Heard a foreman say 'measure once, cut once' is a myth for digital takeoffs

Last Thursday I was at a job site in Austin and overheard a foreman talking to a new guy. He said 'measure once, cut once' is a myth now with digital takeoff software. Said the real trick is to check your model against the site three times before you order materials. That hit home for me. I've been using PlanSwift for about 6 months and I caught myself trusting the numbers too fast. Ended up short on lumber for a deck project last spring because I didn't double check the scale. So now I run every takeoff through two different views in the software before I hit print. Has anyone else made that mistake or found a better way to verify their counts?

2 comments

2 Comments

matthew_owens915d ago

Got burned the same way on a roof takeoff last year. Trusted the digital cut list and ended up with a hundred feet of extra ridge cap I couldn't return. Now I always walk the physical site with a tape measure after I finish a digital takeoff just to see if my head math matches the computer's math. Makes me feel like an old timer but it saves my ass.

sanchez.mia15d ago

You know, I used to be all in on trusting the digital stuff completely. Thought the old timers were just being stubborn with their tape measures and head math, you know? But after I got burned real bad on a gutter order that was like 40 feet too long because the software had a glitch in the pitch calculation, it totally flipped my mindset. Now I always do a quick hand calc on site before I cut anything, and honestly it's saved me from looking like a complete fool more than once.