Building material calculators — how much to buy

Lay your parts out on a sheet of plywood and get the cuts in order. Accounts for blade kerf and keeps the grain running the right way.

How much lumber to buy for a finished piece, what it will cost, and what to ask for at the yard.

What a board or a stack of sheet goods weighs — for shelf brackets, a car boot, or a freight quote.

Boards, joists, posts, pickets, screws and bags of concrete, with the gaps between boards properly counted.

Posts, beams, rafters and top slats for a pergola from its footprint and the spacings you choose, evenly laid out and turned into boards to buy.

Squares, bundles, starter strip, ridge cap and underlayment from a building footprint and a pitch.

Panels and their cut length from a footprint and a pitch, with ridge cap, eave and rake trim, purlin rows and screws.

Feet of gutter, sections, hangers, end caps, outlets, and how many downspouts and elbows the roof above them needs.

Posts, trusses, girts and purlins at the spacings you choose, with the roof and wall steel for a post-frame building.

Squares and pieces of lap or panel siding for walls and gables less the openings, with starter strip, J-channel and outside corners.

Field studs at 16" or 24" on centre, corner studs, and the king and jack studs every opening adds.

The 2021 IRC's maximum span for a 2x6 to 2x12 floor joist by species, grade and spacing, and what would reach when yours falls short.

Bags of batts for a wall, floor or attic at 16" or 24" on centre, or the depth and bags of blown-in for a target R-value.

Screws or nails for a sheet good on an edge-and-field pattern, with the box count to buy.

Gallons from an area and a coat count, with the cans to buy for brush, roller or spray.

Square feet and square yards of a floor as rectangles in feet and inches, added and taken away, with a waste allowance on top.

Square yards of carpet off a 12', 13' 6" or 15' roll, laid out in drops with the seams marked, plus stairs and pad.

Rolls of wallpaper counted in strips: the cut length with the pattern repeat matched, how many strips each roll gives, and the rolls to buy.

Every head, leg and apron cut to its long point from the opening and the reveal, packed into the sticks you buy.

Tiles, main tees, cross tees, wall angle and hanger wires for a suspended ceiling, with the border tiles balanced on every wall.

Sheets of 4x8, 4x10 or 4x12 for a room's walls and ceiling, less doors and windows, with the mud, tape and screws to finish them.

Cubic yards for a run of post footings or a slab, and the bags of ready-mix that buys.

Blocks or bricks for a wall with waste, the bags of mortar at your bag's own yield, and vertical rebar at your spacing.

Cubic yards, tons and bags of gravel, crushed stone, sand, topsoil or mulch for a rectangle, circle or triangle at a depth.

Board courses, a cut list and corner posts for a stacked-board garden bed, and the soil to fill it in cubic feet, cubic yards and bags.

Pavers to buy with waste for the pattern, tons of base gravel, bedding sand and feet of edge restraint for a patio.

4x8 sheets of plywood or OSB for wall sheathing, a roof from its footprint and pitch, or a subfloor, with the H-clips for the roof.

A full takeoff for a gable shed — floor joists, studs, plates, rafters, plywood sheets and shingle bundles — from its size, wall height and pitch.

Resin for a river, rectangle or round pour in gallons, quarts and litres, split into part A and B, and how many pours the label's depth allows.

Tubes of caulk for a run of joints, from the bead size, with the feet one tube actually lays.

Pounds of grout from the tile size and joint, and bags of thinset from the trowel notch.

Blocks, caps, base gravel and drainage stone for a segmental block wall, checked against the IRC's 48-inch limit.