TakeoffQS is a browser-based construction quantity surveying platform built in Christchurch, New Zealand. It started as a partnership between Base Property Group and Agentic Intelligence, and launched as the first product on the BuildFoundry platform. It’s since grown into a standalone company within the BuildFoundry group, with its own team and its own customers.

TakeoffQS uses computer vision and AI to speed up the measuring and pricing of a residential construction takeoff. The process stays familiar. The grind goes away.

Where we’re at

The product is live and in daily use. Graham Hill Roofing has signed on as a customer, and a number of large New Zealand construction operators are in pilots, finalising agreements, or getting ready to go live. That group spans building merchants, frame and truss manufacturers, building-product manufacturers, group home builders and roofing businesses.

We’re working with downstream suppliers across the country, from Canterbury to the Bay of Plenty. And the product gets proven on real builds every week through Freedom Built, which puts up 90-odd homes a year in Canterbury.

Who it is for

TakeoffQS is designed for people who plan, estimate, price and supply construction work:

Whether you’re pricing one residential build a week or processing 1000 plans a month, TakeoffQS fits into your workflow.

How it works

TakeoffQS follows a four-step flow:

  1. Upload your plans. Add your PDF plan set. Relevant pages are detected automatically, or you pick the pages you need.
  2. Measure and verify. AI detects and measures the key building elements. You review, adjust, and verify every number.
  3. Extract your materials. Formulas turn verified measurements into real material quantities, built to your specs. Wall metres become studs, plates and dwangs at your spacings. Roof areas become tiles, underlay, ridge and flashings.
  4. Price and export. Quantities land on your own price book items and rates. Export a CSV for your construction management system or a priced materials schedule ready to send to suppliers or clients.

We’ve measured TakeoffQS at 5x the speed of a manual takeoff, with most takeoffs ready in minutes. AI does the heavy lifting, but the professional stays in control.

What it covers today

Pre-nail, balance of house, painting, and roofing are all live now, with more trades landing each quarter as we build new partnerships with experts and train new computer vision models.

Why it is different

Most takeoff tools were built for overseas markets and later adapted for New Zealand. TakeoffQS was built here first, and its computer vision engine is trained on NZ building plans, including inconsistent drafting styles and layouts. And unlike black-box tools, TakeoffQS is draft-first and human-verified: you can see, check, and edit before anything leaves the platform.

Cole and Brad from TakeoffQS inspecting a timber frame on a building site

The team behind it

TakeoffQS was co-founded by Cole Askew and Brad Fraser.

Cole brings close to two decades in construction, including running multiple building businesses. He’s a qualified carpenter and Licensed Building Practitioner (LBP), and he keeps the product grounded in real site and estimating workflows.

Brad brings operational discipline and AI execution. A former New Zealand Army officer, he combines strategic delivery with deep AI capability to help teams move faster with confidence.

The company has since grown well beyond its founders. Jason Simpson leads the technology as Chief Technical Officer, and Nick Latty runs the business day-to-day as General Manager. Behind them is a 13-strong cross-functional team working out of our HQ in Christchurch: sales, growth, design, marketing, AI engineers, and the annotators who train the computer vision models.

The team ships quickly and stays close to builders, QSs, trades, and suppliers, so each release solves a real problem. Meet the full team here.