Total drywall area (sq ft)

Enter the net drywall area you're finishing. Use the sheet calculator for net area.

Coat approach

Manual knife Bazooka / auto

Automatic tools reduce tape waste by ~8%.

Skim coat (auto-on at L5)

Skim coat uses L5 rates. At L5 this is always on.

$ per gallon of ready-mix

Typical 5-gal bucket lists at $55–$95 ($11–$19/gal).

$ per 500-ft roll of tape

Paper tape 500 LF; fiber mesh is usually a touch higher.

$ per gallon of setting compound

Used for L4/L5 first coat; applied at ~20% of total compound.

Drywall tape

Linear ft

Tape rolls

500-ft rolls

Ready-mix mud

Gallons

5-gal buckets

Buckets

Setting (hot) mud

Gallons

Material cost

USD

Show methodology & assumptions

Tape LF = area × tape_rate / 1000 × tool_factor (tool_factor = 0.92 for bazooka, 1.00 manual)
Tape rolls = ceil(tape_LF / 500)
Mud gal = area × gal_rate (L5 used whenever skim checkbox is on)
Buckets = ceil(mud_gal / 5)
Setting compound = 0.20 × mud_gal for L4 & L5, else 0
Cost = rolls × $roll + mud_gal × $gal + hot_gal × $hot

Joint compound & tape calculator

Related drywall calculators