Craft Quantities
Plan & Takeoffs

Quote check

Check a repointing 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.
  • 3Lines the job needs
  • 9Measurements
  • QuestionsNever a verdict

How the quote is read

Each line of a repointing quote is matched to the line of the job it names, or marked as something the Repointing brickwork (tuckpointing) 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 9 measurements — length of the face repointed, height repointed, from the ground or the plinth, windows and doors in the face, opening width, average, opening height, average, joint width, as measured on the wall, depth the joints are raked out to, scaffold's working height (0 where a tower or ladders reach), windows and doors resealed round their frames — run through the same calculators as the takeoff, so the two give the same figure for the same job.

Reading a repointing quote

Two repointing quotes can describe the same wall and price different work, and the difference sits in the preparation. Worth having in writing how the joints are cut out, by hand or with a grinder, to what depth, and how that depth is checked before any new mortar goes in; whether the price covers the whole elevation or only the joints that have failed; and whether a trial patch is pointed first so the colour, texture and finish can be agreed, and who agrees it.

The mortar is the line worth reading most closely. Worth asking what the quote takes to be in the joints now, lime or cement, how that was established, and what goes back by name: the binder, the ratio, the sand and its colour. A cement mortar offered for a wall built in lime, or a mix described only as matching, is worth a question before it goes in, because it cannot come out again without raking the wall a second time.

The work around the pointing is worth settling as well: the scaffold or tower and how long it stays on hire, its licence where it stands on a pavement, who takes down and puts back the downpipes and fittings, how spalled bricks are priced once they are found, whether the movement joints and the frames' mastic are resealed, how the fresh mortar is protected while it cures, and, where the house is listed or its street protected, who obtains the local authority's consent. Here the trial patch, the hessian over the curing joints and the brushing down are counted as part of the pointing line, so a quote that prices any of them as an item of its own is splitting that line's work rather than adding to it.

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 repointing 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

Repointing · Length of the face repointed 30 ft · Height repointed, from the ground or the plinth 16.5 ft · Windows and doors in the face 5 · Opening width, average 4 ft · Opening height, average 4.5 ft · Joint width, as measured on the wall 0.39 in · Depth the joints are raked out to 0.75 in · Scaffold's working height (0 where a tower or ladders reach) 16.5 ft · Windows and doors resealed round their frames 5Length of the face repointed 9 m · Height repointed, from the ground or the plinth 5 m · Windows and doors in the face 5 · Opening width, average 1.2 m · Opening height, average 1.4 m · Joint width, as measured on the wall 0.01 m · Depth the joints are raked out to 0.02 m · Scaffold's working height (0 where a tower or ladders reach) 5 m · Windows and doors resealed round their frames 5

  • 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.

  • Every brick past the handful priced
  • Crack stitching, structural cracks, their cause and any rebuild
  • Laboratory analysis of the old joints, or a conservation specification
  • Chemical stain stripping of the face
  • A chimney stack unless the access reaches it
  • The local authority's consent for a listed building or a conservation area, which is the owner's to seek
  • A pavement licence or sidewalk permit for anything standing on the public way
  • A water repellent or sealer coat on the face afterwards

The reference

Every line the reading looks for

For Length of the face repointed 30 ft · Height repointed, from the ground or the plinth 16.5 ft · Windows and doors in the face 5 · Opening width, average 4 ft · Opening height, average 4.5 ft · Joint width, as measured on the wall 0.39 in · Depth the joints are raked out to 0.75 in · Scaffold's working height (0 where a tower or ladders reach) 16.5 ft · Windows and doors resealed round their frames 5Length of the face repointed 9 m · Height repointed, from the ground or the plinth 5 m · Windows and doors in the face 5 · Opening width, average 1.2 m · Opening height, average 1.4 m · Joint width, as measured on the wall 0.01 m · Depth the joints are raked out to 0.02 m · Scaffold's working height (0 where a tower or ladders reach) 5 m · Windows and doors resealed round their frames 5. 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 Repointing brickwork (tuckpointing) 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 repointing job need?
It depends on the measurements, so this page asks for yours. At the size it opens on — Length of the face repointed 9 m · Height repointed, from the ground or the plinth 5 m · Windows and doors in the face 5 · Opening width, average 1.2 m · Opening height, average 1.4 m · Joint width, as measured on the wall 0.01 m · Depth the joints are raked out to 0.02 m · Scaffold's working height (0 where a tower or ladders reach) 5 m · Windows and doors resealed round their frames 5 — the lines come to: Repointing (repoint, repointed, tuckpointing), 126–145 L; Lime and sand (NHL or lime putty), 2 bags; Frame sealant (mastic or caulk), 4 tubes. In imperial units — Length of the face repointed 30 ft · Height repointed, from the ground or the plinth 16.5 ft · Windows and doors in the face 5 · Opening width, average 4 ft · Opening height, average 4.5 ft · Joint width, as measured on the wall 0.39 in · Depth the joints are raked out to 0.75 in · Scaffold's working height (0 where a tower or ladders reach) 16.5 ft · Windows and doors resealed round their frames 5 — they come to: Repointing (repoint, repointed, tuckpointing), 35.5–40.8 gal; Lime and sand (NHL or lime putty), 2 bags; Frame sealant (mastic or caulk), 4 tubes.
Which line on a repointing quote varies the most?
The Repointing (repoint, repointed, tuckpointing): 126–145 L for a job measured Length of the face repointed 9 m · Height repointed, from the ground or the plinth 5 m · Windows and doors in the face 5 · Opening width, average 1.2 m · Opening height, average 1.4 m · Joint width, as measured on the wall 0.01 m · Depth the joints are raked out to 0.02 m · Scaffold's working height (0 where a tower or ladders reach) 5 m · Windows and doors resealed round their frames 5, depending on how much is allowed for loss over the net figure, up to 15%.
What does a repointing quote often leave out?
The reading names every line of the job that nothing on the quote reads as — any of the 3 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.