What a TopOut steel package contains

Most outsourced estimating stops at a quantity list, and a quantity list is not a bid — you still have to price it, write the scope and build the proposal. TopOut ships all six files, editable, carrying your logo and your rates.

Takeoff workbook (.xlsx) — quantities by member type and by mark, each row naming its sheet. Open the workbook.
Branded proposal (.docx / PDF) — your letterhead, your lump sum, ready to send.
Marked-up plan sheets (PDF) — the counted sheets, bubbled and measured.
Scope of work (.docx / PDF) — what you carry, and what you do not.
RFI list (.docx / PDF) — the questions the drawings raised, written to send as-is.
Pay-app templates (.xlsx) — a schedule of values off the same line items, so billing matches the bid.

Nothing is locked, and nothing goes anywhere until you send it. See how the process runs.

What we take off, by member type

Plenty of services advertise “beams, columns, joists, decking” and leave you to find out what that covered after you win. Here is the real list, with the unit an estimator counts it in — because the unit is where scope goes missing. Rail measured in feet instead of risers, bent plate by finished leg instead of developed width, gussets carried as a percentage instead of counted.

W-shapes — beams, columns, girders: By mark, with length, weight per foot and the connection type the detail shows. W4 through W44 — the light W6 and W8 posts at canopies and mezzanines get counted like everything else. Columns split where the drawings splice them.EA · LF · LBS · TON
HSS — round, square, rectangular: Tube columns, braces, canopy and screen frames. Wall thickness off the schedule, not the plan — an HSS6×6×1/2 weighs nearly twice an HSS6×6×1/4.EA · LF · LBS
Channels, angles, WT and ST: C and MC channel, equal- and unequal-leg angle, tees cut from W- and S-shapes. Loose lintels, kickers, ledger and shelf angle, edge angle at slab openings.EA · LF · LBS
Plate — base, cap, shear tab: By thickness and finished outside dimension so the shop can nest it, hole pattern noted. Shear tabs counted per connection detail.EA · SF · LBS
Bent plate: Pour stops, closure and edge-of-slab bent plate, drip angles — taken by developed width, the flat blank before the brake, not the finished leg.LF · SF · LBS
Gusset and stiffener plate: Brace gussets, web and flange stiffeners, doubler plates. Counted off the details one at a time, never as a percentage of frame tonnage.EA · LBS
Composite deck and form deck: 1½", 2" and 3" composite deck, 9/16" and 1" form deck, by gauge and finish. Net square feet off the plan; side lap, end lap and bearing added to the order.SF
Shear studs: Counted beam by beam from the framing plan and stud schedule — diameter, length after weld, and the per-rib limit at the deck flutes.EA
Embed plates and weld plates: By mark off the embed schedule and sections. Headed studs and deformed bar anchors counted separately, because they are shop-welded to the plate and carry shop hours the plate weight does not show. The assembly is normally steel's to furnish and the concrete sub's to set — we flag it either way.EA · LBS
Anchor-bolt assemblies: Rods by diameter, length and projection, with nuts, washers and setting templates. Flagged where they ship loose ahead of steel — that is a date on your schedule.EA · SET · LBS
Leveling nuts and setting plates: Two nuts and two washers per rod wherever the detail levels on nuts, plus setting plates, shim packs and the grout note. Routinely dropped.EA · SET
Metal-pan stairs: By flight and landing — riser count, tread width, stringer depth, soffit condition. Pan-filled treads counted as risers, not square feet, because that is how a stair shop buys them.EA (riser) · LBS
Stringers, landings and stair framing: Channel or plate stringers by length and section, landing platforms by area with framing and pan, plus the hangers and kickers holding them off the structure.EA · LF · SF · LBS
Guardrail, handrail and wall rail: Level guardrail in linear feet. Sloped stair rail taken twice — LF and riser count — because plan LF understates the true run and the cost sits in posts, returns and terminations. Wall rail in LF, brackets each.LF · EA (post · return · bracket)
Ladders, cages and roof access: Ship's ladders by rise and width, fixed rung ladders with cages and walk-through extensions, roof hatch curb rail and safety posts.EA · LF (rise)
Bar grating, floor plate, covers: Serrated and plain bar grating by panel and bearing-bar size, banding and cut-outs counted; checker plate by thickness and area; trench, pit and sump covers with frames.SF · LF (banding) · EA
Elevator and hoistway steel: Divider beams, hoist beams, sill angles, pit ladders and hoistway support steel — off the elevator drawings and shaft sections, which the framing plan rarely shows.EA · LF · LBS
Bollards, site and garage metals: Pipe bollards with fill and cap, dumpster enclosure frames and gates, wheel stops, garage bumper and knee rail, and the loose steel on the civil and landscape sheets.EA · LF · LBS

Scope weighted toward the bottom half of that list? Read the miscellaneous metals page — same package, different centre of gravity.

What we exclude, and why we say so up front

An exclusion list that arrives after the bid is a change-order argument. One that arrives with the bid is a scope letter. Here is ours — the same list printed in every proposal we ship.

