Quote check
Check a staircase replacement quote
- 54Lines the job needs
- 10Measurements
- QuestionsNever a verdict
How the quote is read
Each line of a staircase replacement quote is matched to the line of the job it names, or marked as something the Staircase replacement 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 — floor of the hall and landing protected, rise, finished floor to finished floor, going of each tread (its run), going of the whole flight (total run), width of the flight, handrails on the flight, landing's open edge, guarded, stairwell walls patched and skimmed, painted depth of a string, measured plumb, loose waste, as a depth over the flight's plan — run through the same calculators as the takeoff, so the two give the same figure for the same job.
Reading a staircase replacement quote
A staircase quote rests on a flight made to measure, and the measurements behind it are worth having in writing: the height from floor to floor, the number of risers and the going of each tread, the width, the pitch, the headroom under the ceiling above, and the rules it was drawn to. Worth asking who took those measurements, the stair maker or the fitter, and who pays for a flight that arrives and will not go in.
The lines round the flight are where two stair quotes part company. Worth seeing each one named: taking out the old flight and its balustrade, how the family gets upstairs while there is no stair and for how many days, any change to the timbers round the opening and who designs it, the newels, the spindles and the rail by timber or material, and whether the landing's guarding is renewed too. Plastering the walls, boarding the underside, the skirting and the capping, and the painting are each worth confirming as inside the price or left for another trade.
Worth asking as well whether building control has to be told about the new stair where the house stands, who arranges that and pays its fee, and what becomes of the floor at the top and the bottom where the new footprint differs from the old one: whether the carpet or boards there are patched, matched or left for the flooring fitter, and whether a threshold strip is allowed for where old and new meet.
Three steps
- Give your measurements. The page opens on a typical job so it has something to show.
- 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.
- 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 staircase 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.
The reading
What the quote says, against the job
Staircase replacement · Floor of the hall and landing protected 130 sq ft · Rise, finished floor to finished floor 8.5 ft · Going of each tread (its run) 10 in · Going of the whole flight (total run) 11 ft · Width of the flight 3 ft · Handrails on the flight 1 · Landing's open edge, guarded 3 ft · Stairwell walls patched and skimmed 86 sq ft · Painted depth of a string, measured plumb 11.8 in · Loose waste, as a depth over the flight's plan 2.5 ftFloor of the hall and landing protected 12 m² · Rise, finished floor to finished floor 2.6 m · Going of each tread (its run) 0.26 m · Going of the whole flight (total run) 3.32 m · Width of the flight 0.9 m · Handrails on the flight 1 · Landing's open edge, guarded 0.9 m · Stairwell walls patched and skimmed 8 m² · Painted depth of a string, measured plumb 0.3 m · Loose waste, as a depth over the flight's plan 0.75 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
8Nothing 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 size of any trimmer, joist or beam where the stairwell is altered or partly floored over
- Building control's decision on the rise, going, pitch, width and headroom
- Fire protection of the stair's enclosure in a house of three or more storeys
- An understairs cupboard, storage drawers or a WC built into the space under the new flight
- New floor finishes in the hall or upstairs beyond making good round the new footprint; the made-good carpet or boards and the strip where they meet the old finish are listed
- Decorating beyond the stairwell's walls and the flight's woodwork
- Steel, glass, concrete and spiral stairs, and loft ladders
- Removing any asbestos the survey finds in the old stair's soffit or the walls round it, which is licensed or specialist work with its own programme
The reference
Every line the reading looks for
For Floor of the hall and landing protected 130 sq ft · Rise, finished floor to finished floor 8.5 ft · Going of each tread (its run) 10 in · Going of the whole flight (total run) 11 ft · Width of the flight 3 ft · Handrails on the flight 1 · Landing's open edge, guarded 3 ft · Stairwell walls patched and skimmed 86 sq ft · Painted depth of a string, measured plumb 11.8 in · Loose waste, as a depth over the flight's plan 2.5 ftFloor of the hall and landing protected 12 m² · Rise, finished floor to finished floor 2.6 m · Going of each tread (its run) 0.26 m · Going of the whole flight (total run) 3.32 m · Width of the flight 0.9 m · Handrails on the flight 1 · Landing's open edge, guarded 0.9 m · Stairwell walls patched and skimmed 8 m² · Painted depth of a string, measured plumb 0.3 m · Loose waste, as a depth over the flight's plan 0.75 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.
Plastering: skim, in patches
46.2–50.6 lb
46.2 at 5% waste allowance, 50.6 at 15%.
Open the Skim Coat Plaster CalculatorHandrail up the pitch, each rail counted
14.6–16 linear ft
14.6 at 5% cutting waste, 16 at 15%.
Open the Handrail Length CalculatorBalusters (spindles)
30–35 balusters
Spindles are bought whole and a split one is replaced. The flight is counted to the gap a landing is held to; the rules allow a slightly wider gap on a stair's open side, so a quote spaced to that, or counted against the newels' clear span, can show a spindle or two fewer. 30 net, 35 with 15% added.
