The field area is the easy part of a below-grade takeoff. Walls are walls; slabs are slabs. The jobs that go sideways are the ones where the edges of the scope — the terminations, transitions, and accessories — never made it into the quantity column. Here's the checklist we run on every below-grade takeoff.
The checklist
- Terminations at grade. Termination bar, counterflashing, or sealant reglet — measured in LF, priced with fasteners and sealant. If the detail shows it, the takeoff carries it.
- Inside and outside corners. Most sheet systems want reinforcement or pre-formed pieces at every corner. Count them; don't average them.
- Penetrations. Every pipe, conduit bank, tieback, and form tie treatment. On a congested foundation, penetration details can be a bigger labor number than the field membrane.
- Waterstop. Construction joints, cold joints, pour breaks — walk the pour sequence, not just the plan. PVC, hydrophilic, or injectable hose all price differently.
- Protection board. It's rarely drawn but always required before backfill. Field area + laps, and note who backfills — your schedule depends on it.
- Drainage composite. Sheet drain SF, plus the fittings nobody draws: end caps, outlets, and connections to the footing drain.
- Detail strips and cants. Fluid-applied systems typically want detail coats at transitions — LF that consumes real material and real labor.
- Elevator pits and sumps. Small SF, brutal access, different system than the walls half the time. Price them as their own scope with their own production rate.
- Mockups and testing. Spec sections love flood tests, adhesion tests, and mockup panels. They're in Division 07 requirements even when they're not on the drawings.
- Substrate condition allowances. Honeycomb repair, form tie patching, laitance removal — decide what's included, and say so in the exclusions if it's not.
- Sequencing and remobilizations. Below-grade work follows the concrete. If the pour schedule means four wall pours, that's four mobilizations of detail work — not one.
- Blindside conditions. Shotcrete or soldier-pile walls flip the system and the labor model entirely. Confirm which walls are blindside before you price a single SF.
Make the checklist automatic
A checklist only works if it runs every time. That's the argument for estimating worksheets that carry the accessories with the system: when the deck coating worksheet knows every field SF drags primer, base, texture, and top coats with their own coverage and packaging — and the below-grade worksheet won't let field area exist without terminations — the "we missed the waterstop" conversation stops happening.
That's how Division 7 Estimating's worksheets are built. And if you'd rather have someone else run the checklist this week, our takeoff team starts at $150.