Worked example
One real job, start to finish
A domestic extension and remodel — architect's drawings and structural engineer's drawings, as they were issued. Nothing was tidied up first, and nothing has been tidied up since.
- 17
- drawings in
- 105
- line items to price
- 16
- sections
- 27
- confirmations
- £49
- about 8 minutes
What went in
17 PDFs, about 29 MB — the set as the contractor received it, uploaded whole. No preparation, no renaming, no selecting the helpful ones.
The drawings themselves are a practice's copyright work for a private client, so they are described here rather than published.
Architect
- Existing floor plans
- Proposed floor plans (A1, 1:50)
- Proposed sections (A2, 1:50)
- Proposed elevations
- Demolition plan
- Proposed site plan
- Proposed electrical layouts (A1, 1:50)
- Proposed floor finishes
- Window and external door schedule (A2, 1:50)
- Proposed external works
- Proposed deck plan
- Fireplace detail
- Sanitary details
- Materials and workmanship specification
Structural engineer
- Structural engineer's general arrangement
- Structural engineer's details
- Structural engineer's appendix drawings
What came out
The confirmations are the part to read first
Before the schedule, Scopa lists what the drawings did not settle — conflicts between the architect's and the engineer's information, decisions still with the client, and what has been assumed so that an item could still be written rather than left as a gap. This is a check on the set as much as a schedule of works.
Drawing conflicts
1. Rooflight size
The architect's schedule (SH.01) gives skylight SL-00-01 as 1250 x 1500mm; the Structural Engineer's drawing SK02 shows the rooflight as 1.50 x 1.00m and the calculations check a 1.50 x 1.00m opening. The doubled-up trimmer has been priced from the engineer's drawing. Confirm the actual rooflight size and re-check the trimmer if the larger unit is used. Conflict — engineer's version priced.
Drawing conflicts
2. Biodiversity boxes
Planning condition (04) requires a sparrow terrace nest box, bat box and Seville (swift) nest box. The elevations show 2 no. Type 24 Schwegler bird boxes and 1 no. bat 'midi' box. Priced from the elevations. Confirm the box types required to discharge the planning condition. Conflict / confirmation required.
Drawing conflicts
3. Flat roof falls
Details state firrings "designed to 1:40 falls to achieve 1:80 practical falls" while the roof plan annotates 1:40 falls. Confirm the design fall. Confirmation required.
Items to be confirmed
11. Boiler / heat source strategy
The notes say "boiler needs upgrading" and separately show an ASHP "only recommended if house has external wall insulation". Both are currently allowed (boiler firm, ASHP provisional). Confirm one heat source to avoid double pricing.
Exclusions and assumptions
20. Construction Environmental Management Plan
(planning condition 05) and compliance with the Preliminary Ecology Assessment — assumed provided by others. Bat emergence surveys can only be undertaken May–September, which affects the programme; no allowance for delay is included.
22 more, across drawing conflicts, items to be confirmed, provisional allowances and exclusions.
The schedule
105 line items, in the order a job gets built
Two sections reproduced in full below, exactly as they came out. Written from the drawings — sizes, references and materials are the set's own wording wherever the drawings gave it.
2. Demolition
- Demolish the existing garage (approximately 48m2) including foundations, floor slab and roof. Set aside and stack the garage wall stone on site for the client's re-use in the garden walls and planters, and set aside sound roof tiles for re-use on the new pitched roof.
- Demolish the existing UPVC and glass conservatory (approximately 15.5m2) including base and floor slab.
- Remove the existing fireplace and chimney breasting as shown on drawing 2526329/SK02, and cap the existing chimney at ceiling level. Provide temporary support to the chimney stack above until the new support steelwork is installed.
- Take down the existing non load bearing partitions shown for removal on the proposed ground floor plan, including the partitions to the existing utility, shower room and hall re-planning.
- Strip out the existing utility room fittings, worktops, appliances and redundant service connections.
- Strip out the existing shower room including sanitary fittings, wall and floor finishes and redundant service connections.
- Strip out the existing bathroom including sanitary fittings, wall and floor finishes and redundant service connections for refitting.
- Strip out the existing kitchen units, worktops, sink and appliances to allow the new opening to the dining room and the kitchen refit. Disposal of fridges and freezers is excluded; the householder arranges removal through the local council.
- Form the widened opening between the kitchen and the new dining room in the existing external wall, including cutting out, needling and propping as required and making good reveals with fully bonded dense concrete common bricks (min. 20.0 N/mm2).
- Form the new door and window openings in the existing external walls to the porches and link as shown, including cutting out, needling and propping as required and making good reveals with fully bonded dense concrete common bricks (min. 20.0 N/mm2).
