The 4 Fundamentals of Spot-On Brick Takeoffs

I’ve put together this 4 ½ minute “How-To” style video demonstrating a ridiculously simple way to get spot-on brick takeoffs.

I’ll show you a few tricks I’ve learned that really simplifies how to measure plans for brick takeoffs, that has a reliable waste factor automatically included.

As estimators, there’s actually just a few formulas we use to get brick order quantities from our plan measurements. I’ll show you the formulas I use when doing takeoffs by hand. Then, I’ll show-off my “Excel Formulas for Brick Takeoffs” spreadsheet (which I’ll send you for free if you want it), that does these calculations for you.

SEND ME THE SPREADSHEET

One thing we’ve learned in this profession … there’s no estimator alive that can match the speed and consistency of well written Excel formulas.

You might be wondering why I’m sharing my estimating tricks and Excel spreadsheet for free.

There’s a few reasons, but here’s the main one. I believe there’s a lot of us estimators that may be doing brick takeoffs, and have never been taught the four fundamental skills of estimating brick. BTW - I teach these in the video.

Do this next time you’re out in the field. Do you see takeoffs that are consistently accurate, from house to house? Or do you see this:

If I were to guess, I’d say this house came up 5 cubes short on brick:

Or worse, I counted 9 cubes of brick left over on this one.

I say “worse”, because the builder probably paid-out an extra 900 square feet of labor, too – in addition to the boat-load of extra brick.

Now, I’m certainly not here to blast estimators. I’ve had my share of takeoff errors over the past 30+ years in this profession.

What’s amazing is how we’re able to do what we do … despite the impossible deadlines and constant interruptions as we measure, count and calculate the thousands of components in every home. Nothing short of impressive, in my opinion.

I really enjoyed putting together this How-To video and spreadsheet. If you want the “Excel Formulas for Brick Takeoffs” spreadsheet for free, just click the link below and tell me where to send it.

CLICK HERE FOR THE FREE EXCEL SPREADSHEET

To Your Continued Success,

John Salmons