AmpSizerWhat does the material for this job cost?
A price per foot is easy. A price for the job is every run, every conductor in it, and the ten percent nobody adds.
One circuit check a month
MonthlyOne thing a month worth measuring, testing or recalculating on a home electrical system — the part of sizing that happens after the install. No product pitches, and nothing that needs a live panel.
Free to use — Pro is for keeping it
This tool, like every other one here, is free and needs no account. A free account keeps three setups and three email alerts. Pro takes the ads off every site we run and lifts that to 200 setups and 50 alerts, adds a public page for any result and lets you embed the tool without our badge.
Try also
How this works
What a takeoff usually misses
The items that are not conductor and not conduit, and are most of the difference between the estimate and the invoice.
| Item | Rule of thumb | Why it gets missed |
|---|---|---|
| Conductor waste | Add 10% to every run | The route is longer than the plan |
| Terminations | Three feet spare at each end | Needed to make up in the box |
| Couplings | One per 10 ft of conduit | Counted with the pipe, not separately |
| Fittings and boxes | One per direction change | Invisible on a plan view |
| Straps and supports | Every 10 ft and within 3 ft of a box | Cheap, numerous, always short |
Add ten percent to every conductor length. The run is never the straight line, and the last three feet at each end are not optional.
Frequently asked questions
How much waste should I allow on conductor?
Ten percent on the run plus about three feet at each end for making up. On short runs the three feet dominates and ten percent is nothing; on a 200 ft feeder it is the other way round. Either way, ordering the plan length exactly is how a job stops twenty feet short on a Friday afternoon.
Should the takeoff include labour?
Not in this sheet — it is material, which is the part that can be counted from a drawing. Labour scales with terminations, bends and access rather than with feet, so mixing the two produces a number that cannot be checked against either a supplier quote or an hourly rate.
Why price conduit per foot rather than per length?
Because pipe is sold in ten-foot lengths and used in fractions of them, and the offcuts get used elsewhere on the same job. Per foot with a fittings allowance on top tracks the invoice more closely than counting sticks does.