Drywall Calculator
Calculate drywall sheets, compound, tape and screws for a room.
About Drywall Calculator
Sheets are whole units so the result is always rounded up, and waste covers cuts around openings that cannot be reused. Compound, tape and screws all scale with boarded area rather than sheet count. Only large openings are worth deducting: subtracting every small window leaves too little material once offcuts are discarded.
Formula
Drywall
Sheets = net area × (1 + waste) ÷ sheet area
- net area
- Wall plus ceiling area less window and door openings
- sheet area
- 2.88 m² for a standard 1.2 × 2.4 m board
Worked example
With the default values below, Drywall Calculator returns Sheets Required of 29. Change any input above and every figure here is recalculated in your browser.
Inputs used
- Wall areaminimum 0 m2
- 60 m2
- Ceiling areaminimum 0 m2
- 20 m2
- Area per sheetminimum 0.1 m2
- 2.88 m2
- Openings to deductminimum 0 m2
- 6 m2
- Waste allowanceaccepts 0–50 %
- 10 %
Results
- Sheets Required
- 29
- Net Area to Board
- 74.00 m2
- Joint Compound
- 37.0 kg
- Joint Tape
- 111 m
- Screws Required
- 1,480
Step by step
- 1Values used
- 2Drywall
- 3Sheets Required= 29
- 4Net Area to Board= 74.00 m2
- 5Joint Compound= 37.0 kg
- 6Joint Tape= 111 m
- 7Screws Required= 1,480
Assumptions and limits
- The result is derived only from the 5 inputs listed above. Anything not among them is not part of the calculation.
- In particular, this calculator does not take inflation, fees or charges or compounding frequency into account.
- Figures are rounded for display to 2 decimal places, so totals built from several rounded parts can differ slightly from the unrounded arithmetic.
How these calculators are built and tested is described on the Methodology page. If a figure looks wrong, please report it.
Frequently Asked Questions
How is Drywall calculated?
Sheets = net area × (1 + waste) ÷ sheet area Sheets are whole units so the result is always rounded up, and waste covers cuts around openings that cannot be reused. Compound, tape and screws all scale with boarded area rather than sheet count.
Why does Drywall matter?
Only large openings are worth deducting: subtracting every small window leaves too little material once offcuts are discarded.
What values do I need to enter?
This calculator takes 5 inputs: Wall area, Ceiling area, Area per sheet, Openings to deduct, Waste allowance. The pre-filled defaults are a realistic starting point — replace them with figures from your own environment for a result you can act on.