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Corner Bead Calculator

Count your outside corners; we do the sticks.

An estimate of quantity — bevel and bullnose beads are installed differently.

12' · 144 in · 12 ft · 3.6576 m

10' · 120 in · 10 ft · 3.048 m

8' · 96 in · 8 ft · 2.4384 m

439 ft²

Inch Calculator advises about 10%, which is where this starts. Laid out sheet by sheet, a small room with a ceiling comes nearer 13%; a large room wastes far less. It is added once, to every product on the list.

This page recalculates as you type. There is no Calculate button.

Answer

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Outside corner bead

17.6 ft

439 ft² to board · 17 sheets · 17 × 4 × 8 ft

Buy 17 × 4 × 8 ft sheets
Area to board, net 439 ft²
Ticked items cost $331.14
More numbers
With the 10% for cuts 482.9 ft²
Screws 452 screws
Joint compound 4.35 gal
Joint tape 178.67 ft
Weight to carry 870 lb
DrawingThe project drawn to scale. Room 1: 12' × 10'.12'10'Room 1

Buying noteScrews are counted sheet by sheet, so a screw on a shared edge is counted twice. The real number is a little lower — the safe side for a shopping list.

Breakdown

Part Measurements Qty Area Share
Room 1 12' × 10' × 8', 1 door, 1 window Add ×1 439 ft²

What to buy

Buying noteScrews are counted sheet by sheet, so a screw on a shared edge is counted twice. The real number is a little lower — the safe side for a shopping list.

Shopping list

17 17 × 4 × 8 ft (15 to hang + 2 spare) $271.66 Reference price $24.48. Type your store's. Reference price $21.98. Type your store's. Reference price $18.98. Type your store's. Reference price $17.48. Type your store's. Reference price $15.98. Type your store's.
2 2 × 1 lb box $17.96 Reference price $26.98. Type your store's. Reference price $8.98. Type your store's.
1 1 × 4.5 gal $19.98 Reference price $19.98. Type your store's. Reference price $17.98. Type your store's. Reference price $14.98. Type your store's.
1 1 × 250 ft roll $7.98 Reference price $12.98. Type your store's. Reference price $7.98. Type your store's.
2 2 × 9 ft stick $13.56 Reference price $8.98. Type your store's. Reference price $7.48. Type your store's. Reference price $6.78. Type your store's. Reference price $5.98. Type your store's.
Ticked items $331.14

Untick what you already have. Each row has its price beside it — type what your store charges.

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Cutting list

Every sheet size, hung on your walls and ceiling the way the form asks - in rows across the studs, or upright along them - with the offcut of one row starting the next; each size's cost is the sheets it hangs, before the spares the waste adds in the list above. Doors and windows are hung over and cut out after, so they save no sheet. The 54 in width is offered and never picked for you: it is a pro-yard item, and two rows of it cover a 9 ft wall.

14 × 4 × 8 ft 0" thrown away
10 × 8'
3 × 2 × 4'
1 × 4 × 2'
Sheet layoutEach bar is one sheet, drawn to scale along its length, with the rows cut from it and the end left over.x108'x34'4'x12'2'2'2'

Standards

We hold the criteria and the clause, not the wording of the standard.

Meets IRC 2021 · R702.3.5

Screws at 16 in on walls framed 16 in, which is what the table allows.

Meets IRC 2021 · R702.3.5

At 16 in framing the table lists ceiling board either way, along the joists or across them.

Not checked IRC 2021 · R702.3.5

If this is a garage ceiling with a habitable room over it, the table asks for 5/8 in Type X run across the framing with fasteners at 6 in — half the usual spacing. Whether the room above is a habitable one is not something a measurement can tell us.

How this was worked out

Every number below is yours. Each constant links to the row where you can change it.

Room 1 2 × (12' + 10') × 8' − 21 ft² − 12 ft² + 12' × 10' 439 ft²

Change:One door openingOne window opening

With the waste for cuts 439 ft² × (1 + 10%) 482.9 ft²
Sheets to buy 14 × 4 × 8 ft hung in rows with nothing left over, 15 sheets with the strip rows ripped from whole ones × (1 + 10%) 17 × 4 × 8 ft
Screws (walls 319 ft² × 28 a sheet ÷ 32 ft² + ceiling 120 ft² × 35 a sheet ÷ 32 ft²) × (1 + 10%) 452 screws → 2 × 1 lb box

Change:Screw spacing, wall at 16 in o.c.Screw spacing, ceiling

Joint compound 439 ft² × 0.009 gal/ft² × (1 + 10%) 4.35 gal → 1 × 4.5 gal

Change:Compound per unit area

Joint tape 439 ft² × 0.37 ft/ft² × (1 + 10%) 178.67 ft → 1 × 250 ft roll

Change:Tape per unit area

Outside corner bead 16 ft × (1 + 10%) 17.6 ft → 2 × 9 ft stick
Weight of the sheets 17 × 32 ft² × 1.6 lb/ft² 870 lb

Change:Board weight, 1/2 in regular

What it comes to 17 × $15.98 + 2 × $8.98 + 1 × $19.98 + 1 × $7.98 + 2 × $6.78 $331.14

Assumptions

Every one of these is editable. Change one and the answer changes with it.

