Drywall calculator: sheets, joint compound, tape and screws
Walls and ceilings in square feet, divided by the sheet, is the board. For each 1,000 square feet of it, the gypsum maker's handbook counts about 370 feet of tape and about 1,000 screws, and the maker counts about two pails of compound. In the example below a basement takes 47 sheets, 3 pails, 502 feet of tape and 1,356 screws.
Count the drywall
Type the rooms. You get the square feet of board, the sheets, the joint tape, the compound and the screws, and lines to put on a quote.
The rooms
Length and width of each floor. A new row opens when the last one is filled.
The board
One height for every room above. Count rooms of another height apart.
Leave it empty to count doors and windows as wall. A big picture window or a wide doorway is what goes here.
It starts at 32, a 4 by 8. A 4 by 10 is 40 and a 4 by 12 is 48.
It starts empty. The maker's own estimator leaves waste out, and we found no figure worth giving you. Type your own.
The finishing
It starts at 9, which is the maker's two pails.
It starts at 4.5. Type the size you buy.
It starts at 1000, the handbook's figure for framing 16 inches apart. For 24 inches it gives 850.
On the roll's label. Leave it empty to see the tape in feet.
Type the length and the width of a room, and the height of its walls. The count shows here.
A basement, counted
An example with made-up numbers, not a going rate
Say two rooms of a basement are 14 by 22 feet and 10 by 12, with 8 foot walls, and the ceilings get board too. The walls are 928 square feet and the ceilings 428: 1,356 square feet of board. Say you hang sheets of 32 square feet and add 10% for cuts: 47 sheets. Tape at 370 feet for each 1,000 square feet is 502 feet, which is 3 rolls if yours hold 250 feet. Compound at 9 gallons for each 1,000 is 12.2 gallons: 3 pails of 4.5. Screws at 1,000 for each 1,000 come to 1,356.
How it is worked out
- Each room's length and width, added and doubled, times the height of the walls. Add the ceilings, length times width, where they are boarded.
- Doors and windows stay in. The gypsum maker's handbook says openings are frequently figured solid, with large picture windows and large door openings as the exceptions. The box for openings is for those.
- Sheets: the square feet, plus your extra for cuts, divided by the square feet in one sheet, rounded up. USG lists its half-inch panels at 4 feet wide and from 8 to 16 feet long.
- Tape and screws are counted on the square feet that are built, with no extra. The handbook's figures for each 1,000 square feet are about 370 feet of joint tape, and about 1,000 screws for one layer on framing 16 inches apart or about 850 at 24 inches.
- Compound: USG says to expect about two 4.5 gallon pails of its lightweight ready-mixed compound for each 1,000 square feet, and that the rate is comparable to its other ready-mixed compounds.
Why the extra for cuts starts empty
USG's own estimator says its answer does not include an allowance for waste, and that other ways of installing may use more or less material.
We looked for a figure at a source worth naming and found none, so this page does not make one up. The box is yours. Your own last few jobs are the place to get it: sheets bought, against square feet hung.
Compound by the pound, and powders
- The pails in the count are ready-mixed compound, by the gallon. The same handbook also gives the all-purpose ready-mixed kind by weight: about 138 pounds for each 1,000 square feet.
- For setting-type powders it gives about 72 pounds of the conventional kind, or about 52 pounds of a lightweight one, for the same 1,000 square feet: CGC (a USG company), Gypsum Construction Handbook, chapter 3: Cladding.
- Those are one maker's figures for its own products. The figure on the pail or the bag you buy is the one to type.
What this count is not
- It does not count corner bead, adhesive or a second layer of board. A wall that has to be built to a rating is built to its own drawings, not to this page.
- It does not know the level of finish you are quoting. The gallons are one maker's general figure for finishing.
- It does not price anything. TailGateBid has no price data, and the box for what a sheet costs you is on the page that prices the job.
From the count to the quote
The lines under the calculator are written for a quote: a quantity, a unit and a name. Hanging and finishing are two lines on the same square feet, so a change in the finish changes one of them.
Next, work out what to charge to hang and finish it: the sheets at what one costs you, and your hours for each half of the job. Or put the lines on an estimate and print it.
TailGateBid for drywall names the levels of finish and has a quote worked through, and in the app the same lines go on a quote your customer signs on their phone.
Where each number comes from
- The box for one sheet starts at 32 square feet, a sheet 4 feet by 8. USG lists its half-inch panels at 4 feet wide and from 8 to 16 feet long, so a 4 by 12 is 48 square feet. Starting at the 4 by 8 is our choice. USG, Sheetrock Brand UltraLight Panels submittal sheet (WB2501), . (our choice, change it)
- Joint tape is counted at 370 feet for each 1,000 square feet of board, the figure in the gypsum maker's handbook. CGC (a USG company), Gypsum Construction Handbook, chapter 3: Cladding, .
- The box for joint compound starts at 9 gallons for each 1,000 square feet. USG says to expect about two 4.5 gallon pails of its lightweight ready-mixed compound for that much board, and two of those pails hold that many gallons. Starting there is our choice. A compound sold by weight has its own figure on the pail. USG, answer on the coverage of its ready-mixed joint compounds, . (our choice, change it)
- The box for one pail starts at 4.5 gallons, the pail USG's answer is given in. Starting there is our choice: type the size you buy. USG, answer on the coverage of its ready-mixed joint compounds, . (our choice, change it)
- The box for screws starts at 1,000 for each 1,000 square feet of board. The gypsum maker's handbook counts about that many for one layer on walls framed 16 inches apart, and about 850 where the framing is 24 inches apart. Starting at the first is our choice. CGC (a USG company), Gypsum Construction Handbook, chapter 3: Cladding, . (our choice, change it)
On a TailGateBid quote hanging and finishing are two lines by the square foot, and the sheets and the pails are counted the way you buy them.
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Sources
Related
- Drywall, hung and finishedSquare feet of board, sheets at your cost, and the hours of hanging kept apart from the hours of finishing, worked into a price for a square foot.
- DrywallSquare feet to hang and finish, sheets to buy, and the level of finish named on the quote.
- Estimate makerType a few lines and print a clean estimate or quote, in English or Spanish. Nothing you type is sent anywhere.
- Job price16 hours of work and $600 of materials cost you $1,320. See what five prices would leave you.
By TailGateBid. .
A count is as good as the measurements you type. What is printed on the bag, the can or the pail you buy decides, and so do the plans.