Craft Quantities
Plan & Takeoffs

By trade

Paving and surfacing calculators

A surface is the visible tenth of a paving order. What is under it — the sub-base, the bedding, the edge restraint holding it all in — is most of the material and all of the difference between a drive that lasts and one that ruts in a winter.

  • 39Calculators
  • 5Parts of the site

How paving and surfacing is measured

Compacted cubic metres or tonnes for the sub-base and bedding, tonnes for asphalt at a laid density, units per square metre for blocks at a pattern, and linear metres for edgings and kerbs. Compacted depth is not delivered depth, and the difference is ordered.

Where paving and surfacing sits on this site39 across 5
39

Materials & Quantities22

Auto/Utility9

Landscaping & Outdoor3

Sustainability & Compliance2

Heavy Civil & Infrastructure3

What gets left off a paving and surfacing order

  • Edge restraint and its haunching, without which block paving spreads — a linear concrete order inside a square-metre job.
  • Cutting waste on a pattern. Herringbone at 45° cuts every perimeter block and wastes noticeably more than a stretcher bond.
  • Jointing sand or mortar, and the topping-up it needs after the first rain.
  • Falls and where the water goes, which cannot be corrected afterwards without lifting the surface.

Job takeoffs3

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

Worked examples3

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

Comparisons11

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

Planners1

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