Millwork and casework takeoff

Running trim (base, casing, crown, chair rail, panel mould) is a length quantity, in linear feet imperial or linear metres metric. Every standard agrees on the unit. The work is in deciding which openings break a run and how much waste to add.

Casework (base, wall or upper, and tall cabinets) is measured either by the unit, each cabinet counted with a dimensioned description, or by the linear feet of cabinet run. The formal quantity-surveying methods enumerate each fitment. North American residential and dealer practice sums the wall lengths the cabinets occupy. The two give different numbers and feed different cost bases, so the choice has to be explicit.

Countertop or worktop is an area quantity, in square feet or square metres, with deduction rules that invert the way a floor area is measured. Keeping these three families separate, and segregating within each, is the first discipline of a millwork takeoff.

The most confused trim rule is which openings break a baseboard run. Base lifts completely across doors and any floor-level cased opening (cased archways, French, sliding, pocket, and patio doors, and floor-to-floor windows), because those reach base height. It runs continuous under ordinary windows, where the sill and apron sit above the base. The discriminator is simply whether the opening reaches base height. Base also skips segments with no base at all, such as behind base cabinets, vanities, tubs, and fireplaces. The basis is RICS NRM2 Work Section 22, which measures skirtings net in linear metres broken at openings, with the install side governed by ANSI/AWI 0620-2024.

Base terminates at the face of the installed casing, not at the rough opening or the door slab. Casing is set first and is wider than the rough opening by its own width on each leg, so the gap removed from the base is the rough opening plus the casing on both legs. For a standard single door that is roughly 3 feet (about 914 millimetres); a double, sliding, or closet opening is wider, roughly 5.5 feet (about 1676 millimetres). When the door schedule gives the true cased width, use it: these widths are working proxies for when it does not.

Crown is measured along the wall run, corner to corner, the horizontal wall-line length, not the diagonal face across the spring angle. The face is longer, but it only sets which stock profile you buy, not the quantity. Crown runs continuous across the top of the wall above doors and windows and breaks only at wall corners; coped (inside) or mitered (outside) is a labor distinction, not a length one. Chair rail, panel mould, and picture rail follow the base wall-run logic but die into the door casing and otherwise run continuous, including past windows at that height. Raking base along a stair stringer is taken off separately and measured on the slope, along the hypotenuse, because the angled cuts and scribing are a different labor item.

Door and window casing is its own line item, measured per opening, never folded into the base length. The casing is the trim wrapping each opening, two legs and a head, with windows adding a stool and apron. A standard single door works out to roughly 16 to 17 linear feet, two legs near 7 feet plus a head near 3 feet.

The real driver, though, is the count of openings by casing type, not the raw length. A flat one-by-four casing, a two-piece colonial with backband, and a stool-and-apron window cost very different labor per foot, so casing is segregated by profile and the openings are counted by type. Under RICS NRM2 Work Section 22 architraves are measured in linear metres and described per opening, which matches this per-opening treatment. The opening counts come from the door and window counts already in the takeoff.

The deepest fork in millwork is how a cabinet run is quantified. The formal quantity-surveying methods enumerate each cabinet and fitment with a dimensioned description: this is RICS NRM2 Work Section 32 (Furniture, fittings and equipment, counted by number), the AIQS and NZIQS ANZSMM, and the CIQS Method of Measurement, and it is what a commercial casework bid uses. North American residential and dealer practice instead sums the linear feet of cabinet run. This linear-feet method is residential and dealer convention; the ANSI/AWI 0641 casework standard qualifies the work but does not codify it.

Under either method, base, wall, and tall cabinets stay in separate groups and are never summed into one quantity. Their depths, costs, and install rates differ. Base cabinets are about 24 inches deep, wall cabinets about 12 inches deep, and tall cabinets about 24 inches deep by 84 to 96 inches high.

Under the linear-feet method, the base run is interrupted wherever an appliance sits with no cabinet, and those gaps are deducted. Standard footprints come from manufacturer and NKBA rough-in dimensions: a range or cooktop about 30 or 36 inches, a refrigerator about 36 inches, a dishwasher about 24 inches. Each appliance opening is counted and the length deduction follows from the count times the footprint. Integrated or panel-front appliances keep the cabinet box and are not deducted. Fillers, scribes, hanging strips, toe-kick, and finished end panels are always separate add items, driven by the count of exposed ends and corners rather than the run length, because a finished end panel can carry as much material and labor as a small cabinet.

The AWI grade is a first-class input even though it does not move any boundary. Custom is the default and covers most quality architectural woodwork, with touch-ups acceptable when indistinguishable at 48 inches. Premium is the highest grade, used in high-visibility areas, with imperfections indistinguishable at 24 inches and superior veneer and grain matching; its joinery construction is the same as Custom, the difference being aesthetic and material. Economy is the minimum, for utility and back-of-house woodwork. The standards are ANSI/AWI 0641-2019 for casework and ANSI/AWI 0620-2024 for finish carpentry and installation.

Grade requirements apply only to exposed and semi-exposed surfaces. Exposed surfaces are visible with doors and drawers closed, including knee spaces and the interiors of glass-door units. Semi-exposed surfaces are visible only when a door or drawer is opened, such as shelf tops and drawer interiors. Concealed surfaces are the manufacturer's choice in every grade. This sets the cost basis of the measured units: a finished end panel is an exposed surface and priced at grade, while a cabinet back against a wall is concealed. Outside North America the AWI grades are not native; UK, Australia and New Zealand, and European work is specified per project, so a mid-quality default stands in.

