For framers, builders and lumber dealers
Lumber takeoff and framing estimating services
Every stud, joist, rafter, beam and sheet taken off the framing plans and turned into an order list a lumber yard can price the same day.
- By size, length and grade
- Board feet calculated
- 24 to 48 hours
In short
What a lumber takeoff covers
A lumber takeoff is a measured list of every piece of wood a building needs: studs, plates, posts, beams, headers, joists, rafters, blocking and sheathing, with the hardware that connects them. Walls are measured by stud size and height, and floors and roofs by member, spacing and length. MassBid Estimation prepares lumber takeoffs and framing estimates for framing contractors, home builders and lumber dealers, converted into an order list with species, grade, stock length and board feet, typically in 24 to 48 hours.
- Scope
- Wall, floor and roof framing, beams and posts, sheathing, blocking, stairs and hardware
- CSI division
- 06 Wood, Plastics and Composites: 06 10 rough carpentry, 06 17 engineered lumber
- You send
- Floor plans, structural framing plans and details, wall sections and the framing schedule
- You get
- Marked-up framing plans, a lumber order list in board feet and a priced estimate
- Turnaround
- 24 to 48 hours on most projects
- Checked by
- A separate QA team, twice on every job
- Coverage
- All 50 states, priced to the project's ZIP code
- Quote
- Free, usually back in about 20 minutes
Tuesday · 7:15 AM
The second load is on the truck. The framers are already asking where the hangers are, and the 14-foot posts came as tens.
A framing package is hundreds of lines, and every one has a size, a length and a count. Get the total board footage roughly right and the job still stops if the wrong lengths arrive, because a wall that needs fourteen-foot posts cannot be built from ten-foot ones.
Most lumber lists are still made by scaling the plans and applying a rule: so many studs per foot of wall, so many sheets per hundred square feet. The rules work on a simple house. On a building with shear walls, demising walls, drop beams and three plate heights, they leave a builder short of exactly the pieces that take longest to get.
Four ways a lumber list costs money
01 · The wall types
Every wall counted as the same wall
Exterior, demising, shaft and staggered-stud walls use different studs, plates and spacing. A studs-per-foot rule treats them as one and misses on all of them.
What changes
Walls are measured by type, stud size and plate height, each on its own line.
02 · The lengths
The right board feet in the wrong lengths
A total without lengths cannot be ordered. Joists that span twelve feet and posts that stand fourteen have to arrive as that stock, or the crew waits.
What changes
Each member is listed with its length and converted to the stock length to buy.
03 · The engineered pieces
Beams, headers and PSL left for later
Drop beams, LVL and PSL headers and long-span joists often have lead times of their own. Leaving them off the first order delays the floor above.
What changes
Posts, beams and headers are counted piece by piece from the structural plans, with species and grade.
04 · The hardware
Hangers, hold-downs and straps missing
Connectors are on the structural details and schedules, not the framing plan. A lumber list made from the plans alone has no hardware on it at all.
What changes
Hangers, hold-downs, straps and connectors are counted from the plans and schedules as their own lines.
Then and now
What has changed in lumber takeoffs
A lumber list used to be a stud count, a sheet count and a waste percentage. Four things have made that too rough to build from.
Framing is engineered now
LVL and PSL beams, I-joists, shear walls and hold-downs are ordinary on houses and standard on multi-family. A framing plan now comes with a structural set that has to be read alongside it.
Lumber prices swing
Since 2020, framing lumber and panel prices have moved far more sharply than builders were used to. Quantities have to stand on their own so they can be repriced on the day of the order.
Wood is building bigger
Three, four and five-story wood-framed apartment buildings are common. They bring demising walls, shaft walls, fire-rated assemblies and repeated units, where one error is multiplied by every unit.
The takeoff is done on screen
Walls are traced and members counted on the PDF in a color for each type. Every line of the order list points back to a mark on the plan that the framer can check.
Real framing work
Sample lumber takeoffs and framing estimates
Pages from finished jobs: a three-story multi-unit residential building and a single-family renovation and addition, both in California. Client names, addresses and title blocks are removed; the quantities are as delivered. Click any page to enlarge.
Wall framing
Stud wall takeoff by wall type for a multi-unit building
Protects you fromOne studs-per-foot rule for five kinds of wall.
Floor framing
Floor framing takeoff: joists, beams, posts, blocking and sheathing
Protects you fromA floor system ordered without its beams.