Included

Takeoff of everything listed above, by mark and by sheet
Material, shop labor and field labor at your rates
A branded, send-ready proposal with your lump sum
A written scope of work with inclusions and exclusions
Marked-up sheets showing every count and measured run
An RFI list drawn from the gaps and conflicts in the set
Pay-app templates keyed to the same line items
Addendum re-pricing against the takeoff already built

Not included

Shop drawings, erection drawings and detailing
Engineering, connection design and sealed calculations
Any PE stamp — nothing we produce is sealed
Material procurement, mill orders and buyout
Erection labor, cranes, rigging and field supervision
Welding inspection, testing and special inspection
Pricing for scope not shown on the drawings you send

That last one matters most. Where the drawings are silent on something the job will clearly need, it comes back as an RFI and an allowance you can accept or delete — never as a quiet assumption buried in a total.

Every line traces back to a sheet

Every row in the workbook carries the sheet number and detail callout it came from — S2.1A, 5/S5.02 — and the marked-up PDF shows the same count bubble in the same place on the same sheet. Quantity and evidence stay together instead of drifting apart in two files.

Three things fall out of that. A GC asks where the 38 embeds came from and you answer in seconds. An addendum lands at 4 p.m. and only the affected sheets get re-priced, because you can see which rows touch them. And once the job is awarded, the same line items carry into the pay-app template, so what you bill matches what you bid.

Why every row names its sheetAn unreferenced quantity is an opinion. A referenced quantity is a claim anyone can check against the drawing in front of them — your PM, your detailer, the GC's estimator, or you the night before a bid. That is why the marked-up sheets ship to you instead of staying internal.

What we need from you

A PDF plan set — a file or a shared link, Drive, Dropbox, WeTransfer, a GC's plan room. Any size. No portal to learn, no software to install. Four more things help, and all four are optional:

Your rates. Material per pound, shop and field labor, markup. Send a past proposal and we will read them out of it.
The bid form and invitation. They name the alternates, unit prices and bid items the GC expects — often defining scope more precisely than the drawings do.
Addenda issued so far. Cheaper to build in than to price around.
The county and awarding agency. That tells us whether the job sits under prevailing wage or in a district that makes it a union bid — flagged before you price, not after you win.

Send only the plan set and you still get a complete package, priced at published market rates and labeled as such for you to overwrite.

Turnaround and rush

48 hours is standard, measured from when the plan set lands. A 24-hour rush is +35%. Tell us the bid date in your first message and we confirm delivery before starting — if a date is not workable we say so then, not three hours before it.

Geography changes nothing. The set is a PDF, so a job in Redding and a job in Chula Vista take the same two days. We work from Campbell, California across every county in the state, and we take out-of-state sets — we just will not pretend to know your local labor market.

Addenda after delivery are re-priced against the takeoff already built. Send the revised sheets and we turn the delta.

What it costs

Your first sample package is free. No card, no contract, no trial that quietly converts. After that it is concierge pricing per bid package — not a subscription, not a per-sheet meter:

Starter, $299–399. Small scopes: a stair and rail package, a canopy, a tenant improvement.
Standard, $549–899. A typical commercial bid: one building, a full structural set, deck and studs, stairs and rail.
Complex, $1,200–2,500. Large or multi-building work, phased packages, or metals spread across the architectural, civil and landscape sheets.

Add 35% for a 24-hour rush. Full tiers sit on the pricing section. Not sure which band your set falls in? Send it and we will tell you before any work starts.

Questions steel subs ask

What if the drawings are incomplete?

They usually are. Where the set is silent we do not guess into the total — the gap comes back as an RFI you can send as written, plus a separately listed allowance you can accept or delete.

What happens when an addendum drops?

Send it. Because every row is tied to a sheet, we re-price only what the addendum touched and call out the delta.

Do you price union or open-shop labor?

Whichever the job is. Send your rates and we use yours. Tell us the county and awarding agency and we will flag whether a project labor agreement or an Iron Workers district makes it a union bid.

What about prevailing wage jobs?

Priced at the applicable determination for the county and craft, with the proposal naming which one. If the awarding agency is not obvious from the cover sheet, that goes on the RFI list rather than into a guess.

What if I disagree with a quantity?

Open the marked-up sheet, find the bubble, tell us. It is a two-minute conversation about one detail rather than an argument about a total. If we got it wrong we fix it and reissue.

Can you match my existing spreadsheet format?

Usually. Send a workbook you have used before and we build the takeoff into your columns, your line-item order, your markup formulas.

Do you work with fabricators and erectors both?

Yes, and with misc-metals shops that do neither. A fabricator's package weights material and shop hours; an erector's weights piece count, crew days and crane time. Tell us which side you bid from.

Is my plan set confidential?

Your plans are never shared, never used to bid against you, and deleted on request.

Send one steel plan set. See what comes back.

The first package is free, and you keep it either way. Email the set with the job name and the bid date, or call and talk it through with an estimator first.

Email your plan set (408) 306-0094