Countertop is an area, but its rules invert the floor-area logic. For stone and solid-surface goods cut from a slab, sink, cooktop, and faucet cutouts are not deducted from the material area. The fabricator cuts them from a solid slab and the removed piece is scrap, so you pay for the full rectangle including the cutout. The cutouts instead add fabrication line items, each one counted. So the rule is full-rectangle area for material plus a count of cutouts for fabrication.

Countertop is measured to the finished top edge, which extends past the cabinet face by the overhang, not implied by cabinet depth. The standard front overhang is about 1.5 inches (38 millimetres) for stone, roughly half an inch more than laminate, plus side and end overhangs at exposed ends. On a 24 inch cabinet that gives a finished depth near 25.5 inches. The backsplash is measured separately, its own length by height, and is fabricated and priced apart from the deck.

Ordering follows the slab, not a flat percentage. A standard stone slab runs about 110 by 65 inches, roughly 50 square feet gross, of which only about 38 to 51 square feet is usable after nesting, seam loss, grain alignment, and fabrication waste; jumbo slabs reach about 60 to 75 square feet. Pieces have to nest within a slab with the seams placed deliberately, so the ordered quantity rounds up to whole slabs per the layout rather than net area plus a flat allowance. Laminate post-form tops are ordered by the linear foot of standard widths instead. The finished edge profile (eased, bullnose, ogee) is measured by length per profile, and each seam is counted, both kept off the deck-area line.

No method of measurement publishes a trim waste percentage. RICS NRM2 and the older SMM7 measure net in place and treat waste as a contractor's pricing allowance outside the measured quantity. The working figures used for ordering are trade practice: about 5 percent for simple paint-grade with few joints, about 10 percent for stain-grade or pre-finished and for typical residential, around 10 to 15 percent for commercial and many corners, and 15 to 20 percent for crown, outside corners, bays, and high-complexity work, with the 20 percent figure scoped to those cases and never a blanket default. The spread is driven by joint count, finish type, installer skill, and how stock lengths fit the wall.

Stain-grade carries more waste than paint-grade because off-cuts cannot be reused in a visible location. Paint-grade off-cuts get caulked, puttied, and reused. Trim is bought in sticks, commonly 8, 12, and 16 feet, with some profiles at 7 feet. A wall longer than a stick takes a scarf joint on paint-grade or a longer special-order stick on stain-grade, since a premium run avoids a visible splice. For that reason millwork is taken off separately by finish, because finish drives the material, the waste, and which splices are acceptable.

Running trim is also kept in separate runs by profile (base, casing, crown, chair rail, panel mould), since each is a different product with its own unit cost, install rate, and opening rule.

Several items sit alongside the main three families and are measured in their own units. Cabinet hardware (hinges, pulls and knobs, drawer slides) is enumerated per cabinet, door, and drawer by type, roughly two hinges per door and a pair of slides per drawer, driven by the door and drawer schedule rather than the cabinet run; RICS NRM2 Work Section 32 enumerates ironmongery the same way. Wall paneling and wainscot are an area family: US practice measures square feet (product standard ANSI/AWI 0642-2024), while NRM2 Work Section 22 measures boarding and panelling by area over 600 millimetres wide and by linear metre at or below 600 millimetres. Stair parts split into treads, risers, balusters, and newels enumerated each, with handrail measured by length. Open and closet shelving is measured by the linear foot or metre of running shelf, banded by depth.

Renovation scope changes the takeoff materially. Removing existing cabinets, trim, or worktops is its own demolition line and is excluded from new-work quantities; RICS NRM2 has explicit removing fittings and fixtures provisions for it. Refacing keeps the cabinet box and counts new doors, drawer fronts, and end panels rather than re-counting the carcase. Existing-to-remain is excluded from new work entirely and recorded only as a scope and protection note.

In the United States there is no statutory standard of measurement. Work is imperial, in linear feet, square feet, and each. Trim and cabinet runs are usually in linear feet, casework is often by the cabinet in commercial bids, the AWI grades are the de-facto quality standard with Custom as the default, cutouts are not deducted, and waste is added into the ordered quantity by convention. In the United Kingdom, RICS NRM2 Work Section 22 measures isolated trims, skirtings, and architraves in linear metres net and worktops in linear metres described by girth, while cabinets and kitchen fittings are enumerated by number under Work Section 32. Quantities are net and waste is a separate pricing allowance.

Canada is a hybrid: the CIQS Method of Measurement enumerates fittings over US construction practice, with metric drawings and often imperial materials, so casework is by the unit in formal bids and in linear feet in residential work. Australia and New Zealand follow the AIQS and NZIQS ANZSMM, enumerating cabinetwork and measuring trims in metres. In continental Europe, national methods such as Germany's VOB/C DIN 18355 for joinery apply, metric, with joinery enumerated and trims in metres and grade systems set by national spec rather than AWI. International practice leans on the ICMS and RICS lineage with net metres for trims and enumeration for units.

Whether waste lives inside the quantity or outside it flips by region and purpose. The UK, Australia and New Zealand, and the international methods measure net, so the bid quantity excludes waste and the contractor prices a waste allowance. US and Canadian practice, and any procurement order anywhere, add waste so the ordered quantity is gross. The same trim therefore yields a net bid figure and a larger ordered figure. Exayard reads the drawings, separates the trim, casework, and countertop families, applies the right opening, deduction, and overhang rules, and reports both the net and the ordered quantities for the chosen region.