Wall + ceiling area → sheets, drywall screws, joint tape & compound — metric and imperial — browser-only
- Runs locally
- Category Calculator
- Best for Getting a realistic range before a purchase, plan, workout, or schedule decision.
Standard spacing is one screw every 12 in (300 mm) along studs, plus the sheet field — roughly 32 per 4×8 sheet. Ceilings use tighter spacing; bump this up if you are boarding a lid.
What this tool does
Free online drywall calculator (also called sheetrock, plasterboard or gypsum board) for renovators, contractors and DIYers. Type your room as length × width × wall height, or punch in a coverage area directly, and the tool returns the four numbers a hardware-store run actually needs: how many sheets to buy, how many drywall screws, how much joint tape, and how much joint compound. It starts from the net surface — walls are the perimeter times the wall height, the ceiling is added with one tap, and you subtract doors and windows item by item so you are not boarding area that is not there. A waste margin (10% by default, bumped to 15-20% for ceilings or rooms with many cuts) is layered on, then the design area is divided by your chosen sheet size — 4×8, 4×10 and 4×12 ft, or 1.2×2.4 and 1.2×3.0 m — and rounded UP, because you cannot buy two-thirds of a sheet. Screws default to about 32 per 4×8 sheet (one every 12 in / 300 mm along the studs plus the sheet field); bump that figure for ceilings, which take tighter spacing. Joint tape is estimated from total board area, and joint compound is reported by weight for a typical three-coat finish. Everything works in both metric (m², m, kg) and US imperial (ft², ft, lb), and the share link reopens the exact estimate. 100% client-side — nothing you type leaves your browser.
Tool details
- Input
- Text + Numbers
- The page exposes text boxes, numeric controls, file pickers, or structured inputs depending on the tool.
- Output
- Live result + Copy
- The result area focuses on usable output, with copy, download, or preview actions when supported.
- Privacy
- Browser-side processing
- The main tool logic does not call an external API, so inputs normally stay in the current tab.
- Save / share
- Shareable URL state
- Key settings are encoded in the URL so another person can reopen the same setup.
- Performance budget
- Initial JS <= 11 KB
- No WASM budget is declared, keeping the tool quick to open on mobile.
- Best fit
- Calculator · Designer
- Category and role tags drive related tools, internal links, and quick fit checks.
How to use
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1. Input
Paste or drop your content into the tool panel.
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2. Process
Click the button. All processing is local in your browser.
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3. Copy / Download
Copy the result or download to disk in one click.
How Drywall Calculator fits into your work
Use it for fast estimates, comparisons, and planning numbers before you make the final call.
Calculation jobs
- Getting a realistic range before a purchase, plan, workout, or schedule decision.
- Comparing scenarios by changing one input at a time.
- Turning rough assumptions into a number you can discuss.
Calculation checks
- Double-check units, dates, rates, and rounding assumptions.
- Treat health, finance, tax, and legal outputs as planning aids, not professional advice.
- Save the inputs that produced an important result so you can reproduce it later.
Good next steps
These links move the current task into a more complete workflow.
- 1 Paint Calculator Wall area → litres & cans of paint, with doors/windows deducted, coats and price — metric & US units, browser-only Open
- 2 Tile Calculator Room area + tile size + grout joint + waste → tiles, boxes, and cost — metric or imperial, browser-only. Open
- 3 Concrete Calculator Slab, column, round footing & stairs → cubic meters/yards + cement bags, sand and gravel — browser-only Open
Real-world use cases
Board out a basement before drywallers quote
You are finishing a 6 × 4 m basement and want a sanity figure before three contractors quote wildly different sheet counts. Enter the room, tick "include ceiling", subtract the two egress windows, and you get a defensible sheet count plus screws, tape and compound. When a bid comes in 40% over, you know to ask why.
Order one full hardware run for a partition wall
A new 3.5 × 2.7 m stud partition needs board on both faces. Enter the wall area directly, double it for two sides, and the tool returns sheets, the screw count for the whole job, and the compound weight — so you place one order instead of three half-trips when you run short of mud halfway through taping.
Size a ceiling-only repair with tighter screw spacing
A water leak ruined a 4 × 4 m ceiling. Switch the area to ceiling only, raise screws-per-sheet to 48 for the tighter ceiling pattern, and the tool tells you the four sheets, the heavier screw count, and how much tape and compound the lid alone will take.
Compare 4×8 vs 4×12 sheets to cut seams
Longer sheets mean fewer butt joints to tape and sand. Toggle the sheet size between 4×8 and 4×12 ft for the same wall and watch the sheet count and tape estimate drop — concrete evidence for whether the pricier long boards are worth the labour they save.
Build a renovation materials list with the room set
You are pricing a full room: drywall, then paint, then flooring. Run the room here for boards and mud, hand the same dimensions to the paint calculator for cans, and to the tile calculator for the floor — one measured room, three honest material lists.
Common pitfalls
Forgetting the ceiling. Walls alone undercount a room badly — a 4×3 m room at 2.7 m walls is about 38 m², but the ceiling adds another 12 m², a third more board. Tick 'include ceiling' whenever you are boarding the lid, and raise the waste to 15-20% because ceiling sheets need tighter cuts.
Deducting openings twice or not at all. Subtract each door and window once, in the openings list — do not also shrink the room dimensions to 'allow' for them. And do not skip the deduction on a room with a wide patio door, where the openings can be 10-15% of the wall area.
Trusting the screw count for a ceiling. The 32-per-sheet default is a wall pattern. Ceilings are fastened every 8 in instead of 12, so a ceiling needs roughly 45-50 screws per sheet. Leaving the default in place will leave you a box of screws short on a lid.
Privacy
Every number — the room geometry, the sheet division, the screw, tape and compound estimates — is plain JavaScript that runs in your browser tab. No dimension, area or material figure is ever sent to a server, and there is no logging of what you calculated. The one thing that does travel: the shareable link encodes your inputs in the URL query string, so if you paste a "share this estimate" link into chat or email, the destination server's access log will see those room dimensions. For a normal job that is harmless; if the address or layout is sensitive, copy the result summary instead of sharing the URL.
FAQ
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