Build a room-by-room takeoff — framing, drywall, insulation, flooring, plumbing, and more — generate an AI material estimate, and send it straight into MBI for full budget analysis.
You can also trace measurements straight from a plan with the Blueprint Tool and have them fill your rooms automatically — see the Blueprint Tool guide.
📹 Prefer a video walkthrough? Full video walkthroughs for the Measurement Calculator are in the works — check back here for the link once they're live.
The Measurement Calculator is where you build your project room by room. Each room is its own card — dimensions, wall conditions, ceiling, floor, and any room-specific detail (plumbing, kitchen, closet). Once your rooms are complete, generate an AI-written material estimate directly in the tool, or send the raw takeoff data to MBI for a full six-phase budget. Everything you enter here can also be reached from the Blueprint Tool if you'd rather trace measurements on an uploaded plan instead of typing them in by hand.
Every room card starts with these fields, in order:
| Field | Options | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Room Name | Free text | — |
| Room Function | 20 options — General, Office/Admin, Conference Room, Classroom, Restroom, Kitchen, Break Room/Lounge, Storage/Utility, Closet/Walk-in, Corridor, Lobby/Reception, Mechanical/Elec, Recreation, Janitor/Utility Closet, Exam/Treatment Room, Retail Sales Floor, Server Room/IT, Waiting Area, Dining/Café, Other | Restroom and Kitchen reveal the Plumbing Fixtures section; Restroom also reveals Wall Tile; Kitchen also reveals Kitchen Details; Closet reveals Shelving; Other auto-expands Field Notes. |
| Floor / Story | F1–F10 | Groups the printed room schedule by floor. |
| Qty Multiplier | ×N | Multiplies every quantity for this room in project totals — use for identical repeated rooms instead of adding duplicates one by one. |
| Length / Width | Feet, decimal or ft'in | — |
| Wall Height | Feet, decimal or ft'in | Shows an "Enter deck height" hint when Ceiling Type is Open. |
| Doors / Windows (count) | Number | Feeds a default SF deduction (−21 SF/door, −12 SF/window) unless the room has a Door or Window Schedule entered. |
Then four selectors that shape the room's material list:
| Field | Options |
|---|---|
| Ceiling Type | Drywall · ACT 2×2 · ACT 2×4 · Open · Wood · Linear · Plaster · Other |
| Floor Type | LVP · Ceramic · Porcelain · Concrete · Carpet · Laminate · VCT · Terrazzo · Hardwood · Epoxy · Other |
| Cove Base | 4" Rubber (default) · 6" Rubber · 4" Vinyl · 6" Vinyl · Tile Cove Base · Wood Base Mold · Steel Base · Other · None |
| Wall Board | Project Default (blank) · 1/4" · 3/8" · 1/2" · 1/2" Lightweight · 5/8" · 5/8" MR · 5/8" Type X · 5/8" AR |
One free-text color field per room.
Click "+ Add color" to switch to multi-color mode — enter a name and a % of wall area for each color. A live gallon estimate (2 coats @ 175 SF/gal combined coverage) updates as you go, and a running "% assigned" indicator warns if your colors don't add up to 100%. Paint gets a fixed 5% waste built into the gallon rounding — there's no editable field for it.
This is the collapsible panel where you allocate the room's perimeter across five condition types. A progress bar turns green once your allocated LF is within 0.25 LF of the room's perimeter — amber if you're under, red if over.
The three wall-building rows (both New Partition types, and Demo + Rebuild) each get extra controls:
Defaults to the project’s Stud Size setting; pick a specific size for just this wall condition.
Falls back through: this override → the room’s per-condition height → the project’s Deck Height → the room’s own ceiling height. Use this to send a demising wall to deck while the rest of the room stops at the ceiling.
Breaks one condition row into multiple segments with their own LF, stud spec, and height — e.g. a 6" suite-separation run mixed with 3-5/8" partitions, both still counted as "1-Face." Shows a live "X / Y LF assigned" status as you allocate.
