Construction & Materials Calculators

Standard waste factors vary by material: 10% for drywall in rectangular rooms (15% for rooms with many cuts), 10-15% for tile depending on the pattern, 5-10% for lumber, and 5% for asphalt on straightforward paving jobs. Our calculators include a waste factor input so you can adjust based on the complexity of your specific project.

Bitumen is the petroleum binder, the dark sticky material that holds aggregates together. Asphalt (also called tarmac or blacktop) is the finished paving mixture of bitumen and crushed stone or gravel. When calculating tonnage for a paving project, you use the asphalt calculator. The bitumen calculator is more relevant for road construction and seal coat applications.

Break the room into rectangles. Calculate the area of each rectangle separately (length × width), then add them together. Our square footage calculator supports L-shaped rooms and up to five separate zones, so you can enter each section individually and get a combined total with an optional waste percentage.

Conduit fill compares the total conductor cross-sectional area with the usable internal area of a raceway. The calculator compares inputs with the commonly used 53% threshold for one conductor, 31% for two, and 40% for three or more. It is a planning aid, not a code-compliance determination; verify the adopted code edition, conductor data, derating, and local requirements.