Guides

Plain-English guides to PDF takeoff and estimating for UK construction, from the team that builds Kestrel™ and uses it on live jobs.

Takeoff basics 3 guides

The four things you measure, and how they become a priced Bill of Quantities.

Set the scale, then measure lengths, areas and counts, ready to price.

Measuring on a PDF versus a scale rule: speed, accuracy and audit trail.

What the bill is, what the units nr, m, m2 and m3 mean, and how it is structured.

The full method, step by step, from drawings to a priced bill.

What the priced lines look like, and how they total up.

All 41 sections in order, and how they group into families.

What changed, why NRM2 replaced it, and which to measure to today.

What to add between a measurement and a bill line, and how to do it in Excel.

Materials, labour, preliminaries, overheads, profit and contingency.

Published UK prices for seven tools, and the six that publish none.

Where AI genuinely helps, and what bring-your-own-key means.

An honest look at the main tools, and how to choose for your work.

A UK, NRM2-native takeoff tool at a fraction of the annual cost.

Built for takeoff to a priced NRM2 bill, not just markup.

What changes day to day, and how to run the two alongside each other.

What a small firm actually needs, without the enterprise bulk.