A dropdown with 9 options: None · R-11 Sound Batt (3.5") · R-13 Standard (3.5") · Rockwool R-15 (3.5") · R-19 (6") · R-21 (6") · Rigid Board · Spray Foam · Other. Bag quantities are computed from framing LF × height ÷ your project's SF-per-bag coverage rate for that R-value (Section 08).
A second insulation dropdown (Match Above / R-19 / R-21 / None) that only matters when a room mixes 3-5/8" and 6" stud walls — it resolves what goes in the 6" cavities specifically. See the warning badge below.
Per door: Type (7 options including Storefront Glass), Condition (New/Existing/By Others), Width, optional Height (accepts 80, 6'8", or 6-8), hardware Finish, plus a detail row — Material (Hollow Core, Solid Core, Mineral Core, HM Steel, Aluminum, Glass Panel, Other), Fire Rating (None through 3-hour), and Slab Finish (Paint Match Wall, Paint Accent, Stain Light/Medium/Dark, Factory Pre-Finished, None/Bare). Accordion/Folding and Open Cased Opening types skip the hardware Finish field entirely. A "Price" checkbox on each door lets you exclude shared/duplicate doors from MBI pricing; openings get a "Frame" checkbox instead, so a shared opening's frame isn't counted twice.
Per window: Type (9 options including Storefront and Curtain Wall), Condition, Width × Height, Glazing (Single, Dual/IGU, Tempered, Low-E, Frosted, Impact-Rated, Tinted), and Frame material (Aluminum, Steel, Vinyl, Wood, Fiberglass, Composite).
Wall Tile: None / 4 ft / Full Height / Custom (reveals a height input). Plumbing Fixtures: LAV Count, Toilet Count, Urinal Count, Faucet Style (Single/Dual/Wall-Mount/Touchless), Sink Type (Drop-In/Undermount/Vessel/Wall-Mount), Toilet Type (Standard Tank/ADA Elongated/Flushometer). Toilet Type and Sink Type each have a "Split by type" link so one restroom can mix fixture types (e.g. 2 Standard toilets + 1 ADA) instead of forcing a single type for the whole room.
Kitchen Details: Backsplash SF, Upper Cabinet LF, Base Cabinet LF, and Cabinet Type (Stock/Builder-Grade, Semi-Custom, Custom/High-End, Owner-Supplied, Millwork/Built-in — sets which placeholder $/LF rate from Section 08 applies; always confirm real pricing with your cabinet supplier). Plumbing Fixtures: Hand Wash Sink, 3-Compartment Sink, Mop Sink counts.
Shelving type (None/Wire/Wood/Millwork/Built-in), Shelf LF, Drawer count.
Yes/No toggle — Yes reveals LF and Drop (ft) inputs for the extra framing material.
A collapsible free-text box per room. Auto-expands when Room Function is "Other," or whenever it already has content. A gold "HAS NOTES" badge shows on the room card when populated.
