Take-off glossary: DPGF, voids not deducted, ml

This guide follows French practice: French standards (NF DTU), French regulations and French bill conventions. Most sources are in French.

Take-off and the people who do it

Métré (take-off): The calculation of the quantities of a piece of work from its dimensions. In the strict sense, French training frameworks keep the word for work actually carried out. The method is set out in how to do a take-off.
Avant-métré (preliminary take-off): A take-off made from the drawings, before construction, to estimate a project or answer a tender.
Métré d'exécution (as-built take-off): A take-off of the work actually carried out, measured on site or from updated drawings; it is used for valuations and the final account.
Quantitatif (unpriced bill of quantities): The list of items with their quantities and units, without any prices.
Estimatif (priced estimate): The bill of quantities with the prices added: each quantity multiplied by its unit rate, then totalled.
Métreur (quantity surveyor, estimator): The technician who takes the dimensions, calculates the quantities and presents the take-off, in a cost consultancy, a design office or a contractor's office.
Économiste de la construction (construction economist): A specialist in the cost of a project, involved from the brief to handover; the take-off is one of the foundations of the job.
Attachement (measurement record): A written record, often with sketches, of the quantities carried out over a period or for part of the work.
Situation de travaux (interim valuation): A periodic statement of the work carried out, used to pay the contractor during construction.

The contract documents

DCE (tender documents): Dossier de consultation des entreprises: all the documents given to contractors so that they can price their tender.
CCTP (particular technical specification): Cahier des clauses techniques particulières. It describes each item, what its price includes and, often, its method of measurement.
CCAP (particular administrative conditions): Cahier des clauses administratives particulières: time limits, penalties, form of prices, documents with contractual value.
Lot (trade package): The part of the works let to one contractor, often a single trade: structural work, drylining, painting…
DPGF (breakdown of the lump-sum price): Décomposition du prix global et forfaitaire: the table that breaks a lump-sum price down item by item, close to a priced bill of quantities. The price does not follow the quantities, so those in the DPGF must be checked.
Prix forfaitaire (lump-sum price): A price that pays for a set of works whatever the quantities actually carried out.
Prix unitaire (unit rate): The price of one unit of work (one m², one ml, one item), applied to the quantities actually carried out.
BPU (schedule of unit rates): Bordereau des prix unitaires: the contractual list of unit rates, each with its definition and unit.
DQE (estimated bill of quantities): Détail quantitatif estimatif: the BPU rates multiplied by estimated quantities, to compare tenders. In principle, it is not contractual.
Cadre de décomposition (breakdown form): The blank table (codes, descriptions, units) the contractor fills in; it sets the order and the breakdown of the take-off.

Units

ml (mètre linéaire, linear metre): The unit of work measured by length: skirting, angle beads, pipe runs, kerbs. Writing “ml” distinguishes a quantity from a mere dimension in metres.
m² (square metre): The unit of work measured by area: partitions, floor and wall finishes, render, roofing.
m³ (cubic metre): The unit of work measured by volume: concrete, earthworks, backfill.
u (unité, number): The unit of items counted one by one: doors, sanitary fittings, sockets, inspection chambers. British bills write “nr”.
ens, ft (set, lump sum): Ensemble or forfait: an item paid as a single sum, such as the site set-up.
kg, t: The units of work measured by weight: reinforcement, structural steelwork.
Unité d'ouvrage (unit of measurement): The unit in which an item is measured and paid. It is set by the form or the schedule of rates, never by habit.

Measuring on the drawing

Échelle (scale): The ratio between the drawing and reality: at 1:50, 1 cm on the drawing is 50 cm. It should always be checked against a known dimension.
Cote (dimension): A dimension written on the drawing. Where one exists, it is the reference for checking a measurement scaled from the drawing.
Recherche de cote (working out a dimension): Calculating a dimension that is not written from other dimensions on the drawing; it is written into the calculations, like an assumption.
Nu (face): The visible surface of a wall. Measurements are taken to the inside or outside face, structural or finished, according to the rule for the item.
Axe (centre line): The middle line of a wall or partition. Measuring to the centre line or to the face is a convention to fix and to write down.
Dans œuvre, hors œuvre (internal, external): A measurement taken inside the walls (dans œuvre) or outside them (hors œuvre).
Développé (girth): The length of a shape laid flat: the perimeter of a room, the outline of a window reveal, the unfolded width of a flashing.
Périmètre (perimeter): The length of the outline of an area. It gives the skirting, the edge angles or the waterproofing upstands.
Hauteur sous plafond (floor-to-ceiling height): The clear height of a room, from finished floor to finished ceiling. It is not the height of a partition that goes up to the slab.
Parties semblables (timesing): The number of times the same calculation repeats, written « 2f », « 3f » in front of the line: two identical flats, three windows of the same size.
Coefficient de pente (pitch factor): The multiplier that converts an area or a length measured on plan to the true size of a roof slope.
Surface de plancher (planning floor area): A French planning measure: the levels that are enclosed and covered, with a ceiling height above 1.80 m, measured to the inside face, after certain deductions. It is not a take-off quantity.