Open the Deck Baluster CalculatorPainting and decorating (decoration): two paint coats, undercoat and gloss (trim enamel), on the strings and the apron
0.18–0.2 gal
Trim paint is bought by the tin, and brushing edges, mouldings and sashes loses more to the brush and the kettle than rolling a wall does. 0.18 net, 0.2 with 15% added.
Open the Woodwork Paint CalculatorSkip (dumpster) for what comes out
at least 3.06 yd³
The loose volume the waste takes up; the container quoted is at least this big, and a bigger one is a choice.
Open the Skip & Dumpster Size CalculatorDust sheets at the foot and the head
2 items
Worked out, not compared with a quote
Dust sheets and tape together, which a quote prices as preparation rather than listing.
Open the Masking and Protection Materials CalculatorRisers and treads, checked against the rules
14 risers
Worked out, not compared with a quote
The flight's risers and treads checked against the rules chosen: a stair maker's quote prices the flight as one piece, so the count is its geometry to read the drawing against, never a quantity.
Open the Stair Rise & Run Calculator
Plastering: skim, in patches
21–23 kg
21 at 5% waste allowance, 23 at 15%.
Open the Skim Coat Plaster CalculatorHandrail up the pitch, each rail counted
4.42–4.84 m
4.42 at 5% cutting waste, 4.84 at 15%.
Open the Handrail Length CalculatorPainting and decorating (decoration): two paint coats, undercoat and gloss (trim enamel), on the strings and the apron
0.65–0.75 L
Trim paint is bought by the tin, and brushing edges, mouldings and sashes loses more to the brush and the kettle than rolling a wall does. 0.65 net, 0.75 with 15% added.
Open the Woodwork Paint CalculatorSkip (dumpster) for what comes out
at least 2.24 m³
The loose volume the waste takes up; the container quoted is at least this big, and a bigger one is a choice.
Open the Skip & Dumpster Size CalculatorDust sheets at the foot and the head
2 items
Worked out, not compared with a quote
Dust sheets and tape together, which a quote prices as preparation rather than listing.
Open the Masking and Protection Materials CalculatorRisers and treads, checked against the rules
14 risers
Worked out, not compared with a quote
The flight's risers and treads checked against the rules chosen: a stair maker's quote prices the flight as one piece, so the count is its geometry to read the drawing against, never a quantity.
Open the Stair Rise & Run Calculator
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 Staircase replacement takeoff runs the same calculators on the same measurements and shows what sits under each line here.
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 staircase replacement job need?
- It depends on the measurements, so this page asks for yours. At the size it opens on — Floor of the hall and landing protected 12 m² · Rise, finished floor to finished floor 2.6 m · Going of each tread (its run) 0.26 m · Going of the whole flight (total run) 3.32 m · Width of the flight 0.9 m · Handrails on the flight 1 · Landing's open edge, guarded 0.9 m · Stairwell walls patched and skimmed 8 m² · Painted depth of a string, measured plumb 0.3 m · Loose waste, as a depth over the flight's plan 0.75 m — the lines come to: Plastering: skim, in patches, 21–23 kg; Handrail up the pitch, each rail counted, 4.42–4.84 m; Painting and decorating (decoration): two paint coats, undercoat and gloss (trim enamel), on the strings and the apron, 0.65–0.75 L; Skip (dumpster) for what comes out, 2.24 m³. In imperial units — Floor of the hall and landing protected 130 sq ft · Rise, finished floor to finished floor 8.5 ft · Going of each tread (its run) 10 in · Going of the whole flight (total run) 11 ft · Width of the flight 3 ft · Handrails on the flight 1 · Landing's open edge, guarded 3 ft · Stairwell walls patched and skimmed 86 sq ft · Painted depth of a string, measured plumb 11.8 in · Loose waste, as a depth over the flight's plan 2.5 ft — they come to: Plastering: skim, in patches, 46.2–50.6 lb; Handrail up the pitch, each rail counted, 14.6–16 linear ft; Balusters (spindles), 30–35 balusters; Painting and decorating (decoration): two paint coats, undercoat and gloss (trim enamel), on the strings and the apron, 0.18–0.2 gal; Skip (dumpster) for what comes out, 3.06 yd³.
- Which line on a staircase replacement quote varies the most?
- The Painting and decorating (decoration): two paint coats, undercoat and gloss (trim enamel), on the strings and the apron: 0.65–0.75 L for a job measured Floor of the hall and landing protected 12 m² · Rise, finished floor to finished floor 2.6 m · Going of each tread (its run) 0.26 m · Going of the whole flight (total run) 3.32 m · Width of the flight 0.9 m · Handrails on the flight 1 · Landing's open edge, guarded 0.9 m · Stairwell walls patched and skimmed 8 m² · Painted depth of a string, measured plumb 0.3 m · Loose waste, as a depth over the flight's plan 0.75 m, depending on how much is allowed for loss over the net figure, up to 15%.
- What does a staircase replacement quote often leave out?
- The reading names every line of the job that nothing on the quote reads as — any of the 5 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 4 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.