Doors and windows: 4 count checks before pricing

Key takeaways

• Count from selected sheets to avoid marking the same opening twice.
• Compare your own tally with the tool's page and Space totals.
• Check appearance, units, and opening sizes before carrying totals into the estimate.
• Rerun the checks when a counted sheet changes.

Doors and windows look simple to count, and that is why they cause trouble. The same opening may appear on a floor plan and again on an elevation. A symbol may land on top of another one. A click may go on the wrong sheet. When the total goes into a bid, someone may ask how you got it, and "I counted them" is not an answer that holds up.

Estimators who count openings from a PDF plan need a total they can defend, not just a total. This post is for that situation. You have the plan open, the count is in progress, and you need to know that the number holds before it becomes part of a price. The steps below are meant to be done while you work, not after the number is already in the estimate.

This post gives you 4 checks to run on a PDF takeoff before you price the work. The examples come from Bluebeam's documentation for its Count tool, so the menu names and settings are Bluebeam's. Other takeoff software may work differently. The logic of the checks carries over anyway: mark each item once, reconcile your totals, confirm your settings, and compare the openings against the sizes you expect.

Check 1: Mark each door and window exactly once

Bluebeam says its Count tool lets you track the number of specific items in a PDF by placing a symbol each time you click. That is the heart of the method. Each symbol is one item you counted, so the total is only as good as the clicks behind it. The instructions include the step Select each object in the PDF you want to count. Before you start, decide which objects are doors and which are windows, then mark them in an order you can repeat.

Work in a fixed order. Pick a direction, such as left to right across a floor, and finish one area before you start the next. Jumping around the plan makes it easy to lose your place, and that is how an opening gets skipped or marked twice.

Where the set allows it, count one type at a time. Make one pass for doors and a separate pass for windows, so you never have to track two kinds of opening at once. Your worksheet from check 2 can then carry one block for each type, and each block can be reconciled on its own.

If you come back to a file after a break, look at the existing marks on each page before you add anything. A session break is an easy place to lose track of where you stopped, and a page you think is empty may already carry marks from earlier work.

Double counting can come from several places in a drawing set. Watch for these:

• The same opening drawn on a floor plan and again on an elevation or section.
• Openings near the edge of a sheet, when the drawing continues onto another sheet.
• Detail sheets that show a door or window at a larger scale.
• A sheet that appears more than once in the set.

Each of these is a reason to write down your sources. Note which sheets you counted from, and count an opening on one sheet only, even when it is drawn on several. A count you can defend names where each item came from. Zoom in on each area as you finish it, because a symbol sitting under another one is easy to miss at full-page zoom.

A double count is the mistake this whole post is built around. If you find one, do not just subtract a number from the total. Find the two marks, decide which one stays, and remove the other, so the marks on the page match the total you carry forward.

Check 2: Reconcile the running totals by page and by Space

Bluebeam explains that unlike Sequences in the Tool Chest, Count markups are grouped in the Markups list and maintain a running total per page or Space. That running total is useful only if you compare it with something you made yourself. Keep a short worksheet, on paper or in a spreadsheet, with one line for each page. As you count, write your own tally on that line. When you finish the page, compare your tally with the running total the tool shows for that page.

If you use Spaces, do the same for each Space. Check that each Space total matches your notes for that area. If a page total and a Space total disagree, find out why before you move on. Counts are whole items, so there is no rounding to blame. The difference may point to a mark assigned to an unexpected page or Space, or an opening that was marked twice.

Treat a mismatch as a problem with the marks, not with the arithmetic. Go back to that page, look at each symbol, and find the one that explains the gap. Then update your worksheet so the two numbers agree for a reason you can state in one sentence. If you cannot state the reason, keep looking before you price anything from that page.

The worksheet also makes a good record for the person who reviews your bid. It shows what you expected on each page, what the tool showed, and how you resolved any difference between them. Keep it with the takeoff file, not in your head.

Write the page name and the date next to each tally. When a question comes back weeks later, you can see which version of the plan the count reflects, and you can tell whether a later change explains a different number.

Write down the cause of every difference you resolve, even the small ones. A short list of causes, kept with the bid, shows which kinds of mistake showed up on this job, so the next takeoff can check for them first.

Illustrative example: Resolve a count mismatch

Suppose your page tally shows 50 doors, but the tool shows 60. Inspecting the marks reveals 10 duplicate marks. Remove those duplicates and confirm that the tool now shows 50, matching your tally. Record the cause beside the page total and keep the corrected marks with the takeoff file.

Check 3: Confirm the Count markup settings before you total

Confirm the Count markup's appearance in the Properties panel and its units in the Properties toolbar before you trust the total.

