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Drywall Cost Calculator

Sheets, screws, mud and tape — what they come to.

Estimated prices — type your store's; labor not included.

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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Ticked items cost

$331.14

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

Buy 17 × 4 × 8 ft sheets
Area to board, net 439 ft²
More numbers
With the 10% for cuts 482.9 ft²
Screws 452 screws
Joint compound 4.35 gal
Joint tape 178.67 ft
Outside corner bead 17.6 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.

Save imageExcel

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

What the drywall for a room costs

Materials only, in the sizes a store sells, each at a price you can type over. The 12 by 10 foot room this page opens with — 439 square feet of board net of its door and window, walls and ceiling, hung in the cheapest sheet with 10% for cuts — comes to $317.58:

Item Quantity Cost
Gypsum board17 × 4 × 8 ft$271.66
Screws, #6 × 1¼ in2 × 1 lb box$17.96
Joint compound1 × 4.5 gal$19.98
Joint tape1 × 250 ft roll$7.98
Total$317.58

The board is 86% of it. That is why the sheet size is worth a minute: every size is laid out on the room and priced, and the page hangs the cheapest. The same room in 4 by 12 sheets is 11 hung and 13 bought, $331.66 in all — $14 more, and four fewer sheets to carry. The bigger sheet is cheaper per square foot and dearer per room here, because each 10 foot row cut from a 12 foot sheet leaves two feet nothing else can use. The gap is $14 on $318, so treat it as a tie and pick on handling.

The prices here are ours, not a store's

Every figure on this page is our own estimate, dated and marked as such. We do not call a store or an API for prices — the site makes no third-party requests at all — so the numbers are a starting point and nothing more. Each one sits in a box: type what your store charges beside the sheet, the screw box, the pail, the roll and the bead, and the total and the cheapest combination both move with them.

Untick anything you already have. A roll of tape and half a pail of mud in the garage take two ticks off and come off the total.

What is not in the number

No labor. A hanger and a taper are usually priced by the square foot and the rate varies more by region than the materials do, so a figure here would be a guess dressed as an estimate.

No corner bead unless you ask for it — a room has no outside corners until you say how many, and each part card has a box for the count. No primer, texture or paint; no screws for a steel-framed wall, which take a different point. And no delivery, which for 998 pounds of board is a real question: the weight is on the card so you can decide.

Where the quantities come from

Each one has a source and a row you can edit, under "What we assumed": the compound from USG's nine gallons a thousand square feet, the tape from 370 feet a thousand, the screws from the spacing in IRC Table R702.3.5, the sheet weight from the mills' published pounds per square foot. Nothing here is a coefficient we invented, and the two we could not source — every price — say so.

We are not connected with any brand or store named here.