How to price a cladding job from the drawings
Reza7 min read
To price a cladding job, use the elevations to find your finish codes, read the finish schedule for each material, check the wall types that carry it, then find those walls on the setout plans. Take lengths from the floor plans and heights from the sections, never from the elevations alone. Then price on your own rates.
Draft.This article hasn’t had its final edit yet, so treat anything specific in it as provisional.
The most common mistake I see in a cladding estimate is measuring everything off the elevations. They look like the obvious drawing to use. Your material is right there, and you can draw a box around it. But an elevation is a flat picture of the building, and a flat picture lies about anything that steps back, sits behind something else or turns an angle.
This is the order I work through a tender set as a facade estimator, and why each drawing is in it.
Which drawings do you need to price a cladding job?
You need six kinds of drawing, and each one answers a different question. No single sheet gives you an accurate quantity.
| Drawing | What you take from it | What it can't tell you |
|---|---|---|
| Elevations | Where your material is, and its finish code (for example MC1 or FC2) | True lengths, setbacks, hidden walls, angled walls |
| Finish schedule | What each code is: product, colour, finish, thickness | Where it goes or how much |
| Wall types | Which wall build-ups include your material, and what sits behind it | Which walls on the building use that type |
| Wall setout plans | Which walls carry each wall type | Heights |
| Floor plans | True lengths of walls, balustrades and pergolas | Heights |
| Sections | True heights, floor to floor, parapets, soffits and what sits behind the face | Lengths along the facade |
The length comes from the plan, the height comes from the section, and the elevation tells you where to look. Combine the two true dimensions and you have a quantity you can defend.
How do you measure cladding, step by step?
- Start on the elevations and find your codes. Mark every finish code that belongs to your scope. MC1, FC2, whatever the architect uses. Note which faces of the building each code appears on.
- Read the finish schedule for each code. This is where the code becomes a product: the material, colour, finish, thickness and sometimes the fixing. Two codes that look the same on the elevation can be two different products with two different rates.
- Check the wall types. Find every wall type that includes your material. The wall type tells you the build-up: the substrate, the subframe, the insulation, the cavity. That build-up is often where the real cost sits.
- Go to the wall setout plans. Find every wall marked with those wall types. Some walls carrying your material won't show clearly on any elevation, especially in courtyards, recesses and returns.
- Take the lengths from the floor plans. The plan shows each wall at its true length, including angled walls and walls that step in and out. Measure balustrades and pergolas here too.
- Take the heights from the sections. Floor to floor, slab edges, parapets, soffits and the top of the balustrade. Where the height changes along a wall, the section shows you where.
- Combine length and height per wall. Length from the plan times height from the section, wall by wall, then subtract the openings. Add waste once, at the end, not inside every measurement.
- Write down every assumption. Anything the drawings don't settle becomes a line in your inclusions and exclusions, or a question to the builder.
I still use the elevations at the end, as a check. If the elevation shows a panel I haven't measured, I've missed a wall.
Why is measuring from the elevations a mistake?
Because an elevation is a straight-on projection of the building, and three things go wrong in a projection.
Setbacks disappear. A wall that steps back two metres on level 4 sits in the same place on the elevation as the wall below it. The elevation doesn't show the return walls joining them, and those returns are cladding too.
Hidden walls are missing. A wall behind a balcony, in a courtyard or inside a recess may not appear on any elevation, or only in part. If you only measure what the elevation shows, you don't price it.
Angled walls read short. A wall drawn at 45 degrees to the elevation's line of sight shows at about 70% of its true length. The more the building turns, the more you under-measure. On a curved or faceted facade the error grows across every panel.
None of this is rare. Most of the buildings I price have at least one of the three.
How should you measure balustrades, pergolas and soffits?
Use the same rule: length from the plan, height from the section or the detail.
- Balustrades: the run length from the floor plan, following every corner and angle. The height and the fixing from the balustrade detail or the section.
- Pergolas and screens: the layout and lengths from the plan, the height and the blade or batten spacing from the detail.
- Soffits: the area from the plan of the level above, checked against the section for the depth and any bulkheads.
