Drywall Calculator
How much drywall for a room? Enter the room size, sheet size and waste, and get sheets plus screws, joint compound and tape — walls only or walls and ceiling.
10% for cuts around doors, windows and outlets.
Drywall for 472 sq ft
17 sheets — 519 sq ft to buy with 10% waste
Wall area: 352 sq ft plus 120 sq ft of ceiling = 472 sq ft (43.9 sq m). You will also need about 544 drywall screws (roughly 32 per sheet), 2 × 5-gal buckets of joint compound (about 450 sq ft per bucket) and 1 roll of joint tape (about 500 sq ft per roll). Use 1/2-in sheets for walls and 5/8-in for ceilings or fire-rated walls.
Estimate. Deduct large openings if you want a tighter count, and confirm sheet availability — 12-ft sheets need a truck and a second pair of hands.
Formula used: Area = 2 × (length + width) × height (+ length × width for the ceiling). Sheets = area × (1 + waste%) ÷ sheet area, rounded up. Screws ≈ 32 per sheet; compound ≈ 1 bucket per 450 sq ft; tape ≈ 1 roll per 500 sq ft.
How this estimate works: Drywall is sold by the sheet, so the tool works out the wall area (perimeter times height) plus the ceiling if you include it, adds a waste allowance for cuts around doors, windows and outlets, and divides by the sheet size. Screws, compound and tape scale with the same area, using the standard trade rules of thumb — 32 screws per sheet, one 5-gallon bucket of compound per 450 square feet.
How the drywall calculator works
Drywall is sold by the sheet, so the tool works out the wall area (perimeter times height) plus the ceiling if you include it, adds a waste allowance for cuts around doors, windows and outlets, and divides by the sheet size. Screws, compound and tape scale with the same area, using the standard trade rules of thumb — 32 screws per sheet, one 5-gallon bucket of compound per 450 square feet, one roll of tape per 500 square feet. Use 1/2-in sheets for walls and 5/8-in for ceilings or fire-rated walls.
Try next: Insulation Calculator · Decking Calculator · Fence Calculator
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