Craft Quantities
Plan & Takeoffs

Quote check

Check a pitched roof re-covering 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.
  • 87Lines the job needs
  • 10Measurements
  • QuestionsNever a verdict

How the quote is read

Each line of a pitched roof re-covering quote is matched to the line of the job it names, or marked as something the Pitched roof re-covering 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 10 measurements — roof length on plan, along the ridge, roof width on plan, eave to eave, roof pitch (rise per 12), slope factor, height to the eaves, length where the roof meets a wall or chimney, pipes and flues through the roof, loose depth of the old covering, stripped, eaves with an ice barrier, eaves edge to the inside face of the wall — run through the same calculators as the takeoff, so the two give the same figure for the same job.

Reading a pitched roof re-covering quote

A re-roofing quote names a covering, and the covering carries most of the price: a concrete tile, a clay tile, a natural slate and an asphalt shingle are four different roofs over the same rafters. Worth confirming which product each quote names, by maker and range where it matters, whether it matches what the house has now, and whether a change of covering has been thought about for the rafters and, on some houses, for planning. The lines here follow the units, as the takeoff's opening rows do: a tiled roof's battens and fixings with metric showing, and asphalt shingles on a boarded deck, in squares with their ridge cap, with imperial showing. A quote for the other covering is read against the other set by switching the units, which changes how the figures are shown but not the roof they measure; a shingle quote reads more fully still against the asphalt shingle roof check, which also holds the ice barrier as a line of its own.

The lines on this check are the layers laid on the rafters, so a quote priced per square metre or per square of roof can still be held against its area. Worth asking how each quote treats timber found rotten once the old covering is off — a provisional sum, a rate per rafter or per length of batten, or nothing named — and whether the scaffold, the skip, the ridge and verge system, the lead, the underlay and any new fascia and gutters are each in the price by name. Who notifies building control or takes out the permit, and what becomes of the old tiles, are 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 pitched roof re-covering 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

Pitched roof re-covering · Roof length on plan, along the ridge 30 ft · Roof width on plan, eave to eave 25 ft · Roof pitch (rise per 12) 8 · Slope factor 1.2 · Height to the eaves 16.5 ft · Length where the roof meets a wall or chimney 13 ft · Pipes and flues through the roof 1 · Loose depth of the old covering, stripped 1.5 in · Eaves with an ice barrier 0 · Eaves edge to the inside face of the wall 2 ftRoof length on plan, along the ridge 9 m · Roof width on plan, eave to eave 7.5 m · Roof pitch (rise per 12) 8 · Slope factor 1.2 · Height to the eaves 5 m · Length where the roof meets a wall or chimney 4 m · Pipes and flues through the roof 1 · Loose depth of the old covering, stripped 0.04 m · Eaves with an ice barrier 0 · Eaves edge to the inside face of the wall 0.6 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

8

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.

  • Strengthening the rafters, purlins or wall plates, and whether they carry a covering heavier than the old one
  • Insulation the regulations may call for when the roof is renewed
  • Bat surveys, and any licence needed where bats roost in the roof
  • Chimney repairs and rebuilds
  • Taking down and recommissioning a solar PV array, which is its installer's work, and moving or shrouding an overhead supply cable at the eaves, which is the network operator's or the utility's
  • Work where the roof meets a neighbour's across a party wall, and any notice it needs (in England and Wales, under the Party Wall etc
  • A row of its own for the roof tiles or slates, and the ridge and hip tiles, verge units, valley troughs and eaves closures
  • A hipped roof's battens and courses, a lean-to, a mansard, or planes at two pitches

The reference

Every line the reading looks for

For Roof length on plan, along the ridge 30 ft · Roof width on plan, eave to eave 25 ft · Roof pitch (rise per 12) 8 · Slope factor 1.2 · Height to the eaves 16.5 ft · Length where the roof meets a wall or chimney 13 ft · Pipes and flues through the roof 1 · Loose depth of the old covering, stripped 1.5 in · Eaves with an ice barrier 0 · Eaves edge to the inside face of the wall 2 ftRoof length on plan, along the ridge 9 m · Roof width on plan, eave to eave 7.5 m · Roof pitch (rise per 12) 8 · Slope factor 1.2 · Height to the eaves 5 m · Length where the roof meets a wall or chimney 4 m · Pipes and flues through the roof 1 · Loose depth of the old covering, stripped 0.04 m · Eaves with an ice barrier 0 · Eaves edge to the inside face of the wall 0.6 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.

On a count of whole items so small that the tight allowance, rounded up to a whole one, comes to more than the wider allowance, the low end is the count with nothing added: one for one, not two.

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 Pitched roof re-covering 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 pitched roof re-covering job need?
It depends on the measurements, so this page asks for yours. At the size it opens on — Roof length on plan, along the ridge 9 m · Roof width on plan, eave to eave 7.5 m · Roof pitch (rise per 12) 8 · Slope factor 1.2 · Height to the eaves 5 m · Length where the roof meets a wall or chimney 4 m · Pipes and flues through the roof 1 · Loose depth of the old covering, stripped 0.04 m · Eaves with an ice barrier 0 · Eaves edge to the inside face of the wall 0.6 m — the lines come to: Underlay (felt, membrane or underlayment), 1 roll; Eaves vent trays (rafter baffles), 30 baffles; Nails and clips (fixings), 1,976–2,164 fixings; Ventilated ridge (ridge vent), 9.45–10.4 m; Pipe flashings (collars or boots) for soil and vent pipes, 1–2 boots; Abutment flashing at walls and the chimney (lead or step flashing), 3–4 sheets; Skip (dumpster) for the old covering, 3.25 m³. In imperial units — Roof length on plan, along the ridge 30 ft · Roof width on plan, eave to eave 25 ft · Roof pitch (rise per 12) 8 · Slope factor 1.2 · Height to the eaves 16.5 ft · Length where the roof meets a wall or chimney 13 ft · Pipes and flues through the roof 1 · Loose depth of the old covering, stripped 1.5 in · Eaves with an ice barrier 0 · Eaves edge to the inside face of the wall 2 ft — they come to: Underlay (felt, membrane or underlayment), 1 roll; Eaves vent trays (rafter baffles), 30 baffles; Shingles, in squares, 9.46–10.4 squares; Ventilated ridge (ridge vent), 31.5–34.5 ft; Ridge cap shingles, 1–2 bundles; Pipe flashings (collars or boots) for soil and vent pipes, 1–2 boots; Abutment flashing at walls and the chimney (lead or step flashing), 2–3 sheets; Skip (dumpster) for the old covering, 4.17 yd³.
Which line on a pitched roof re-covering quote varies the most?
The Abutment flashing at walls and the chimney (lead or step flashing): 3–4 sheets for a job measured Roof length on plan, along the ridge 9 m · Roof width on plan, eave to eave 7.5 m · Roof pitch (rise per 12) 8 · Slope factor 1.2 · Height to the eaves 5 m · Length where the roof meets a wall or chimney 4 m · Pipes and flues through the roof 1 · Loose depth of the old covering, stripped 0.04 m · Eaves with an ice barrier 0 · Eaves edge to the inside face of the wall 0.6 m, depending on how much is allowed for loss over the net figure, up to 15%.
What does a pitched roof re-covering 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 8 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.The reading names every line of the job that nothing on the quote reads as — any of the 7 lines the takeoff measures. The takeoff also lists 8 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.