Bluebeam notes that you can open the Properties panel to adjust how the Count markup appears. Use that to give doors and windows different looks, so you can tell the two types apart on screen. Keep the scheme simple: one style for doors, one for windows, and the same style applied to every page of that type. Write the scheme down so you can set up the next project the same way.

Units come next. Bluebeam's page says that you can also use the Units dropdown in the Properties toolbar to define measurement units. Set the units before you start counting, not after. If you change them partway through a set, check the measurements you already recorded and confirm they are in the units you intend to price in. A mixed set of units is hard to catch once the numbers have moved into an estimate.

Before you move on, click a few of the markups at random and check that each one carries the type you intended. This takes only a minute, and it catches a door marked as a window or a window marked with the door's style before those labels spread through the rest of your count.

Last, check that your settings are the same on every page you counted. A page counted under one setup and another page counted under a different setup can look right on its own and still be hard to compare in the total. Make the settings uniform first, then count the remaining pages.

Once the settings work, write them down as a starting point for the next takeoff, so you do not rebuild them under deadline pressure. Record in the bid file which settings you used, so a reviewer can see the same setup you did.

Check 4: Compare each uniform opening against its expected size

Bluebeam notes that counts can also be defined as having dimensions, allowing for convenient measurements of uniformly dimensioned elements like doors and windows. Define dimensions for a group of identical openings and check those dimensions against the drawings. Do this for each type separately. Doors and windows should each have their own total, their own size check, and their own line in your file.

This is the check that catches a mislabel. If a symbol you marked as a door has dimensions that disagree with the door shown, check its type and assigned dimensions. The total would still look reasonable, and the error would only show up when someone checks the sizes against the openings themselves.

Sizes matter for the bid as well as the count, because a mislabel that stays in the total goes into the estimate with it. If the sizes for one type agree with your list and the other type does not, look at the disagreeing type first.

Where your project documents include a door or window list with sizes, compare that list with the sizes you measured. If the two do not match, find out which one is right before the bid goes out. A mismatch may come from a mislabeled symbol, a sheet you read at the wrong scale, or a list that is out of date. Each of those has a different fix, so do not change the count until you know which one applies. For the scale check, see takeoff scale setup and stated limits.

If you cannot find any size reference for an opening, say so in your bid file. An unverified size is still useful information, as long as the file shows that it has not been checked against a second source.

When the plan changes

Rerun the checks on any page that changes, rather than adjusting the total by hand.

A revised sheet can make a bid total go stale, and a hand adjustment is hard to trace later. When a revised sheet arrives, compare it with the version you counted. Look for openings that moved, openings that were added, and openings that were removed. Mark each change on the revised sheet, then run checks 1 through 4 on that page again. Update the page line in your worksheet and carry the new page total into the file.

Do not assume that a change on one sheet leaves the others alone. An opening may appear on a floor plan and again on a detail or elevation. If you changed one and not the other, your reconciliation in check 2 should catch the gap, so rerun it for the whole set.

Keep the old version of each count, even after you update it. If a question comes up later about why a total moved, the earlier count shows what was counted at each stage.

Tell the people who depend on the count which page changed and what moved. A short message with the page name, the change, and the new total saves a round of questions and keeps everyone working from the same number.

What to put in the bid file

Put the total, the sheets it came from, the page and Space breakdown, and the Count settings in the same file you use for pricing.

A defensible total is one you can trace from the bid number back to each marked item on each page. The file should let a reviewer follow that path without asking you to explain it. Include the list of sheets from check 1, the worksheet from check 2, the settings from check 3, and the size comparison from check 4. Keep doors and windows on separate lines, so a question about one type does not send the reviewer through the other. Use the construction estimate audit when reviewing the wider estimate.

Write a short note at the top of the file that says what the count covers. State which sheets were included, which were left out, and why. This note matters most when someone else prices the job, because it tells them what the total already accounts for.

When someone asks how the total was reached, answer from the file rather than from memory. Walk them from the total to the worksheet, then to the sheet and the marks behind it. If a step is missing when you do this, the gap is in the file, and the file is what needs fixing before the bid goes out.

Your next step today

Open a page you have counted and compare your own tally with its running total. Resolve any mismatch at the marks, then record the cause in your bid file before pricing that page.

Questions about counting doors and windows

Should I count an opening again on an elevation?

Count each opening only once, even when it appears on several sheets. Record which sheet you used.

What should I do when a sheet changes?

Compare the revised sheet with the counted version and rerun the checks on that page. Keep the earlier count so you can explain the change later.