Interior Finishing Takeoff ($249): Drywall, Taping and Painting Quantities and a Budget by Grade From Your House Plans, Ready to Send to Three Contractors

Drywall, Taping & PaintingTakeoff from plans

Interior Finishing Takeoff: Your Plans Measured, the Three Trades Quantified, and a Budget by Grade, Before Anyone Quotes

For a new house, an addition or a basement: the room-by-room sheet I would do for my own build, with the sheet count, the levels, the paint and the numbers, done on yours.

The drywall-and-paint line is the second-biggest finishing number in a house and the one most often quoted off a walk-through guess or an allowance. A takeoff is the measured alternative: every wall from both faces, every ceiling with its slope, the openings, the corners, the stairwell, by room, off the drawings, with the board, the levels and the paint quantified, and a budget at three grades. Hand it to three contractors and the quotes come back on the same page; hold it against a builder’s allowance and you know in a minute whether the number was honest.

Done by a Tarion-registered Ontario builder who has taken off a few hundred houses. Turnaround five business days from receiving the drawings.

What you get

Interior Finishing Takeoff
$249

One house or basement, from your plans. HST added at checkout.

  • Every room measured off the drawings: walls both faces, ceilings, openings, heights from the sections
  • Board schedule: thickness and type by location, Type X and MR where needed, sheets by wall length with waste
  • Finish levels by surface, corners counted, the stairwell and cathedral extras named
  • Painter’s quantities: wall and ceiling area by sheen, baseboard feet, openings, doors, gallons of primer and paint
  • A budget at builder, mid and premium grade at October 2026 Ontario rates, per trade and per square foot of floor
  • The twelve-line scope to send to three contractors so the quotes come back comparable
  • The allowance check, if there is a builder’s contract to hold it against
Order the takeoff
Drywall and Painting Quote Review
$99

Up to three quotes, plus your photos. HST added at checkout.

  • Every quote put on the same twelve-line grid, side by side
  • The square footage checked against your rooms: floor or wall, and by how much
  • The finish level, primer, products and coats each one actually promised, named or missing
  • What each one leaves out, in dollars: ceilings, trim, doors, Level 5, bead, delivery, dust control
  • The price per square foot checked against Ontario October 2026 rates
  • From your photos: which wall problems are taping, which are paint, and which are the house
  • A plain answer: sign this one, go back to that one with these questions, or walk
Order the quote review

Building new or finishing a basement? Read what the takeoff covers.

Houses over 4,000 sq ft, multi-unit buildings, and plans without sections or ceiling heights are quoted separately; email first. If the house ends up being built by ICFhome.ca, the takeoff fee comes off the contract.

How it works

  1. Order. Pay by card on the Stripe page; HST at checkout; receipt and a page telling you what to send.
  2. Send the drawings. Reply to the receipt with the plan set as a PDF: floor plans, sections (for the heights), elevations, and the room finish schedule if there is one. Say whether it is wood frame or ICF, which rooms get tile, and what you have already decided about levels, colours, doors and trim.
  3. Get the takeoff. Within five business days: a spreadsheet and a PDF. Rooms with areas, the board schedule and sheet count, finishing areas by level with corners, the painter’s quantities and gallons, the three-grade budget by trade and per square foot of floor, the twelve-line scope, and notes on anything in the plans that will cost more than it looks (the two-storey foyer, the cathedral, the bulkheads the mechanical drawings imply).
  4. Use it. Send the scope to three contractors. Compare on the grid. Or take it to the builder meeting and ask about the allowance.

What it is not

It is not a contractor’s quote; it is the thing a contractor’s quote should be checked against. The contractor’s site measure governs the contract. It is not an engineering review of the plans, a specification of fire-rated assemblies (those come from the designer and the building department), or an asbestos assessment of an existing house. It is a builder’s measured takeoff with a builder’s budget, which is what I would want before I signed anything with anyone.

What gets found, most sets

  • A ceiling height on the floor plan that disagrees with the section, by a foot, on every room upstairs.
  • A two-storey foyer that is 320 sq ft of wall at 18 ft on no one’s list, and the staging for it.
  • Cathedral ceilings measured flat, so the board is 20% short.
  • A mechanical layout that puts eleven bulkheads in a basement the drywall quote called “open”.
  • Garage separation with no board thickness called out anywhere on the set.
  • An allowance of $11 a square foot of floor on a house that measures at $21.

Before you order, the free version

The complete interior finishing calculator does this takeoff for rooms you type in, with the three grades and the per-square-foot number. If your plans are simple and you have an hour, that is the free version. If the house has a cathedral, a foyer, a basement with mechanicals, an allowance to check, or you want it on paper with a builder’s name on it, that is what the $249 is for.

Questions people ask

What format do the plans need to be in?

PDF, with floor plans and sections. Scanned paper plans are fine if the dimensions are readable. A sketch with room sizes and ceiling heights works for a basement.

Can you do just the basement?

Yes, and it is the commonest order: a basement plan with the mechanical layout, so the bulkheads and the furnace room get counted. Same price.

Will the contractors accept your takeoff?

They will measure the house themselves, as they should, and the good ones will be glad to have the same room list the other bidders have. Where they disagree with the areas, you will have a specific conversation instead of a vague one.

Does this cover trim, doors and flooring?

The painting of trim and doors, yes. The supply and installation of trim, doors and flooring are separate carpentry lines; the takeoff notes the baseboard footage and door count so those trades can use them too.

The document the quotes should start from

Every trade pricing the same house, from the same sheet, with a builder’s budget beside it. Five business days, $249.

Order the takeoff, $249The new-home guides