About the Founder
Built by an estimator, not a software company.
Tracer Takeoffs was built by Rob Easton, a Senior Quantity Surveyor and Estimator with over 25 years in UK civil engineering. He still measures from drawings every week. This is the tool he wanted.
Rob Easton
Founder, Tracer Takeoffs
Senior Quantity Surveyor & Estimator, West Sussex
25+
years in UK civil engineering
Tier 1
contractor experience: Vinci, Balfour Beatty and Costain
NEC / JCT / ICE
forms of contract, SMM7 and CESMM measurement
BSc (Hons)
Commercial Management & Quantity Surveying, plus HNC Civil Engineering
From site to Tier 1
Rob started as a quantity surveyor on petrochemical and pharmaceutical sites in 2001 and worked his way up through Tier 1 contractors including Vinci Construction (Taylor Woodrow), Balfour Beatty and Costain, leading commercial teams on major highways schemes and a county-wide highways maintenance contract. Along the way he has taken off, priced and commercially managed work at Heathrow, Gatwick, Southampton Docks, a major hospital redevelopment and university student accommodation, under NEC, JCT and ICE forms of contract.
And the other side of the table
As owner and Commercial Director of a formwork, steel fixing and reinforced concrete contractor in the South East, he did every tender, every valuation and every final account himself. Since 2015 he has run EASTONUK, a freelance quantity surveying and estimating consultancy working with regional civils contractors on earthworks, groundworks, highways and infrastructure projects.
Why Tracer exists
After two and a half decades of measuring from drawings, Rob was tired of takeoff software that cost a fortune every year, needed an IT department to install, and still made you fight the interface. So he built the tool he wanted: open a PDF, set the scale, measure lengths, areas and counts, export the quantities. Nothing to download, nothing to approve, priced so a sole trader can afford it.
“Tracer is built by someone who still does takeoffs for a living. If something is wrong, slow or missing, I will hear about it from my own work before you do.”
Try the tool an estimator built for himself.
Open a drawing and get quantities in minutes. No download, no IT ticket.