Calculators for painting and finishing walls, each inside a step-by-step guide. The paint calculator turns room size into gallons (one gallon covers about 350 sq ft per coat on smooth, previously painted walls). The drywall calculator counts 4 x 8 or 4 x 12 sheets with 10 percent extra for cuts. The wallpaper calculator gives single or double rolls with extra for pattern matching, the baseboard calculator gives pieces of trim after subtracting doorways, and the wall stud calculator counts studs and plate boards at 12, 16, or 24 in on center.
Enter a wall’s length, stud spacing, corners, intersecting walls, and doors or windows to count studs and plate boards. Includes a stud layout chart for 12, 16, and 24 in on center, a room example, and what the IRC says about top plates and headers.
Multiply wall width by height, subtract openings, add 15 percent or more for pattern matching, and divide by the usable coverage of one roll. Then check the answer with a strip count before you order.
Add up the length of every wall, subtract about 3 ft per doorway, and add 10 percent for cuts. A 12 x 10 ft room with one doorway needs about 45 linear ft, or 6 pieces of 8 ft baseboard.
A gallon of interior paint covers roughly 350 sq ft per coat, so a typical 12 x 10 ft bedroom needs about 2 gallons for two coats. Measure your walls and let the calculator do the rest.
Divide your wall and ceiling area by the area of one sheet (32 sq ft for 4 x 8, 48 sq ft for 4 x 12) and add about 10 percent for cuts. A 12 x 10 ft room with 8 ft walls needs 11 sheets of 4 x 8 for the walls.