Roof framing
Roof framing takeoff: rafters, blocking, connectors and sheathing
Protects you fromSheathing figured from the floor area below.
Lumber order list
Lumber order list with species, grade, stock length and board feet
Protects you fromA yard quoting from a list it has to interpret.
Every estimate is built to the client's own specification, so yours may be laid out differently. To see a past project in your own trade, ask for an example. Examples are finished work for other projects, not an estimate of yours; for pricing on your own job, send the framing plans for a free quote.
A real framing package
Lumber and framing cost for a multi-unit building
Line totals from one finished framing estimate: a three-story multi-unit residential building in California.
Material came to $103,422 and labor to $92,275 over about 1,513 man-hours, and the proposed amount was $264,005 after sales tax, labor burden, overhead and profit, bonding and contingency. The rows below are a sample of the full list; among them, floor joists and six-by-six posts are the largest.
Figures are from the delivered estimate, rounded to the dollar. Line totals are material plus labor before markups. They are specific to that project and are shown to illustrate how a framing estimate is broken down, not as a price guide.
Real jobs, not a price list. Each figure comes from one project, priced for its own ZIP code and that client's wages, overhead and profit. Prices change by region and over time. Yours will be priced for your location.
| Member | Quantity | Material | Labor | Line total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6x6 DF #1 post, 10'-0" | 112 EA | $8,154 | $2,212 | $10,365 |
| 6x10 DF #1 beam, 10'-8" | 27 EA | $3,601 | $632 | $4,233 |
| 5-1/4 x 11-7/8 PSL drop beam, 23'-8" | 1 EA | $675 | $42 | $716 |
| 6x10 DF #1 header, 8'-3" | 9 EA | $928 | $163 | $1,091 |
| 2x10 DF #2 joist at 16" o.c., 12'-0" | 284 EA | $8,793 | $3,739 | $12,531 |
| 2x10 rim board, 10'-0" | 24 EA | $620 | $264 | $884 |
| 2x10 blocking at 24" o.c., 16" | 121 EA | $415 | $176 | $591 |
| 2x8 DF #2 rafter at 24" o.c., 12'-0" | 113 EA | $2,983 | $1,339 | $4,322 |
Building somewhere else? See figures from jobs in Texas, California, Florida and other service areas.
Full sample
Read a full sample, page by page
Lumber takeoff, from a finished job: a multi-story residential building, 31,200 sq ft in Colorado. Open it full screen, scroll through all 8 pages and zoom in on any line.
This is one real job, shown as an example. It was built to that client's own specification: their wage rates, labor style, type of pricing, and overhead and profit. Prices also change by region and over time, so yours will be priced for your location.
Want a current sample in your own trade or specialty, or have a question? Use the contact form, email [email protected] or call (832) 356-4237.
Who it is for
Lumber takeoffs for framers, builders and lumber dealers
Framing contractors
A takeoff and a priced estimate with labor hours for each member, so the bid and the order come from the same numbers.
Residential estimatingHome builders
A framing package for the house you are building, by floor, with the hardware included and the lengths ready to order.
GC estimatingLumber dealers and yards
Quantities only, in an order list with species, grade, stock length and board feet, so you can quote the builder the same day.
Supplier takeoffsMulti-family developers
Wood-framed apartment buildings taken off unit by unit and floor by floor, with demising and shaft walls separated.
Commercial estimating
Framing scopes we take off
- Wall framing and plates
- Floor joists and I-joists
- Roof rafters
- Posts and columns
- Beams and headers
- LVL, PSL and glulam
- Wall, floor and roof sheathing
- Blocking and rim board
- Stair framing
- Hangers, hold-downs and straps
- Decks and exterior framing
Pricing data
Where the prices come from
Quantities are priced from our own pricing database, built with local vendors across the United States. The estimator enters the project's ZIP code and gets current material prices for that market.
Material prices change from region to region and from month to month, so a price book or a national average is out of date before the bid goes in.
Priced by ZIP code
Current local material prices for the place the job is built, not a national average.
Updated by vendors
Local vendors update their prices in the database as they change.
Labor as you bid it
Union, open shop, or Davis-Bacon and prevailing wage rates with fringes.
How it works
From framing plans to a lumber order list
Send the plans
Architectural floor plans, structural framing plans and details, wall sections, the framing schedule, and your own template or order format.
Free quote
We review the set and reply with a quote and a delivery date, usually within about 20 minutes.
