Drywall Estimator
Enter room dimensions and openings to get sheets of drywall plus the joint compound, tape, and screws to finish them, all in the quantities stores actually sell.
Sheets
19
Joint compound
1 bucket
Tape
1 roll
Screws
2 lb
533 sq ft net area with 10 percent waste included. Buckets are 4.5 gal ready-mix (about 1000 sq ft each), tape rolls are 500 ft, and screws figure roughly 32 per sheet.
How the math works
Wall area is the room perimeter times ceiling height, plus length times width if the ceiling is included. Standard deductions of 21 square feet per door and 15 per window come off, then 10 percent goes back on for cuts and breakage, and the total divides by your sheet size.
Finishing materials scale with area: roughly a 4.5 gallon bucket of compound per 1000 square feet, 37 feet of tape per 100 square feet, and 32 screws per sheet, converted to the pounds and rolls you actually buy.
FAQ
- How many sheets of drywall for a 12x14 room?
- A 12 by 14 room with 8 foot ceilings has 416 square feet of wall and 168 of ceiling. After subtracting a door and two windows and adding 10 percent waste, that is about 19 sheets of 4x8 drywall including the ceiling.
- How much joint compound per sheet of drywall?
- Plan on one 4.5 gallon bucket of ready-mix compound per 1000 square feet of drywall for a full tape-and-three-coat finish. Heavier textures use more.
- Should I use 4x8 or 4x12 sheets?
- Longer sheets mean fewer joints to tape and a flatter finished wall, and pros prefer 4x12 where it fits. For solo DIY work and tight stairways, 4x8 sheets are far easier to carry and hang, and the extra joints are a fair trade.
- How many screws per sheet of drywall?
- About 32 screws per 4x8 sheet on 16 inch stud spacing: screws every 12 inches in the field and every 8 inches on edges. A pound of 1-1/4 inch coarse drywall screws is roughly 320 screws, enough for about ten sheets.