Vaulted great room framing with floor trusses on an East Tennessee build

Service · East Tennessee

Material Take-Off Service for East Tennessee Builders

A material take-off is a line-by-line list of every stick, sheet and box a set of plans calls for, pulled before anything is ordered. Spectrum Building Products is a veteran-owned building materials supplier based in Talbott, Tennessee, serving builders across East Tennessee. Jared Jarnagin pulls each take-off himself.

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What is a material take-off, and why pull one before ordering?

Spectrum Building Products reads your construction plans and turns them into a complete, line-by-line material list. Framing lumber, sheathing, roofing, siding, windows, doors, hardware and fasteners are all counted from the drawings before a single order is placed.

A take-off is counting, done carefully. Every wall on the floor plan becomes plates, studs and headers. Every roof plane becomes rafters or trusses, decking and roofing. Every opening on the elevations becomes a window or a door with its hardware. The result is a list a supplier can price and a crew can build from.

Jared Jarnagin, who founded the company in 2016, pulls the take-off himself and stays with the job afterward. The person who counted your studs is the person standing on your lot when the load arrives.

Why the list comes first

Price means nothing without quantity. Two quotes for the same house can look far apart only because one counted less material. A take-off pulled from the plans gives you a fixed list to hold every price against. The background is in our guide to what a material take-off is.

What plans do I send, and what comes back?

Spectrum Building Products works from your plan set as a PDF or on paper. Send the floor plans, elevations, sections and details. What comes back is an itemized material list you can read, check and order from.

The more complete the set, the tighter the count. Send what you have:

Floor plans for every level
Exterior elevations, all sides
Building sections and wall sections
Framing, roof and foundation details
Window and door schedules, if the plans have them
Notes on any brands you prefer

What you get back

The list is line by line. Each line names the item, the size where that matters, and the quantity. Framing lumber sits with framing lumber. Sheathing, roofing, siding, windows, doors, hardware and fasteners each get their own lines. Waste is already figured in, so the number on the page is the number to order.

Timing depends on the plans. A simple ranch reads faster than a cabin with a cut-up roof on a Sevier County slope. Jared gives you a date when he sees the plans.

What you get

What does a material take-off from Spectrum Building Products include?

Spectrum Building Products counts the building from your plans, and each take-off covers these six parts.

Framing lumber count

Plates, studs, headers, joists, rafters and beams are counted from the floor plans and sections, sized the way the drawings call them out.

Sheathing and roofing

Wall and roof sheathing, underlayment and roofing are figured from the elevations and the roof plan, with the roof shape taken into account.

Siding and exterior

Siding is measured off the elevations one side after another, so gables and tall walls on sloped lots are not missed.

Windows and doors

Each opening on the plans is listed as its own line, matched to the schedule when the plan set includes one.

Hardware and fasteners

Hangers, connectors, nails and screws are listed alongside the lumber they hold together, so the small boxes arrive with the big bundles.

Built-in waste factors

Waste is added by material and by building shape, so the quantity on each line is the quantity to order, with nothing left to pad.

Framed room with floor trusses overhead and a wide window opening facing the woods

What goes wrong when a material list is short or padded?

Spectrum Building Products counts from the plans because both mistakes cost the builder. A short list stops the framing crew while someone runs for material. A padded list leaves paid-for lumber sitting in the mud when the job ends.

A short shipment rarely shows on delivery day. It shows mid-wall, when the crew reaches for headers that were never on the truck. Framers stand around. The builder gets on the phone. A second delivery has to find room on a lot that is already tight, and on a steep cabin site above Gatlinburg an extra truck trip is no small thing.

Padding hides the opposite way. Extra bundles get stacked at the edge of the lot, rained on and driven over. Returns take time nobody has. The money is spent either way.

How waste factors are thought about

Waste is real. Boards get cut. Some come crowned or split. A roof with hips and valleys eats more decking than a plain gable. So waste is built in by material and by the shape of the building, not spread evenly across every line. See our piece on cutting material waste on a build.

Step by step

How does a material take-off work, step by step?

Spectrum Building Products keeps the take-off process short. Four steps, and one person handles all of them.