Project-wide, sidebar settings, grouped into collapsible rate panels. Every one is editable — the numbers below are just the defaults:
| Control | Default | Applies to |
|---|---|---|
| DW Waste | 15% | Drywall SF before sheet-count rounding |
| Floor Waste | 10% | LVP, carpet, laminate, VCT only — ceramic/porcelain always use a fixed 15% regardless of this field |
| Framing (Stud) Waste | 5% | Stud count |
| Track Waste | 10% | Top/bottom track & runner LF — separate from stud waste |
| Cove Base Waste | 5% | Cove base / baseboard trim LF, all types |
| Screws / SF | 1.25 | Drywall screw count |
| Compound SF / Bucket | 450 | Joint compound buckets |
| Tape SF / Roll | 650 | Joint tape rolls |
| Primer SF / Gal | 300 | Primer gallons |
| Drywall Adhesive coverage | 33 SF/tube | Only appears as a line item if the "Need Drywall Adhesive" checkbox is on |
| Insulation SF / Bag (per R-value) | R11: 155 · R13: 107 · R15: 60 · R19: 87 · R21: 68 | One editable field per R-value |
| LVP Underlayment SF / Roll | 200 | — |
| Thinset SF / Bag | 60 | Shared by floor and wall tile |
| Grout lb / 100 SF | 35 | Shared by floor and wall tile |
| Self-Leveling SF / Bag | 50 | Only appears if "Self-Level Needed" is checked |
| Grout Sealer SF / Qt | 200 | — |
| Tile Leveling Clips / SF | 2.0 | — |
| Cabinet $/LF (Stock / Semi-Custom / Custom) | $120 / $200 / $350 | Explicitly labeled a rough placeholder — always confirm real pricing with your cabinet supplier |
Five optional $/SF fields in the sidebar — Framing+Drywall, LVP Flooring, Tile Flooring, ACT Ceiling, and Paint. Leave them blank and the cost UI stays hidden entirely. Fill any of them in and a live per-room cost bar (and a project grand total) appears immediately, using your own local rates rather than a built-in price table — so it's naturally regional, since you're the one entering the numbers.
A dropdown above the "✦ Ask Claude — Generate Takeoff" button, with three modes: Basic — Qty + Cost Only (a Master Quantity List plus a rough cost-range table — the fastest, shortest output), General — Full Breakdown (default; adds room-by-room framing/drywall detail, paint, flooring, window/plumbing schedules, and flags) and Detailed + VE Suggestions (everything in General, plus per-room complexity flags and a dedicated Value Engineering table with 3 concrete ways to cut cost). All three modes work from the exact same pre-computed quantities — the AI narrates and formats, it never recalculates your numbers.
A separate Internal / Client toggle. This doesn't change the AI call at all — it only changes what your printed or exported room schedule shows: Internal includes full wall-condition and notes detail, Client shows a clean quantities-only view suitable for handing to someone outside your team.
| Method | Where | Behavior |
|---|---|---|
| Quick Save / Quick Load | Header buttons | Browser localStorage — fast, but tied to this browser only. |
| Auto-Restore | Header checkbox | When on, silently reloads your last Quick Save every time you open the Calculator — no confirmation prompt. |
| Save File / Open File | Footer buttons | A real .json file you download and can reopen on any computer, or share with a teammate. |
| Auto-Save File | Footer — "Auto-Save File" (Chrome/Edge only) | Pick a .json file once; every change after that silently rewrites it in place. A green flash confirms each write. |
| Project Library | Footer — "Save to Library" / "Library" | Named storage for up to 25 projects at once, independent of Quick Save. Has its own file export/import. |
| Revisions | Footer — "Save Rev" / "Revisions" | Numbered snapshots (R1, R2…) per project name, up to 10 per project, each with an editable note. Has its own file export/import. |
A combined room-summary CSV — room quantities, door schedule, window schedule, and framing broken out by stud spec — all in one file.
A category-organized CSV (Metal Framing, Drywall, ACT, Flooring, Wall Tile, Cabinets, Cove Base, Shelving, Paint, Insulation, Windows, Plumbing) with blank Unit Price and Subtotal columns for your supplier to fill in — built from the exact same quantity engine as the room-summary CSV, so the two can never disagree with each other.
Opens your browser's print dialog with a formatted summary — it isn't a generated file. In Chrome, uncheck "Headers and footers" in the print dialog for a clean result.
Sends your complete project — summary totals, framing/track broken out by stud size, plumbing totals by fixture type, every room's full detail, material summaries, and the same precise structured takeoff used by Supplier Export — to your MBI project. This sync is automatic once sent — MBI checks for the latest data every time you open it, there's no manual "Apply" step on the MBI side. If the data is more than 24 hours old, MBI shows a "stale — check before using" warning so you know to re-send before relying on it.
Once you've sent data to MBI, a Purchase Order document becomes available from the MBI side — a supplier RFQ listing materials, types, and quantities only. It deliberately never includes pricing, so it's safe to hand directly to a supplier for a quote.