Craft Quantities
Plan & Takeoffs

By trade

Groundwork calculators

Groundwork is the one trade whose quantities change on the way out of the hole. A cubic metre of ground becomes more than a cubic metre of spoil, and less than a cubic metre of compacted fill, and an estimate that uses the same figure for the dig, the lorries and the backfill is wrong in three directions at once.

  • 41Calculators
  • 4Parts of the site

How groundwork is measured

Volume in the ground for the dig, volume in the lorry for the muck away, and compacted volume for the fill — three different numbers from one excavation, related by a bulking factor and a compaction factor that depend on the soil rather than on the shape. Stone and sand are then bought by weight, which needs a density the supplier quotes and the ground does not.

Where groundwork sits on this site41 across 4
41

Materials & Quantities25

Auto/Utility3

Landscaping & Outdoor1

Heavy Civil & Infrastructure12

What gets left off a groundwork order

  • The working space around a foundation, which is dug, carted and filled like everything else and appears on no drawing.
  • The difference between a lorry's volume and its payload: a load of wet clay reaches the weight limit long before the body is full.
  • Reinstatement over a service trench, which is a different build-up from the ground beside it and is usually specified by whoever owns the road.
  • Water. A trench that fills is a pump, a discharge point and a day, none of which come off a volume.

Job takeoffs8

Where groundworkers meet the rest of the job: each runs one of these calculators, with every other trade in the same job beside it.

Worked examples6

A real job estimated step by step, with this trade's steps counted.

Comparisons15

Two ways of doing the same work, weighed against each other.

Planners2

Work this trade out from a space rather than from a job.