Part of the Project management glossary:

Take off, sometimes spelled as "take-off" or "takeoff," is a part of the cost estimating process in the construction industry. Estimators use construction blueprints, either manually or electronically, and start "taking off" quantities of items they will need from those blueprints in order to prepare part of the estimate. Examples of possible take offs include the number of light fixtures needed in the building plan or the amount of wiring needed for the electrical work.

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Take off happens in different ways: Some do manual takeoffs from field sketches, some do on-screen take offs using estimating software programs, and some use digitizers, which are electronic measuring devices that work on hard copy plans.

This was last updated in February 2008
Posted by: Margaret Rouse

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