AI for commercial masonry contractors, tried first on takeoffs your estimators already carried.

The section often leaves out what the estimator needs. The Concrete Masonry Association of California and Nevada tells specifiers to keep mortar type, grout strength, unit weight and the method of verifying masonry strength out of the section and on the S-1 sheet, along with inspection and testing frequency. A takeoff priced from Division 04 alone can miss all of it, so the structural general notes count as part of every wall type here.

Shapes and lintels hide in the notes. The specification for Massillon City Schools' new Eastside PK-3 building, dated July 2023, calls for special shapes at lintels, corners, jambs, sash, control joints, headers and bonding, bullnose units at outside corners unless noted otherwise, and angled block at 45-degree corners. Northern Arizona University's 2025 technical standards want a masonry or steel lintel over any opening wider than one foot in brick-size units or two feet in block-size units. None of that shows in a wall tag, and all of it changes what gets ordered and laid.

What gets tested depends on the wall. On California public school and state essential services work, the Division of the State Architect's IR 21-1 sets testing by wall type and height. A non-bearing or free-standing wall under 6 feet can go without special inspection and without mortar or grout tests. One up to 12 feet gets both, and cores drop out only under a stated exception. Above 12 feet the table calls for cores. Those exemptions count only when the design professional marks them on form DSA 103, and a DSA-certified project inspector watches every stage regardless. A closeout record has to be kept by wall, because the requirement is set by wall.

The reports come from other people's desks. Boise's statement of special inspections says the owner, or the design professional acting for the owner, hires the inspection agency, not the contractor. On the Massillon school the construction manager engages the testing agency, the owner pays for it, and retesting anything that fails falls on the contractor. Your crew lays the wall, someone else writes down how it tested, and the reports tend to reach your project manager filed by date rather than by wall.

Mock-ups are scope, and they come first. Northern Arizona wants a sample wall of at least 36 square feet, approved by the owner and the design professional before materials are ordered, with three weeks of curing before anyone judges mortar color. The Ohio School Design Manual builds a complete through-wall penetration by each trade into its mock-up, then has the masonry contractor photograph or video the work to show to trades as they join the job. Those lines belong on a takeoff and in the file.

One limit covers both jobs. The test only ever sees copies of finished work. It never touches your estimating or job cost system, a live bid or a live record, and it never decides that a wall meets a code or that a test passes. An estimator checks every takeoff, and qualified inspectors and the engineer of record decide every test question. Certified payroll is outside it, and nothing on this page is legal or engineering advice.