Send the plans

Email your plan set as a PDF to jaredj@sbptn.com or hand over printed sheets. Include floor plans, elevations, sections and details, plus any brand preferences you already have.
Jared reads them

Jared goes through the drawings sheet by sheet and asks about anything unclear before he counts. He gives you a date for the finished list once he has seen the plans.
Review the list

You get the line-by-line material list. Look it over, flag changes and confirm product choices. Nothing is priced or ordered until the list is right.
List goes to pricing

The approved take-off becomes the list that is priced across the vendor market. The same list is used later to check deliveries on your job site.

Who should use a take-off service?

Spectrum Building Products pulls take-offs for residential and commercial builders of all sizes, with no strict minimum project size. If you have plans and need to know what the building takes in material, the service fits.

Different builders lean on it for different reasons.

Custom builders. Every house is a first run. There is no last job to copy the list from, so the plans have to be read fresh.
Production builders. A subdivision around Knoxville repeats the same few plans. A clean list per plan keeps every start consistent.
Owner-builders with a plan set. You may only build once. A full list shows what you are buying before you commit to it.
Remodelers with partial plans. An addition may only have a few sheets. Send them. Jared will tell you what can be counted from the drawings and what needs a conversation.

Light commercial work is handled the same way. The building type changes what is on the list. The method does not change: read the drawings, count the material, write it down.

How does the take-off feed the price search?

Spectrum Building Products uses the finished take-off as the shopping list for the vendor market. Every line is priced across regional yards, national distributors and specialty suppliers, so the quantities you approved are the quantities being quoted.

The take-off is the first step, not the end product. Once the list is settled it goes straight into vendor price sourcing, where each line is priced with more than one kind of supplier. Because the list was pulled before any vendor was called, every vendor quotes the same count.

The same list follows the job

After pricing, the take-off keeps working. In the primary East Tennessee service area, Jared is on site when materials arrive and checks the delivery against that list. A short or wrong line is caught at the truck, while the driver is still there to hear about it.

A take-off with market pricing can also be run before a project starts. That gives you a material budget baseline to bid from, built on your actual plans. Ask about it at (423) 736-0765.

From the job site

Recent work on East Tennessee job sites

Floor system and wall panels under construction in morning shadow — Floor system down, wall panels going up.

Framed wall panels braced on a new subfloor deck — Wall panels braced on the subfloor deck.

Wall frames standing on a subfloor in early morning light — Wall frames standing on the subfloor.

Common questions

What do builders ask about a material take-off?

Short answers from Spectrum Building Products. If yours is not here, ask Jared directly.

(423) 736-0765

Can you do a framing take-off from plans that are not final?

Yes. Spectrum Building Products can pull a take-off from a preliminary set, and it is useful for budgeting. The list is only as final as the drawings, though. When the plans change, tell Jared what moved and the affected lines get recounted before anything is ordered.

Is a lumber take-off from plans different from a full material take-off?

A lumber take-off stops at framing. The take-off from Spectrum Building Products goes further and covers sheathing, roofing, siding, windows, doors, hardware and fasteners. That matters because the pieces most often forgotten are the small ones, and a missing box of hangers can hold up a floor system.

How long does a material take-off take?

It depends on the plans, so there is no stock answer. A plain house reads faster than a large custom home with a complicated roof or a light commercial building. Jared gives you a date when he sees the plans, and he will say so up front if a sheet is missing.

Do you pull take-offs for projects outside East Tennessee?

Yes. Spectrum Building Products is based in Talbott and also works in Chattanooga, Charlotte and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The take-off itself works the same way anywhere. On-site presence at delivery is standard in the primary East Tennessee area, and Jared will explain how delivery verification is handled for a project elsewhere.

What if my framer asks for something that is not on the list?

Call Jared at (423) 736-0765. Framers build differently, and a crew may want extra blocking or a different header layout than the drawings show. The material is sourced and added to your existing bill, so the change does not become a separate order with a separate invoice.

Is there a minimum project size for a take-off?

No strict minimum. Spectrum Building Products works with residential and commercial builders of all sizes. If you have a set of plans, or even part of one for a remodel or an addition, send it and Jared will tell you what he can count from it.

Last Updated: October 2026

Start with the plans

Ready to send the plans?

Spectrum Building Products is based in Talbott, Tennessee and supplies builders across East Tennessee. Tell Jared about the job and he will tell you when to expect the list.

Get a Free Quote (423) 736-0765