Ontario's Plain-English Guide to Custom Home Buildingπ 705-533-1633 | βοΈ 1-866-868-6606 | βοΈ info@icfhome.ca
Drywall Takeoff From House Plans: How a Builder Measures Walls, Ceilings, Sheets, Compound and Paint From a Set of Drawings, With the Ratios and the Traps
Drywall, Taping & Painting
The Drywall and Paint Takeoff: How I Measure a House Off the Drawings, What I Count Twice on Purpose, and the Ratios That Tell Me When I Have Made a Mistake
A takeoff is the measured list of what a job needs, done from the plans before anyone sets foot on site. For drywall and paint it is wall area, ceiling area, sheet count, finishing area by level, and paint by surface, room by room, and it is the sheet I hand to every trade so they are all pricing the same house. It takes an afternoon with a scale rule, or an hour with a PDF and a measuring tool, and it is the difference between a budget and a guess. Here is how I do it, including the things that are supposed to be counted twice and the things that are not.
Step by step
- Get the heights off the sections, not the floor plan. Main floor 9 ft, upstairs 8 ft, basement 8 ft 6 in., cathedral to 16 ft at the ridge. Write each on the plan beside the room.
- Room by room, perimeter times height. Every wall in the room, including the ones that are partitions shared with the next room. Yes, that counts the partition twice, once from each room, and that is correct: it has drywall on both faces. What you must not do is count the partition length twice for framing or for baseboard on one side of a half wall.
- Ceilings by room: length times width. A cathedral ceiling is the sloped area, which is the plan area divided by the cosine of the pitch; for a 6/12 roof multiply the floor area under it by about 1.12, for 8/12 by 1.2, for 12/12 by 1.41. The calculator uses a flat 1.25 for “cathedral” which covers most houses.
- Openings. For finishing area (taping and paint), deduct doors at 20 sq ft and windows at 15. For board count, do not deduct anything under about 30 sq ft; the offcut is scrap. A patio door or an archway, deduct.
- The traps. A two-storey foyer or a stairwell is a wall 17 to 18 ft high that appears on two floor plans as a hole; measure it from the section. Closets are rooms. Bulkheads add surface (two faces and a bottom) and corners. Window returns on thick walls add surface. Garages and furnace rooms are separate lines because they get different board and a different level.
- Sheets, by wall. For each wall, the sheet length that minimises butt joints, counted whole, plus 10%. The sheet count page has the method. Ceilings as 5/8 or ceiling board, separate line.
- Finishing by level. Walls at Level 4, ceilings at Level 5, garage at Level 2, behind tile at Level 2: separate areas, because they are separate prices.
- Corners. Count every outside corner, bulkhead edge, window return and arch. Multiply by $9. Corners.
- Painter’s quantities. Wall area and ceiling area again by sheen; baseboard length (perimeter less door widths); casing by opening; doors by count; closet interiors; anything special. Primer at 350 sq ft a gallon, wall paint at 400 sq ft a gallon per coat.
The ratios
| Check | Typical | If you are outside it |
|---|---|---|
| Drywall area to floor area | 3.0 to 3.5 | Under 3: you missed the partitions’ second face, or the closets. Over 3.5: cathedrals, tall ceilings, lots of small rooms; or you counted the exterior wall from outside. |
| Wall area to ceiling area | 2.2 to 2.8 | Two-storey houses sit higher (more wall per ceiling), bungalows lower. |
| Sheets of 4×12 per 1,000 sq ft of floor | 70 to 80 | Lower and you under-ordered; the boarder will tell you on day two. |
| Baseboard feet per 100 sq ft of floor | 25 to 30 | More small rooms, more baseboard. |
| Interior doors per 1,000 sq ft of floor | 9 to 12 | Includes closets. |
| Compound, 20-kg boxes per 1,000 sq ft of board | 2.5 (Level 4), 4 (Level 5) | Taper’s own count; this is for a sanity check. |
| Wall paint, gallons per 1,000 sq ft of wall, two coats | 5 to 6 | Premium covers at the low end; dark colours three coats at the high end. |
Why the same sheet goes to every trade
The drywaller measures walls his way, the painter his way, and the difference shows up as an extra from whichever one measured less. When all three have your takeoff, with the rooms and the areas and the levels, they are pricing the same house and the quotes line up on the grid. The one who disagrees with your area has to say why, which is a useful conversation to have before the contract rather than after. The grid.
If you would rather I did it: the $249 Interior Finishing Takeoff is this process on your drawings, room by room, with the sheet count, the levels, the paint, a budget by grade and a one-page scope for three contractors.
Questions people ask
How do you calculate drywall from house plans?
Room by room: perimeter times ceiling height for walls (both faces of every partition count), length times width for ceilings, openings deducted for finishing but not for board, then sheets by wall length plus 10%. Check the total against 3.0 to 3.5 times the floor area.
Do you count both sides of interior walls?
Yes, for drywall and paint, because both faces get boarded and painted. You count the wall’s length once for framing and once per painted face for baseboard.
How many sheets of drywall per square foot of house?
About 70 to 80 sheets of 4×12 per 1,000 sq ft of floor, with waste, for an ordinary house with 8- and 9-ft ceilings. Cathedrals and tall foyers push it up.
How much paint for a 2,000 sq ft house?
About 25 gallons of wall paint for two coats on 4,700 sq ft of wall, 10 gallons of ceiling paint, 15 gallons of primer, 4 gallons of trim enamel. The paint and primer calculator does it by room.
Let the calculator do the arithmetic
The complete interior finishing calculator is this takeoff for rooms you type in, with the pricing attached. The construction estimate spreadsheet has a line for the result.
Sources and further reading
- Gypsum Association construction standards: GA-216 application and finishing (the hanger’s bible: fastener spacing, ceiling framing limits, joint treatment) and GA-600 fire resistance design manual, with the free downloads.
- CGC Inc.: the maker of most of the board and compound in Ontario; the product sheets give thicknesses, span limits for ceilings and the right compound for each coat.
- CertainTeed Gypsum Canada: the other common board in Ontario yards; their installation guides and Level 5 primer-surfacer data are on the site.