Where do cladding estimates usually go wrong?
Most money is lost in the gaps between steps, not in the arithmetic.
| Where it slips | What it looks like | What stops it |
|---|---|---|
| Measured off the elevations only | Setbacks, returns and angled walls under-measured | Lengths from the plans, heights from the sections |
| Code read without the schedule | Two similar codes priced as one product | Every code checked against the finish schedule |
| Wall type ignored | The subframe or insulation behind the panel left out | The build-up read from the wall types for each wall |
| Takeoff and price drift apart | A revised drawing re-measured, but the cost sheet keeps the old area | Priced lines that refer to named measurements |
| Margin applied by hand | Preliminaries added to some lines and forgotten on others | Waste, preliminaries and markup applied once across the job |
Can AI do the takeoff for you?
For internal plasterboard walls, or for counting fixtures, AI takeoff tools can save real time. For cladding, relying on AI alone is a mistake, because an accurate quantity needs the codes, wall types, lengths and heights combined from different drawings. Where AI does help a cladding estimator is reading the whole set first: matching codes to the schedule, finding inconsistencies and drafting the RFIs. I've written that up separately in AI and cladding takeoff: where it helps and where it doesn't.
Why should the measurements stay with the price?
Because the question you'll be asked six months from now is "what did you allow for?" Usually during a variation discussion, sometimes in a dispute. If the quantities sit in a separate file, you're rebuilding the answer from file dates.
In Subino the quantities are held against the scope they belong to, inside the revision you priced (measurements that stay with the price). Name a measurement once and every line built on it follows (how measurements work in a quantity). Last year's revision keeps the quantities it was actually priced against.
How do you turn the quantities into a price?
- Break the facade into scopes. One per system: the panel cladding, the subframe, the flashings, the soffits, any alternative the builder asked for.
- Price each line on your own rates. Labour, material, subbie and hire, under your own cost codes. Start each scope from a template of a job you've done before (start a scope from a template).
- Apply waste, preliminaries and margin once, across the lot (set the job's margin and preliminaries). The cost sheet does this for every line.
- Ask your own history when you're unsure of a rate. Subino's rate finder searches every line you've priced and shows the rate on each job that carried it (what did we charge last time?).
- Send the proposal from the revision you priced. A branded PDF built from the estimate, not retyped from it (proposals). Put your assumptions in the inclusions and exclusions.
When you win, the estimate becomes the budget without retyping (win it, and the estimate is the budget). One system for the job, from the tender to the last claim. The features page has the rest of the tender side, and pricing shows what each plan includes.
If you want to see it on a job you've already priced, book a 15-minute demo and bring the drawings.
Frequently asked questions
Can I measure cladding from the elevations alone?
No. An elevation is a flat projection, so it hides setbacks, leaves out walls that sit behind other parts of the building, and shows an angled wall shorter than it really is. Use the elevations to find where your material is, then take the lengths from the floor plans or wall setouts and the heights from the sections.
Which drawings do I need to price a cladding job?
The elevations, the finish schedule, the wall types, the wall setout plans, the floor plans and the sections, plus the specification and any facade details. Each one answers a different question: where the material is, what it is, what it is fixed to, which walls carry it, how long they are and how high they go.
How do I measure balustrades and pergolas?
Take the length from the floor plan, where the run is drawn true to size, and the height from the sections or the balustrade details. On an elevation a balustrade that turns a corner or follows an angled edge reads shorter than it is.
Can AI do the takeoff for a cladding job?
Not on its own. An accurate cladding takeoff needs lengths, heights and codes combined from several drawings, and that is where AI takeoff tools go wrong. AI is very useful for reading the whole set, matching codes to the finish schedule, finding inconsistencies and drafting RFIs before you measure. We cover that in our article on AI and cladding takeoff.
How do I stop a revised drawing breaking my price?
Start a new revision instead of overwriting the old one, and keep quantities as named measurements that the priced lines refer to. Change the measurement once and every line built on it follows, while the earlier revision keeps the quantities it was actually priced against.