Concrete by the cubic metre, before anyone prices it.
This trade is a takeoff before it is a code check, and the page says so: three Ontario rules are filed under structural and one of them reads the drawing. What the engine does for concrete is measure it.
What the engine reads off the drawing
Every reader runs on every file, whichever trades the audit is scoped to. Choosing this trade decides which rules get reported. The drawing is read either way.
Slabs, by area and depth
A slab outline traced on the plan becomes a volume once its depth is set, and the depth is yours to type. Nothing here guesses a thickness from a hatch pattern.
Formwork, by contact area
The measured perimeter and height give the contact area that gets priced, with deductions taken off rather than subtracted afterwards by hand.
Equipment weight against structure
Roof-mounted mechanical equipment over 500 lbs is checked for the dunnage the structural drawing should show. It is the one structural rule that reads two disciplines at once.
3 Ontario rules, and which of them read the drawing
Answered from the drawing means the check reaches a pass or a fail from what was extracted. Checklist means the rule is printed with its clause for a person to confirm. Both are useful on a permit set, and only the first is a finding.
| Clause | What it requires | How it is answered |
|---|---|---|
| OBC 2025 Article 4.1.3 (structural adequacy) | Roof-mounted mechanical equipment above 500 lbs must have corresponding structural support on the structural drawings | From the drawing |
| OBC 2025 Article 9.4.2.1 | Footing width must be specified and adequate for soil bearing capacity | Checklist |
| OBC 2025 Article 9.4.4.2 / NBC Appendix C (Toronto) | Footings must bear minimum 1200mm below finished grade (Toronto frost depth) | Checklist |
Counts and clauses are exported from the rule packs themselves, by the same function the trade picker inside Blueprint Auditor calls.
What the other packs carry
Ontario is the deepest pack because it is where the rules were written first. Each column shows what that pack holds today, and a zero is a zero rather than a blank.
| Pack | Rules in this trade | Answered from the drawing |
|---|---|---|
| Ontario | 3 | 1 |
| British Columbia | 0 | 0 |
| National Building Code (Canada) | 0 | 0 |
| California | 0 | 0 |
| Florida | 0 | 0 |
| New York City | 0 | 0 |
| IRC (model code) | 0 | 0 |
| England | 0 | 0 |
The scope a quote gets checked against
Bid Leveler holds a published checklist per trade, so levelling three quotes means asking each of them the same 11 questions. 6 are marked critical: a quote can drop one of those and the bid form will still look complete.
- 03 11 00 Formwork — supply, erect, strip
- 03 21 00 Reinforcing steel — supply
- 03 21 00 Reinforcing steel — place and tie
- 03 31 00 Concrete supply
- 03 30 00 Concrete placing and finishing
- 03 39 00 Curing, sealing and hardeners
- 03 15 00 Embeds, inserts and anchor bolts
- 03 15 13 Joints, waterstop and sealants
- 03 01 00 Concrete testing and inspection
- 03 38 00 Post-tensioning
- 31 23 23 Granular base and vapour barrier
Scope checklist revision 2026.1, sourced for Toronto and the GTA. It describes what a quote in that market leaves out; elsewhere, treat it as a starting list.
Said before you pay for it
- Reinforcement is not taken off. Bar schedules are read as text where a set prints them, and nothing is inferred from a section.
- There is no structural analysis here of any kind. Adequacy is the engineer’s, and the one check above only asks whether the drawing shows support where equipment is shown.
- Only Ontario carries structural rules today. Elsewhere the concrete takeoff works and the rule count is zero, which the table below states plainly.
- Nothing here is a permit approval. It is the first pass an experienced reviewer makes, done in minutes and cited to the clause.
Bring the hardest set you have.
A real set off a live job. The audit runs in minutes and every finding carries the clause and the sheet, so you can check the ones you disagree with.