The problem: square feet do not tell you gallons
- Coverage is a function of film thickness. A 100 percent solids resin covers 535 square feet per gallon at 3 mils and 133 at 12. A 2,400 square foot floor is four and a half gallons or eighteen depending on a number that lives in the specification, not on the drawing.
- Porosity and surface profile drink material the plan never shows. One manufacturer specifies its vapor barrier at 130 square feet per gallon, then tells specifiers to drop to 100 purely to allow for substrate variation. That is thirty percent more material for profile alone.
- One boundary has to generate a stack of lines at different rates. The coat that goes over a broadcast covers less than the one under it, because it has to wet out a bed of loose media instead of flowing over smooth concrete — commonly one and a half to two times the material. The pair comes off your own product data sheet.
- Cove base and joints are linear work hiding inside an area takeoff. A 40 by 50 room and a 20 by 100 room are both 2,000 square feet, and the second has sixty more feet of wall.
And you cannot order 3.4 gallons. Resinous materials ship as pre-measured two and three component kits in odd sizes — two gallon, three gallon, 1.09 gallon — so rounding to the kit is part of the takeoff rather than something you do at the counter.
How the tool handles it
Every material line is computed from the identity the whole trade runs on: 1,604 divided by mils, times volume solids, gives square feet per gallon. One gallon spread one mil thick covers 1,604 square feet, because a gallon is 231 cubic inches. Solids percent and target film thickness sit on the product record, so changing the spec from 10 mils to 12 updates the gallons everywhere without touching the drawing, and the result rounds up to whole kits.
One trace, the whole material list
A condition is a named, colored layer you trace on the drawing. An assembly turns that one condition into every part it drives, each with its own formula, coverage rate, waste percentage and rounding rule. A Double-broadcast flake floor (two broadcasts) condition looks like this:
| Part | Unit | Driven by |
|---|---|---|
| Surface prep to CSP | SF | floor SF, with CSP target set by the system |
| Crack and spall repair | LF / EA | from the traced defects |
| Moisture mitigation | GAL | SF ÷ 130 at 12 mils, ÷ 100 on irregular profile — when RH testing calls for it |
| Primer | GAL | SF ÷ (1604 × solids ÷ mils) |
| First base coat | GAL | SF ÷ the product’s published first-coat rate |
| Broadcast media (per broadcast) | LB | flake SF × 0.2 lb; quartz SF × 0.5 to 0.8 lb |
| Second base coat | GAL | SF ÷ the published over-broadcast rate — commonly 1.5 to 2× the first coat |
| Grout coat | GAL | SF ÷ published grout-coat rate, commonly 100 to 165 |
| Topcoat | GAL | SF ÷ (1604 × solids ÷ mils), rounded to whole kits |
| Integral cove base | GAL + LB | cove LF ÷ 36 to 40 at 1/8in (about 26 at 3/16in), + 80 to 100 lb aggregate per 1.25 gal |
| Joint filler | GAL | joint LF ÷ published rate at FULL joint depth — about 77 LF/gal at 1/4 × 1in |
| Application labor | HR | SF ÷ production rate per coat |
| Perimeter termination | LF | saw-cut anchor keyway at the perimeter |
Change a coverage rate, a waste percentage or a unit cost and every job using that assembly re-prices. You are not editing numbers in twelve places.
Mils drive gallons
1,604 divided by film thickness, times volume solids, is square feet per gallon. It is an identity, not an estimate, and putting it on the page means you can check our arithmetic instead of trusting it.
The coat above a broadcast covers less
A second base coat has to wet out loose media rather than flow over concrete, so it commonly takes one and a half to two times the material of the first. Both rates come from the product data sheet, not a rule of thumb.
Kits, not gallons
Materials ship as pre-measured two and three component units. Every line rounds up to whole kits, because 3.4 gallons is not something you can buy.
Every number traces back to a mark
When a material overrun is questioned, the estimate shows the film thickness, the volume solids and the loss factor that produced every gallon, rather than a number someone reached for.
Every number on the report links back to a specific mark, on a specific sheet, at a specific place on the page. The marked-up PDF export draws every mark in its condition color with the quantity labeled — that is the file you attach to the bid.
Accuracy is held to a stated tolerance: linear measurements within 0.10% of true, straight-sided areas within 0.25%, and calibration repeatable within 0.20% across five separate calibrations of the same page. Geometry is stored in PDF units, never screen pixels, and rounding happens exactly once — at report time.
What it costs
Resinous material is expensive and it ships in kits you cannot split. Ordering one kit too few stops the job; one too many sits in the shop.
$2,500, paid once. Nothing in year two. Nothing in year three. No per-seat bill and no renewal date.
| Estimators using it | A per-seat subscription, five years | Ours, one-time licence |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | $8,745 – $10,000 | $2,500 |
| 2 | $17,490 – $20,000 | $2,500 |
| 3 | $26,235 – $30,000 | $2,500 |
| 5 | $43,725 – $50,000 | $2,500 |
Their column multiplies by headcount and then repeats every year. Ours does neither. Put a fourth estimator on it and the number is still $2,500, because you are not licensing seats — you are buying the software.
And it does not repeat
| Whole company | Per-seat subscription, billed that year | Ours, billed that year |
|---|---|---|
| Year 1 | $1,749 – $2,000 × seats | $2,500 |
| Year 2 | $1,749 – $2,000 × seats | $0 |
| Year 3 | $1,749 – $2,000 × seats | $0 |
| Year 4 | $1,749 – $2,000 × seats | $0 |
| Year 5 | $1,749 – $2,000 × seats | $0 |
What you actually receive
- The source code. Not access to it — a copy of it, running on your infrastructure.
- A one-time perpetual licence. It does not expire, it cannot be revoked, and there is no renewal date in your calendar.
- No seat count. Put every estimator in the company on it. There is no user tier to outgrow and nothing that counts logins.
- No dependence on us. Sixty days of support are included. After that you can hire any developer to change it, because you have the code. Most vendors cannot make that offer, because with them you are renting.
Subscription figures are publicly reported PlanSwift prices from software review sites, shown as a representative example of per-seat takeoff pricing. Check any vendor's current pricing directly before you compare. See the full PlanSwift comparison.
What is being built next
- DXF and DWG import is in active development. Today the tool reads PDF. If your drawings arrive as CAD files, ask on the call and we will give you honest timing rather than a guess on a web page.
- Auto-count symbol recognition — box a symbol once and find every match on the sheet — is a later release.
- Multi-estimator assignment, so a supervisor can hand work to specific people, is still being built out.