Deductions and openings

Brut, net (gross, net): The quantity before and after deductions. Take-off calculations write both.
Déduction (deduction): A part taken off a gross quantity: an opening in a wall, a void in a floor, a shower tray under floor tiling.
Ouverture, baie (opening): A hole in a wall for a door or a window. It is deducted with its own height, not the height of the wall.
Trémie (void): An opening in a floor or ceiling, for a staircase, a duct or a flue.
Réservation (opening for services): A hole left in a piece of work for another trade (duct, pipe); depending on its size and the contract, it is deducted or not.
Vide pour plein (voids not deducted): The rule that does not deduct openings smaller than a threshold, in m² per opening: the area counted in excess pays for the work around them. The threshold is the contract's and has no universal value (see the elevation take-off).
Tableau, voussure, appui (reveal, soffit, sill): The returns around an opening: its sides, the underside of the lintel, its bottom edge. They are often counted separately, in ml.

Items and pieces of work

Ouvrage élémentaire (elementary item): The smallest piece of work with its own price: same material, same thickness, same installation. The take-off is broken down to this level.
Poste, article (item): A line of the form: a code, a description, a unit, a quantity.
Désignation (description): The wording of an item, to be copied word for word into the take-off calculations.
Localisation (location): Where what is counted lies: building, floor, flat, room, elevation.
Mode de métré (method of measurement): The measurement rule for an item, written in the specification: « au m² réel mis en œuvre » (per m² actually installed), « joues comptées dans la surface » (sides included in the area)…
Sujétions (incidental work): Constraints and small tasks included in the price without a line of their own: cutting, reinforcement, sealing (« tous détails et sujétions »).
Plus-value, supplément (extra over): A price added to a base item for a variant, for example a moisture-resistant board as an extra over a standard partition.
Sous-détail de prix (rate build-up): The breakdown of a unit rate into labour, materials and plant.

Writing it up

Minute (calculation sheet): The sheet on which the take-off calculations are written, line by line; the British equivalent is the dimension sheet.
Note de métré (take-off calculations): The document that justifies each quantity: location, dimensions, calculation, deductions, total. See take-off calculations.
Report (carried forward): The total of a page carried to the top of the next one.
Récapitulatif (summary): The table of totals per item, without the detail of the calculations.
Plan de repérage (location drawing): A drawing on which each item counted is marked, in colour or with a reference, so that its line in the calculations can be found.
Arrondi (rounding): Each quantity is written with a fixed number of decimal places; a total that can be checked is the sum of the values written.

One line of take-off calculations, word by word

Here is a line of French take-off calculations, then how to read it with the words above.

6.3 Plinthes bois — R+1, chambres 2 et 3 — 2f × [2 × (3,40 + 3,10) − 0,80] = 2f × 12,20 = 24,40 ml

Reading the line
Element	What it is
6.3	The code of the item in the breakdown form
Plinthes bois	The description (timber skirting), copied from the form
R+1, chambres 2 et 3	The location: first floor, bedrooms 2 and 3
2f	Timesing: the two bedrooms have the same dimensions
2 × (3,40 + 3,10) = 13,00	The girth of the room, here its perimeter to the inside face
− 0,80	The deduction for the door opening, where there is no skirting
12,20	The net quantity for one bedroom
24,40 ml	The quantity of the item, in linear metres

The same words in Kotelys

Kotelys uses this vocabulary in English; a few words have a precise meaning there.

Type: One item of the take-off: a name, a colour on the drawing, a total. All the objects of a type add up.
Length, Area, Count: The three measuring tools, which give ml, m² and u.
Height, thickness: Settings of a type: a length with a height gives a wall area, an area with a thickness gives a volume.
Deduction: A void drawn inside an area and taken off it.
Opening: A door or window placed on a length, with its own height; only its area is taken off the wall.
Layer: A way of sorting the objects of a drawing, which can be shown, hidden or locked.
Zone: Part of a drawing (flat, floor, phase); the “Break down by zone” box of the reports gives the quantities location by location.

These words describe what you draw: Kotelys does not read the specification and does not choose the method of measurement for you.

Kotelys open on the site plan of a sample sports hall: site layout drawn (crane, fencing, site cabins), legend with its quantities and totals per type in the Objects panel.

Further reading: Kotelys features, and the other guides.

Sources

Thresholds and values described as “taken for the example” are not rules: those of your contract (specification, bill of quantities) always prevail.

Take-off glossary: the words of French quantity surveying, from preliminary take-off to DPGF