# Earthwork Take-off, how do you do yours?



## Little (Jul 22, 2006)

I have been using Paydirt Sitework Take-off program for around 4 years now and it does have some drawbacks. I've just recently been playing around with Carlson's sitework take-off program which utilizes CAD. So far i am not liking it too much. What are you guys using to do you take-offs?? Digitizing Contours sux, lol.


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## rino1494 (Jan 31, 2006)

Pencil, scale and calculator


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## Little (Jul 22, 2006)

Nice, lol. I haven't done take-offs by hand since i was in school. What size jobs are these??


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## rino1494 (Jan 31, 2006)

We typically do under $2 mil jobs. We are a small company and don't bid jobs everyday. If we get a $1 million job, that is 3 years work for us, plus we do about 30 houses a year.

Bidding jobs by hand works for us and we've never had any major problems with it. If it isn't broke, don't fix it, right ??


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## denick (Feb 13, 2006)

I sometimes wish our jobs had enough earthmoving to have to do takeoffs from plans. It's been years since we even had a contour map.


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## Little (Jul 22, 2006)

rino1494, nah rine thats cool, whatever works. When its bid time, man i do a serious amount of bids. This year i've done 81 so far, lol, but they aren't all for us, some for clients looking for a budget number. You do mostly residential?? Houses and stuff? We do mostly big Retail centers such as Lowes, Home Depot, Target, etc.


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## rino1494 (Jan 31, 2006)

That's cool, I would love to do a big job like that, but we are too small. There are only 4 of us, so we couldn't handle that size of a job. Well, we could, but it would just take to long. We do small commerical buildings, but our main work is doing residential housing developments. We got 4 of them to bid next year, but we can only handle 2 at the most, even then that is tough.


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## denick (Feb 13, 2006)

There seems to be quite a few systems out there though. Looking through just one magazine there was Carlson Takeoff, Quest, InSite SiteWork, Tally Systems and some other takeoff's that I don't know if they do earthwork.

What's it like to just do takeoffs and estimates all day?


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## Little (Jul 22, 2006)

O man it can get monotonous. I really don't need any more practice, hehe. Like i mentioned before, i really hate putting in the contours, your eyes are totally shot by the end of the day, which is why i've played around with this carlson for a bit, just use the CAD file and its there already, but that also has drawbacks. 

We have 1 huge job starting soon, and 3 or 4 smaller ones and i'll be taking one on down in Manalapan, finally be outta this office.


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## rd592 (Dec 19, 2006)

carlson takeoff is a really good program once you learn how to use it.

If you dont have the money for that program TDS foresight is another really good program and easy to use with a little traning and their tech. support is great, I thing it cost about 1500 dollars but i seen them for sale on ebay for less


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## Dirtguy (Dec 17, 2006)

We use AGTEK. We have been using it for the last 18 years. The software is pretty costly, but for the volume of work that goes through our estimating department it is worth it. The program allows us to takeoff projects straight from the ACAD file provided by the Engineer and download it to our GPS system that we use to stake horizontal and vertical control in the field. This year we are purchasing a machine control system from AGTEK that will allow us to perform rough and fine grading without ever having the need for one of our engineering crews to put a singe piece of wood in the ground. It is truly amazing how technology has changed our industry over the last 20 years!


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## denick (Feb 13, 2006)

Dirt Guy, Glad to have you aboard the site.

It sounds like you move quite a bit of dirt. Probably a lot more than there is here in CT to move in the whole state. 

I'd like to hear more about your operation if you've got the time.


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## Dozer Junky (Jan 4, 2007)

Dirtguy said:


> We use AGTEK. We have been using it for the last 18 years. The software is pretty costly, but for the volume of work that goes through our estimating department it is worth it. The program allows us to takeoff projects straight from the ACAD file provided by the Engineer and download it to our GPS system that we use to stake horizontal and vertical control in the field. This year we are purchasing a machine control system from AGTEK that will allow us to perform rough and fine grading without ever having the need for one of our engineering crews to put a singe piece of wood in the ground. It is truly amazing how technology has changed our industry over the last 20 years!


As dirtguy (aka "dirty-guy") says, we use some high powered software for takeoffs, but we also use a pretty high powered spreadsheet that he has developed over 15 years or so. Roughly 50 sheets make up the workbook and all sheets feed the a single "front page sheet". It is quite a work of earthwork estimating art! I took-off and 154 commercial jobs last year alone.:bangin:


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## jmic (Dec 10, 2005)

Sweet,
Who's doing the pounding and who is getting pounded on?:laughing:


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## Dozer Junky (Jan 4, 2007)

denick said:


> There seems to be quite a few systems out there though. Looking through just one magazine there was Carlson Takeoff, Quest, InSite SiteWork, Tally Systems and some other takeoff's that I don't know if they do earthwork.
> 
> What's it like to just do takeoffs and estimates all day?