- Block up the existing openings identified on the proposed ground floor plan, in blockwork tied to the existing masonry with Furfix stainless steel wall starters.
- Cut the existing roof truss rafters back to the wallplate at the rear extension junction and ensure the existing trusses are mechanically fixed to the wallplate.
- Take up the existing patio paving carefully and set aside on site for re-use.
- Fell and remove the tree adjacent to the house identified for removal on the proposed ground floor plan, and grub out the root system.
9. Structural Members
- Supply and install 2/ 178 x 102 x 19 UB beams as Beam (B.06), bolted together with M12 (Gr4.6) bolts and 48.3 x 3.2 CHS spacer tubes at maximum 600mm centres, over the maximum 3000mm opening, including temporary support to the existing structure until packed tight under the existing masonry with drypack mortar.
- Supply and install 152 x 89 x 16 UB ridge beams (R/B.01) and (R/B.02) to the pitched extension roofs, including the full depth 6mm MS end plate splice connection with 2/ M16 (Gr8.8) bolts, and timber packers bolted to the UB web with M12 (Gr4.8) bolts at 600mm staggered centres.
- Supply and install 152 x 89 x 16 UB roof/eaves beams (B.01) and (B.02), including timber wallplate and packers fixed to the UB with M12 (Gr4.8) bolts at 600mm centres.
- Supply and install 152 x 89 x 16 UB Beam (B.03) supporting the roof/eaves beams (B.01) and (B.02).
- Supply and install 152 x 89 x 16 UB Beams (B.04) and (B.05) as chimney stack support, set above ceiling level, with 6mm MS end plate connection and 2/ M16 (Gr8.8) bolts, Beams (B.05) bearing onto the outer UB of Beam (B.06) with no wallplate.
- Supply and install 152 x 89 x 16 UB return tie beam (B.07) with minimum 350 x 6mm thick MS ledger plate welded to the UB bottom flange (6FW, 150mm hit/miss), including 100 x 120 x 6mm MS fin plate connection with 2/ M16 (Gr8.8) bolts to the wind post.
- Supply and install 100 x 100 x 5.0 SHS wind post to the rear link wall, capped with 6mm MS plate, on a minimum 200 x 200 x 10mm MS baseplate with 4/ M12 chemical anchors (R-KEM II by Rawlplug, or similar approved) on minimum 15mm non-shrink grout bolted to the mass concrete strip foundation, and tied to the cavity blockwork with stainless steel flexible end frame cramps at maximum 225mm vertical staggered centres with neoprene isolation washers and patches.
- Provide minimum 500 x 200 x 150mm deep C28/35 cast in-situ mass concrete padstones (P1) set onto the existing masonry at all beam bearings shown on drawing 2526329/SK02.
- Provide minimum 330 x 100 x 140mm deep C28/35 precast concrete padstones/lintels set onto the existing masonry at the locations shown on drawing 2526329/SK02.
- Provide standard duty 'L1/S' cavity lintels (by IG Lintels, or similar approved) to all new external wall openings to the front and rear extensions, with minimum 150mm end bearings, minimum 665mm returns where shown, insulated cavity closer and cavity tray to weep holes at maximum 450mm centres with a minimum of 2 per opening.
- Provide 'R15A' 100 x 140mm deep pre-stressed concrete lintels (by Stressline Lintels, or similar approved) to all internal wall openings, with minimum 150mm end bearings.
- Provide doubled up flat roof joists (minimum 2/ 47 x 150mm deep C24 timbers) as trimmers to the link rooflight, bolted together with M12 (Gr4.6) bolts and 50 x 50 x 2.5mm square washers at maximum 600mm centres.
- Apply corrosion protection to the structural steelwork: blast clean to ISO Sa 2½ and apply minimum 80 microns DFT epoxy zinc phosphate primer to internal steelwork, with an additional coat of bitumen paint to steelwork in cavities or bearing on external solid masonry; galvanise all external steelwork to BS EN 1461.
The other 14 sections run from preparation through to fixtures and fittings.
What this is, and what it is not
It is a first draft. It was written by AI reading the drawings, and AI can make mistakes — you read it against your own set and adjust it before you price or issue anything, the same way you would read a draft from anyone else in the office.
What it saves is the writing, not the checking. On this job that was the difference between a day or more of somebody's time and 8 minutes plus a read-through. The fee you charge for the schedule does not change, what it costs you to create does.
Drawings are deleted as soon as the run finishes. The schedule and the confirmations are emailed to you, and nothing is kept.
This one is the standard section order. The same schedule can be written in theNBS (CAWS) arrangement instead, with section codes and empty PC sum and price columns.
Hold it against whatever a general AI assistant gives you on the same set — thatcomparison is here, and it is the honest version rather than a table of ticks.