Assumption Value Confidence
Board weight, 1/2 in regularNominal weight of 1/2 in regular gypsum board. Gold Bond submittal 110638 (04/15); CertainTeed gives 1.6 as well. Inch Calculator works at about 1.7, which is 6-7% over what the mills publish. lb/ft² From a data sheet or an agency document
One door openingA 3 x 7 ft opening; Benjamin Moore takes 21 ft² for a door too. The paint cluster takes 20 ft², the finished leaf, because paint stops at the casing and board is cut to the opening. Neither 20 nor 21 is a measured rough opening: both are conventions, and the box is there for anyone who has measured theirs. ≈ ft² Trade convention
One window openingA 3 x 4 ft window. Benjamin Moore takes 12 ft² as well, Sherwin-Williams 15. Inch Calculator's drywall page has no opening box at all. ≈ ft² Trade convention
Screw spacing, wall at 16 in o.c.IRC Table R702.3.5, wall, framing 16 in o.c., application without adhesive: screws not more than 16 in apart. Same figure in the IRC 2021 and IRC 2024 text. in From a data sheet or an agency document
Screw spacing, ceilingIRC Table R702.3.5, ceiling, without adhesive: screws not more than 12 in apart, at 16 and at 24 in framing alike. Same figure in the IRC 2021 and IRC 2024 text. in From a data sheet or an agency document
Screws in a pound, 1-1/4 inGrip-Rite coarse thread drywall screw table, #6 x 1-1/4 in, the length for 1/2 in board: 258 per pound. Retail listings print lower counts on the box (238 in a 1 lb box), and the count printed on the box governs. screws/lb From a data sheet or an agency document
Compound per unit areaUSG's FAQ gives two 4.5 gal pails of UltraLightweight All Purpose compound per 1,000 ft² of board, which is 9 gal per 1,000 ft². It is one maker's rule of thumb for one product in a FAQ rather than a coverage off a data sheet, and a setting-type compound mixed from powder will differ. Inch Calculator works in lb/ft² and publishes no figure, so there is nothing of theirs to compare. ~ gal/ft² Derived or single-supplier
Tape per unit areaUSG Sheetrock Heavy joint tape data sheet: 370 ft per 1,000 ft² of board, which is 0.37 ft of tape per square foot. ft/ft² From a data sheet or an agency document

How much corner bead a room takes

An upright outside corner runs the full height of the wall it is on, so the arithmetic is a count times a height. This page opens on a 12 by 10 foot room with 8 foot walls and two outside corners: 2 × 8 = 16 feet of bead, or 17.6 feet with the 10% allowed for waste, which buys as two 9 foot sticks rather than three 8 foot ones.

Each part card has the count on it. Set it to none and the row drops off the shopping list; a room with a chimney breast, a boxed-in column or a window return has two corners per feature, and a project with several rooms gets each one's own height — which is the reason the count is per part and not per page.

Why we have to ask

A rectangular room has four corners and all four are inside ones, taped with paper. Outside corners come from things the shape of the room does not describe: a soffit over the cabinets, a dropped ceiling, the sides of a doorway with no casing, a half wall, a column. No amount of measuring the room tells us how many there are, so no calculator can work it out — which is why most do not offer corner bead at all.

The honest options were to guess or to ask. We ask.

Sticks and lengths

Bead Lengths Source
Paper-faced metal8, 9, 10 ftBeadex, USG catalog J1688
Galvanized metal8, 9, 10, 12 ftClarkDietrich 103 Deluxe
Vinyl8, 9, 10, 12 ftTrim-Tex

The page works out all four lengths and picks the cheapest combination at the prices beside them. Buying a stick that reaches the full height matters more here than on most materials: a bead spliced halfway up a corner leaves a step that shows through two coats of paint, so the hint is always to buy long enough rather than to buy tight. For a 9 foot wall that means the 9 or the 10 foot stick, not two 8s with a joint at 8 feet.

Bead, and what goes on it

Corner bead is not taped — it is nailed, screwed, clinched or bedded in compound depending on the type, and then coated. Three coats of compound over a bead is normal, and that mud is already in the compound figure on the other pages, which is worked out on the board area rather than per joint.

Bullnose and bevelled beads exist and are installed differently, with their own corner pieces at the top and bottom; the lengths here are for the ordinary 90 degree bead. Inside corners take paper tape, and they are counted in the tape figure.

Prices are our own estimates, not a store's. We are not connected with any brand or store named here.