Craft Quantities
Plan & Takeoffs

Quote check

Check a party wall soundproofing 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
  • 3Measurements
  • QuestionsNever a verdict

How the quote is read

Each line of a party wall soundproofing quote is matched to the line of the job it names, or marked as something the Party wall soundproofing 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 — floor protected, length of the party wall lined, height of the lining, floor to ceiling — run through the same calculators as the takeoff, so the two give the same figure for the same job.

Reading a party wall soundproofing quote

A soundproofing quote names a build-up, and two quotes for the same party wall can describe two quite different linings. Worth having in writing which one each prices: a frame standing free of the wall, bars or clips fixed to it, or a board glued straight on; how deep it is and so how much of the room it takes; the boards by make and weight, and how many layers; whether mass-loaded vinyl or a damping compound between the boards is included; and what fills the void.

A quote that promises a result in figures is worth asking about directly. No lining's performance can be known before it is built and tested in that room, because sound also travels round it through the floor, the ceiling, the joists and the walls at either end; worth asking whether any figure offered comes from a laboratory test of the same build-up, built in a test rig rather than this house, and whether a test after the work is part of the price or extra. Where the work is part of a conversion that building control checks for sound, worth confirming who arranges and pays for that test.

The small items decide whether a lining keeps out what it was built for. Worth seeing each named: the sealant at every edge of every layer, the putty pads behind the sockets and switches, the electrician who brings those boxes forward and the certificate that follows, the radiator taken off and put back with the heating drained and refilled, and the skirting, coving and decoration afterwards. Worth asking as well whether the neighbour needs to be told under the party wall legislation, and who serves any notice.

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 party wall soundproofing 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

Party wall soundproofing · Floor protected 130 sq ft · Length of the party wall lined 13 ft · Height of the lining, floor to ceiling 8 ftFloor protected 12 m² · Length of the party wall lined 4 m · Height of the lining, floor to ceiling 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

10

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.

  • Flanking sound through the rest of the structure, which this job leaves as it is
  • Sound tests of any kind, before the work or after it, the pre-completion test in England and Wales among them
  • Notice to the neighbour, and any surveyors' award under the 1996 Act, where the shared structure is touched at all
  • Strengthening a floor for the added mass (flagged)
  • Ventilating the sealed room
  • A heater moved elsewhere, or its pipe runs rerouted
  • Crown molding (coving) put back along the new lining
  • A fire rating
  • Green Glue or another damping compound between the layers
  • Damping compound between the layers, which no row here measures

The reference

Every line the reading looks for

For Floor protected 130 sq ft · Length of the party wall lined 13 ft · Height of the lining, floor to ceiling 8 ftFloor protected 12 m² · Length of the party wall lined 4 m · Height of the lining, floor to ceiling 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 Party wall soundproofing 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 party wall soundproofing job need?
It depends on the measurements, so this page asks for yours. At the size it opens on — Floor protected 12 m² · Length of the party wall lined 4 m · Height of the lining, floor to ceiling 2.4 m — the lines come to: Studs and plates (independent frame, studwork), 11–13 studs; Mineral wool batts, 3 packages; Mass-loaded vinyl (MLV, acoustic membrane), 10.1–11 m²; Dense or acoustic plasterboard (drywall), two layers, 7–8 sheets; Acoustic sealant, 0.92–1.06 L; Skim finish coat (plastering), 25.2–27.6 kg; Skirting (baseboard), 4.2–4.6 m; Painting and decorating (decoration): two coats, a mist coat apart, 1.92–2.21 L. In imperial units — Floor protected 130 sq ft · Length of the party wall lined 13 ft · Height of the lining, floor to ceiling 8 ft — they come to: Studs and plates (independent frame, studwork), 11–13 studs; Mineral wool batts, 3 packages; Mass-loaded vinyl (MLV, acoustic membrane), 109–120 ft²; Dense or acoustic plasterboard (drywall), two layers, 7–8 sheets; Acoustic sealant, 0.27–0.31 gal; Joint compound and tape (or a skim coat of compound), 1 x 4.5 gal box; Skirting (baseboard), 13.7–15 linear ft; Painting and decorating (decoration): two coats, a mist coat apart, 0.52–0.6 gal.
Which line on a party wall soundproofing quote varies the most?
The Studs and plates (independent frame, studwork): 11–13 studs for a job measured Floor protected 12 m² · Length of the party wall lined 4 m · Height of the lining, floor to ceiling 2.4 m, depending on how much is allowed for loss over the net figure, up to 15%.
What does a party wall soundproofing 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 10 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.