I have a demo version of Carleson, and I've found it to be very survey/engineering oriented... not so great for a dumb dirt guy like me:confused1: !!!

I do take-offs and estimates all day too, but every now and then (once in a blue moon) they let me out of my cage to run some iron and it makes it ALL worthwhile!


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## Dozer Junky (Jan 4, 2007)

jmic said:


> Sweet,
> Who's doing the pounding and who is getting pounded on?:laughing:


I get pounded... Speaking of getting pounded, it's about happy hour time in TX...


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## jmic (Dec 10, 2005)

Have one for us, but drive safely.:thumbup:


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## jdaviau (Aug 17, 2007)

I use Quest's, Earthworks. It runs arounf $8k for the take-off software. I used to work for them as a trainer before going out on my own. Erathworks allows you to import CAD files, so you don't have to take off your contours. The only drawback, is the engineer has to input the info correctly or all your contours and spots will come in with a zero elevation. I imported a 44 acre site and inout all the areas, and had my totals in less then a half hour. Of course like every software there are limitations. I can also export my take-off to CAD and use it in and LM80.


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## ALSURVEYOR (Dec 29, 2008)

*Software interest*

I am a field engineer for a dirt moving contractor and we were using paydirt and due to the issue it's pretty much history. We have drawn our interest towards the program carlson takeoff and i am curious about your opinions of it and was wondering if any1 would have an interest in saleing a used copy of it


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## john1066 (Dec 26, 2007)

we use agtek for the same reason as dirt guy. its very easy to take the original cad file and put it into the gps also agtek is pretty easy to use.


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## Blas (Jan 29, 2008)

Dozer Junky said:


> I have a demo version of Carleson, and I've found it to be very survey/engineering oriented... not so great for a dumb dirt guy like me:confused1: !!!
> 
> I do take-offs and estimates all day too, but every now and then (once in a blue moon) they let me out of my cage to run some iron and it makes it ALL worthwhile!


 


Sounds like you and I have the same type of job. lol
I have a big demo coming up and can't wait to get out of this damn office.:laughing:

I use pay-dirt and terramodel. Pay dirt is quick and easy to use after You get used to it. Your eyes do get a little buggy after awhile though


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## mavdaddy21 (Jan 19, 2009)

*Takeoffs*

I own a company that does earthwork takeoffs for contractors using Agtek which does a really good job of producing accurate estimates based on the plans or Cad files.


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## denick (Feb 13, 2006)

Mavdaddy21,

Welcome to Contractor Talk. You should read the site rules about advertising before you post any further discussion. We enjoy new members and there seems like there may be a few that would like to discuss Estimating and Takeoff. Check the site address below.

www.contractortalk.com/f11/announcement-please-read-site-rules-instructions/


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## rino1494 (Jan 31, 2006)

mavdaddy21 said:


> I own a company that does earthwork takeoffs for contractors using Agtek which does a really good job of producing accurate estimates based on the plans or Cad files.


Just curious as to what state you live in ??


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## denick (Feb 13, 2006)

I live in a State of confusion. Mavdaddy21 lives in Dallas Texas I think by his info. Are you working today rino.


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## rino1494 (Jan 31, 2006)

denick said:


> I live in a State of confusion. Mavdaddy21 lives in Dallas Texas I think by his info. Are you working today rino.


Just wondering, because I live in Dallas, PA. 

Worked in the garage today. Changed the dump pump on the Autocar and tires on our trailer. I am almost done with a lot clearing job, but gonna wait till the temperature gets a little warmer.


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## denick (Feb 13, 2006)

Well I could very well be wrong. Wouldn't be the first and won't be the last time.


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## Excavator (Jan 27, 2009)

*It's Insite for Us*

On large projects usually over 10 Acres and 100,000 CY, we use _*Insite*_ that allows us to import and calculate the cut/fill balances _*paperless*_, without digitizing. We use the resultant quantities in our *Hard Dollar* generated proposal cost estimate. If awarded the work, we "dump" the files into our _*Carlson Site Manager*_ which allows complete the file "cleanup", create the model, and enable us to perform the cut/fill on the site with virtually no staking via GPS receivers on our heavy equipment.
(Recently, using paperless CAD import we had dirt quantities on a 60 acre site in less than 20 minutes)

Small site jobs we still use Insite, but we manually digitize the contours to get C/F balances and to quantify the 2D areas for grading, surfacing etc.


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## mavdaddy21 (Jan 19, 2009)

I'am located north of Dallas in Little Elm


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