How to Do a Cladding Takeoff From Plans: Areas, Openings & Quantities

A cladding takeoff turns elevation drawings into orderable quantities: net cladding areas by material, linear metres of trims and battens, opening counts, and waste. This guide walks the whole process — gross wall area, opening deductions, gables, material zones, trims and waste — and you can follow along with the Free Wall & Cladding Takeoff Tool.

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What is a cladding takeoff?

A cladding takeoff is the measurement stage of pricing a cladding job: reading wall and elevation drawings to determine cladding areas, trim and batten lengths, and opening counts — then converting those into material quantities (with waste) and labour. Siding and façade takeoffs are the same process with different vocabulary.

If you’re starting from plans and have never done one, read how to measure walls & cladding from plans first — it covers drawing types, scale checks and tracing basics. This article focuses on the cladding-specific quantities.

Step 1: Gross wall area from the elevations

For each elevation, trace the full rectangle: width × height to the eaves. Add gables as triangles (½ × width × height). Work elevation by elevation and name each area — the sum is your gross wall area.

Step 2: Deduct openings for net cladding area

Windows, doors and garage doors receive no cladding. Trace each opening and subtract:

Net cladding area = gross wall area − openings

Cross-check against the window and door schedule — total schedule area should match your traced deductions.

Worked example: two-storey house (shared example)

The same house from our wall measurement guide: front elevation 9.0 m wide × 5.4 m to the eaves, with a 9.0 m × 1.8 m gable and 13.65 m² of openings.

• Gross: 48.6 + 8.1 = 56.7 m²
• Net: 56.7 − 13.65 = 43.05 m²
• Weatherboard area with 7.5% waste: 43.05 × 1.075 ≈ 46.3 m²
• At a typical 175 mm effective board coverage, ≈ 264 linear metres of board

Repeat per elevation, per material. The other three elevations of this house give another 128.4 m² gross and 9.9 m² of openings — the same arithmetic applies.

Step 3: Gables and irregular shapes

Gables are pure triangles; raked walls and angled bays are polygons. Trace the vertices and let the tool compute the area — never re-derive triangle formulas by hand. Gables are the single most-forgotten area in cladding takeoffs; check each elevation end before totalling.

Step 4: Separate materials on mixed elevations

One elevation often carries several materials. Trace each zone separately and name it:

• Timber / weatherboard — area-based; board coverage (effective width) converts m² to linear metres of board.
• Fibre cement — sheet or plank based; count sheets or planks from area + sheet size + waste.
• Composite — usually board-based like weatherboard; check the manufacturer’s coverage per m².
• Metal / corrugated — sheet-based; effective sheet coverage after laps drives the count.
• Panelised (brick slips, terracotta, ACM) — panel counts from area ÷ panel coverage + fixings.

Step 5: Trims and linear items

Cladding jobs carry a long tail of linear items — measure them all as runs:

• Window & door trims — the perimeter of every opening (or width+height × 2).
• Corner trims — external and internal corner heights, per corner.
• Battens — cavity batten runs from batten spacing × wall area, or trace vertical runs for complex elevations.
• Flashings, sills, junction trims — wherever the cladding stops or changes material.
• Building wrap & soffit — full-surface areas, gross not net.

Step 6: Waste allowances by material

Add waste after the net calculation, at ordering:

• Weatherboard / composite boards: 5–10% (more for many short cuts)
• Fibre cement sheet: 7–10%
• Metal sheet: 5–8% depending on laps and cutting
• Trims and battens: 5%
• Panelised systems: 3–5%

From quantities to price

Multiply each quantity by your material rate, add labour per m² or per metre, and total. Reusable pricing components make this repeatable: save the rates once, feed each new takeoff through them with the Measurement-to-Quote Tool. Already have areas and just need numbers? Use the wall area calculator or paint calculator instead.

Common cladding takeoff mistakes

• Ordering from gross area — cladding goes on net area, not gross.
• Forgetting gables and raked sections.
• One waste rate for everything — battens and boards waste differently.
• Counting openings as cladding — trims run around them, boards don’t cover them.
• Ignoring board coverage vs total width — laps shrink effective coverage.

Do your takeoff now

Open the Free Wall & Cladding Takeoff Tool, upload your elevations, calibrate, and trace. When you’re done, turn the measurements into a price.