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
  • 2Measurements
  • QuestionsNever a verdict

How the quote is read

Each line of a masonry wall quote is matched to the line of the job it names, or marked as something the Build a masonry wall takeoff does not measure — labour, removal, hire, fees, or anything else.

The job’s own figures come from 2 measurements — wall length, wall height — run through the same calculators as the takeoff, so the two give the same figure for the same job.

Reading a masonry wall quote

Brickwork is quoted per thousand bricks or by the area of wall, and the brick count carries a waste allowance for cutting and breakage.

The anchors and weep holes are the lines a single sum leaves out, and they are what keep a cavity wall dry. The movement-joint line in brick counts joints by a spacing rule along one straight run; the joints a designer adds at openings, offsets and changes in height are not in it, so where a quote puts them is worth asking. A decorative bond uses more bricks than stretcher bond, so the bond is worth confirming.

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 masonry wall 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

Masonry wall · Wall length 33 ft · Wall height 8 ftWall length 10 m · Wall height 2.4 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 mortar as a line of its own
  • The movement joints a real brick layout places first
  • Grout for the bond-beam courses, and any bond-beam course past the two this takeoff sets
  • The foundation
  • Lintels, cills, copings and the damp-proof course
  • Whether the wall is adequate

The reference

Every line the reading looks for

For Wall length 33 ft · Wall height 8 ftWall length 10 m · Wall height 2.4 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 Build a masonry wall 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 masonry wall job need?
It depends on the measurements, so this page asks for yours. At the size it opens on — Wall length 10 m · Wall height 2.4 m — the lines come to: Cavity Wall Weep Hole Spacing, 18 weep holes; Brick, 1,494–1,636 bricks; Brick Veneer Anchor Spacing, 126 anchors; Brick Movement Joint Spacing, 2 movement joints. In imperial units — Wall length 33 ft · Wall height 8 ft — they come to: Cavity Wall Weep Hole Spacing, 18 weep holes; Brick, 1,901–2,082 bricks; Brick Veneer Anchor Spacing, 126 anchors; Brick Movement Joint Spacing, 2 movement joints.
Which line on a masonry wall quote varies the most?
The Brick: 1,494–1,636 bricks for a job measured Wall length 10 m · Wall height 2.4 m, depending on the waste factor allowed, from 5% to 15%.
What does a masonry wall 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 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.