Doors, windows, and hardware takeoff

A single opening can be counted four different ways, and the right one depends on the scope being priced. The opening count is one number per door or window opening. It is the schedule quantity and the seed for everything downstream. The leaf count treats a pair of doors as two leaves and a single door as one leaf, so a pair is one opening but two leaves. The frame count is one frame per opening, though sidelights, transoms, and borrowed lights are usually separate frame and glazed-light items even though they share the opening. The hardware set is scheduled per opening, with each component enumerated inside the set.

Picking the wrong unit corrupts both the quantity and the cost basis it ties to. Door installation labour and hardware price per opening. Door slabs and paint price per leaf. Frames price per frame assembly. The schedule count seeds all of these, so it has to be unambiguous about which unit it represents. Stating the unit up front (opening, leaf, frame, or set) is the first decision in any door and window takeoff.

The schedule is the authoritative source for types and properties, and the tagged plan symbols are the authoritative source for the count of instances. Architects communicate each opening twice: as a symbol on the floor plan (a swing arc for a door, three thin parallel lines or a glazing rectangle for a window) and as a row in the schedule, tagged with a mark. These should agree but routinely do not. A plan symbol may be missing a tag, a schedule row may describe a demolished opening, or a by-others opening may appear on the plan but fall outside the priced scope.

The reconciliation is one-to-one: every tagged opening should appear once on the plan and once in the schedule. A mismatch is a flag to resolve, not a number to average. The schedule is the cross-check that catches double-swing pairs drawn as a single arc, mulled window assemblies drawn as one frame, and existing-to-remain openings that must be excluded. In the United States, tagging follows the National CAD Standard from NIBS. In the United Kingdom, RICS NRM2 requires door, window, and ironmongery schedules to accompany the bill of quantities.

Place one count per door opening, read from its swing arc or its sliding, pocket, or bifold symbol. A double door is two leaves but one opening, so the leaf-against-opening basis is a deliberate choice because the downstream consumer differs: slabs and paint want leaves, installation and hardware want openings. Whichever basis is chosen, the opening count should be reported alongside it so both consumers are served.

Do not count plain cased wall openings with no door, cabinet and casework doors (which belong to the joinery and casework scope), overhead and coiling doors unless they are in scope, or existing-to-remain doors when pricing new work. Group the count by material and type (hollow metal, wood, aluminium, fibreglass), by fire rating, by single against pair, and by glazed against solid, because a fire-rated opening is a different assembly that prices on its own basis. Bifold and closet pairs are easy to miscount: a bifold pair is one opening with two panels. Sidelights, transoms, and borrowed lights attached to a door opening are separate enumerated items with their own frame and glazing, not extra doors.

Place one count per window unit in an exterior wall, read from the glazing-rectangle or parallel-line symbol. A mulled or combination assembly that reads on the plan as one frame may be several scheduled units, so count the scheduled units and flag mulled assemblies, because one opening does not always equal one window. The window schedule is what disambiguates the assembly into its units.

Do not count doors, interior glazed partitions and borrowed lights (those are interior glazing, not windows), curtain-wall and storefront vision panels (those are measured by area on the elevation, in the glazing scope), or skylights and rooflights unless the scope includes them, in which case they are a separate schedule line. Group windows by operation type (fixed, casement, awning, double-hung, slider), by size, by material, by glazing make-up, and by egress against non-egress, since egress windows carry minimum clear-opening sizes set by the building code.

Frames, hardware sets, and per-leaf quantities all derive from the opening and leaf count rather than being taken off separately. Count one frame per opening, and enumerate combination frames (door plus sidelight plus transom) either as one assembly line or split into door frame, sidelight frame, and transom, following the specification. Knock-down against welded construction is a property and price attribute, not a change to the count, governed by ANSI/SDI A250.8 and ANSI/NAAMM HMMA 860. When a door leaf and its frame are different materials, such as a wood leaf in a hollow-metal frame, they are priced as separate cross-product items.

Fire-rated openings are grouped apart from non-rated openings in every region, because the rated assembly (door, frame, glazing, and hardware as a listed system) is a different product and price. The count of openings does not change when ratings are applied, only the grouping does. Rating buckets differ by region: the United States uses 20, 45, 60, 90, and 180 minutes under NFPA 80 and ANSI/UL 10C; the United Kingdom uses FD30, FD60, and FD90 under BS 476-22 and BS EN 1634-1; Australia uses fire resistance levels under AS 1905.1 tested to AS 1530.4; and New Zealand uses fire resistance ratings under NZS 4520. Smoke-rated, acoustic-rated, and security openings form their own additional groups beyond the fire rating.

Hardware is scheduled per opening, not per leaf, with each component enumerated inside the set (hinges, lock or latch, closer, exit device, stops, and seals). A single door takes one set; a pair takes one set that already contains the pair quantities, plus pair-only items such as an astragal, a coordinator, and flush bolts. The classic error is counting hardware once per type rather than per opening. Per-leaf hinge quantity derives from leaf height: by common commercial convention a standard leaf takes three hinges, rising to four over about 90 inches. For fire doors, NFPA 80 sets two hinges for a leaf up to 60 inches plus one more hinge for each additional 30 inches of height. The product standard ANSI/BHMA A156.1 grades the hinge but does not prescribe a count per height, so the standard-door convention and the fire-door clause are kept distinct.

The United States has no single legal method of measurement. CSI MasterFormat Division 08 organises the scope (metal doors and frames, wood doors, access panels, coiling doors, storefront, curtain wall, windows, door hardware, and glazing), and counting is convention-driven: the schedule governs, fire ratings are stated in minutes under NFPA 80 and the UL test standards, hardware sets follow the Door and Hardware Institute format, and hardware grades follow the ANSI/BHMA A156 series. Frame anchor quantities derive from the frame count and wall type at the spacing in ANSI/SDI A250.11.

The United Kingdom and Ireland are formal. RICS NRM2 sets out work sections for general joinery, windows and screens and lights, doors and shutters and hatches, and metalwork. Doors and windows are enumerated by number, ironmongery is enumerated and scheduled door by door, and fire ratings use the FD classifications. Canada is a hybrid: United States construction practice and MasterFormat with British-origin quantity-surveying enumeration, metric drawings, and imperial hardware.

Australia and New Zealand follow the quantity-surveying tradition and enumerate openings, with fire resistance levels in Australia under AS 1905.1 and fire resistance ratings in New Zealand under NZS 4520. In Germany, work under VOB/C uses DIN 18355 for joinery doors and windows and DIN 18357 for hardware mounting, with items enumerated as pieces and fire and smoke classification under EN 1634-1 and EN 13501-2. International harmonising baselines under ICMS and ISO enumerate openings and group them by type and by the EN 13501-2 fire classification as a common cross-border reference.

The takeoff runs in a fixed order. Detect the door swing and sliding symbols and the window glazing symbols on each plan and place one count per instance on the chosen leaf-against-opening basis. Read the door, window, and hardware schedules and reconcile them against the symbols, flagging missing tags, mulled assemblies, pairs drawn as a single arc, and existing or not-in-contract openings to exclude.

Then group the count by type, material, fire rating, single against pair, glazed against solid, and egress against non-egress, so each bucket prices on its own basis. Derive the frame count (per opening, with separate sidelight, transom, and borrowed-light frames), the hardware sets (per opening), and the per-leaf quantities for slabs, hinges, and paint from the count and the leaf basis. Apply any spares or attic-stock allowance only where the specification calls for it, treating it as an ordering uplift and never as a change to the measured count. Exayard reads the plan symbols and the schedules together and applies these counting and grouping rules to produce the enumerated quantity.