Plasterboard Calculator — Sheets for Walls & Ceilings

This calculator divides your total wall or ceiling area by the area of each plasterboard sheet, then adds a wastage allowance for cutting and fitting. It also calculates ancillary materials based on industry-standard application rates. If you are unsure which board to pick, see our full reference of standard UK plasterboard sheet sizes and thicknesses.

Material rates

• Joint tape: ~1.8m per board — a long-edge (shared joint) allowance. Short/butt joints and internal corners add tape, so increase this where boards are cut.
• Jointing compound: ~0.4kg per m² — a trade estimating allowance for taping plus finish coats. (British Gypsum’s Joint Filler PDS quotes roughly 24kg per 100 linear metres of flat tapered joint.)
• Screws: 300mm centres for walls and partitions. For ceilings, British Gypsum specifies 230mm in the field and 150mm at board ends — switch on the ceiling toggle to use these. Screw length is set by board thickness so the screw bites ~25mm into the stud (9.5mm→32mm, 12.5mm→38-40mm, 15mm→44-51mm).
• Nogging: an indicative allowance of one horizontal mid-height row per board (~board width), at 600mm stud centres. Add extra rows at horizontal board joints.

Tape, filler and nogging figures are estimating allowances, not standards — confirm against the manufacturer’s data sheet and your actual joint and framing layout.

If you are skimming the boards rather than taping and jointing, our multi-finish plaster coverage calculator works out bags at the British Gypsum rate of 10 m² per 25kg bag at 2mm.