Take off, convert and two QA reviews
Walls, floors and roof are taken off member by member and converted to stock lengths and board feet. A separate QA team checks the quantities, then the priced estimate.
Delivery and revisions
The marked-up plans, order list and estimate typically arrive within 24 to 48 hours. Plan revisions are handled free, with no time limit.
The work is done in-house by more than 20 estimators, typically with 7 to 10 years of industry experience.
What it costs
Lumber takeoff prices
- Single house or addition
- From $199. Simple scopes typically run $100 to $250.
- Multi-unit and larger buildings
- Typically $200 to $500. Large or complex buildings are quoted individually.
- Monthly plan
- From $1,499 for 10 to 15 projects, for dealers and framers who quote every week.
Every job is quoted individually from the drawings, and the quote is free. See all pricing
After delivery
An editable Excel workbook and free revisions
- Formulas built in
An Excel workbook you can change yourself
The estimate arrives as an editable Excel workbook with the formulas built in. Change a quantity, a rate or a markup and every total follows. Move overhead and profit from 25% to 30% and the whole bid recalculates on the spot.
- No waiting
Adjust your bid at the last minute
If something changes just before the deadline, you do not have to send the estimate back and wait. Open the workbook, change the number and submit. The control stays with you.
- Priority turnaround
Free revisions, with no limit
Addenda, scope changes and pricing updates are all free, however many times you come back, and there is no time limit. Revisions are handled on priority and typically come back within an hour to a few hours.
Questions
Lumber takeoff FAQ
It is a measured list of all the wood a building needs, taken from the drawings: studs, plates, posts, beams, headers, joists, rafters, blocking and sheathing, with the framing hardware. Each line has a size, a length and a quantity, so the list can be priced and ordered.
Wall framing by stud size, wall type and plate height; floor and roof framing by member, spacing and length; posts, beams and headers counted piece by piece; sheathing by area; blocking, rim board and stair framing; and hangers, hold-downs, straps and connectors from the structural details.
Yes. Each member is converted to the stock length to buy, and board feet are calculated as thickness in inches times width in inches times length in feet, divided by twelve. On one building we took off, 284 two-by-ten joists in 12-foot stock came to 5,680 board feet.
Yes, where the structural drawings give them. The order list carries species and grade for each member, for example Douglas fir-larch No. 1 for posts and beams and No. 2 for joists, along with engineered members such as PSL and LVL by their size.
Yes. Hangers, hold-downs, straps and connectors are counted from the framing plans and the structural schedules and listed on their own lines, because a lumber list made from the plans alone will not include them.
Waste is applied at the percentage you choose and shown as its own column or line, so the measured quantity and the order quantity can both be seen. If you give no figure, the takeoff states the factor it used.
A single house or addition starts at $199, and simple scopes typically run $100 to $250. Multi-unit and larger buildings typically run $200 to $500, and large or complex buildings are quoted individually. The quote is free and usually comes back in about 20 minutes.
Yes. This page shows a full sample from a finished job (lumber takeoff, for a multi-story residential building, 31,200 sq ft in Colorado), which you can open full screen and read page by page. It was built to that client's own specification, so the wage rates, pricing and overhead and profit are theirs. Ask us for a current sample in your own trade.
From our own pricing database, built with local vendors across the United States. An estimator enters the project's ZIP code and gets current material prices for that market, and vendors update their prices as they change. Labor is priced as union or open shop, or at Davis-Bacon rates with fringes on government work.
Yes. The estimate is delivered as an editable Excel workbook with the formulas built in. Change any quantity, rate or markup and the whole estimate recalculates. If overhead and profit was set at 25% and you want 30%, change that one cell and every total updates, so you can adjust your number minutes before the bid is due without sending it back to us.
As many as you need. Every revision is free, including addenda, scope changes and pricing updates, however many times you come back, and there is no time limit. Revisions are handled on priority and are typically returned within an hour to a few hours, depending on the size of the change.
Yes. Many dealers send a builder's plans and receive quantities only, in their own order format, so they can price the package from their own book and quote the builder quickly.
Because a framing takeoff is slow, exact work, and a dealer or framer usually needs it the same week the plans arrive. Outsourcing gives them a checked list in a day or two and lets them quote more jobs with the same staff.
Related services and service areas
Have plans to frame? Send them.
Free quote in about 20 minutes. A lumber takeoff, order list and framing estimate typically in 24 to 48 hours, built to your format, with free revisions with no limit. Based in Houston and taking off framing in all 50 states.