What this trade needs you to recognise
Your starting focus is member sizes, spacing, openings, sheathing and connectors. Before taking responsibility for an issue, show your reviewer that you can trace quantities to the documents, distinguish measured work from allowances and explain unresolved scope.
Day 1 / Set up a controlled handoff
Agree the project code, work package, delivery date, region, units, time zone and named reviewer. Confirm software access using your own authorised account. Use one shared drawing register and one current estimate folder. Keep working copies separate from issued estimates.
Request architectural and structural plans, framing schedules, sections and connection details. Record revisions and addenda individually. If a required document is missing, log it before measuring. Access to a folder does not mean its contents are the current tender set.
Day 2 / Map the scope before the takeoff
Write an inclusion list and a list of interfaces with other trades. Link each material or assembly to its schedule or specification reference. Mark unclear boundaries as questions with an owner and deadline. The reviewer should be able to see what you intend to price before you build a large workbook.
Day 3 / Make the quantities traceable
Group framing by floor, wall and roof. Trace member sizes and spacing to the drawings. Separate sheathing, blocking, hardware and engineered members rather than burying them in a lumber total.
Use consistent item codes and units. Keep the measured quantity separate from waste or other adjustments so another estimator can reproduce the calculation. Save marked plans and identify the drawing reference on each worksheet group.
Day 4 / Price the defined scope
Confirm engineered-product quotes, connector scope, temporary works, lifting access and waste assumptions. Carry unresolved structural information as a question rather than designing a member.
Use current supplier quotes, agreed company rates or another explicitly approved pricing source. Record the source, date, currency, delivery assumptions and expiry. Show labour basis, allowances and unresolved figures separately. Never turn a calculator’s planning range into a supplier quote.
Day 5 / Review a supervised assignment
Practice brief: A small framed addition with a window change and an engineered beam supplied by others.
Use an authorised training or redacted project set. Submit marked plans, quantities, pricing sources, assumptions, exclusions and open RFIs. Reconcile member counts to spacing, review openings and blocking, and confirm the beam and hardware boundaries against the scope sheet. The reviewer records corrections and decides which responsibilities can be delegated next; finishing a checklist alone is not approval to issue a tender.
Choose how the work will be delivered
- App only: use the existing ballpark calculator to explore a planning scenario. Its output is not a completed trade takeoff.
- App plus human: include the app assumptions in a brief for an experienced estimator to review against documents.
- Human only: brief an estimator directly and agree the takeoff method, workbook format, review and issue process.
Compare the three service routes and request scope review. Availability, fees, turnaround and the responsible estimator are confirmed before work is agreed.
Your reusable starter pack
Download the Framing & carpentry starter pack
Includes a first-week checklist, sample assignment, scope checklist and estimate-review template. Copy it into your own project controls, then adapt it to the agreed documents and scope.
Before registration
Prepare relevant past estimating experience and a redacted example of work you may share. Start your EyeSpyR review, then follow the estimator admission steps. A submitted reference remains unverified until checked. No automatic verification or immediate work allocation is promised.