SettingsSettings for this calculationUS
The run the panels stand along, from the corner you lay from to the end.
Measure each wall to its corners in the order the panels are set, so a corner panel is counted on one wall only. Door and window openings stay in the run.
Tools needed: Tape measure
How tall each wall panel is cut, from your panel layout.
The panel's own height, which with a bottom plate set into its foot and a top plate in its head is close to the wall's framed height; your maker's layout drawing gives it. It is also each spline's length.
The width of one panel as your maker sells it: 1220 mm for Kingspan TEK, 4 ft (48 in) for most North American panels.
Kingspan lists its TEK panel at 1220 mm wide and up to 7500 mm long; North American makers work to a 4 ft (1219 mm) module, Premier SIPS's load charts among them. A wider jumbo panel cuts the joint count; enter whatever your maker quotes.
One plate set into the panels' head, or that plate and a cap over it.
Premier SIPS tabulates its walls' loads for a single 2x top plate and for a single plate with a 2x cap plate ripped to the panel's full width; which one your wall has is the designer's call.
Window openings cut out of the panels in this run.
Their rough-opening size goes in the next two boxes; windows of different sizes can be entered at their average size, which keeps the area cut out exact.
Each window's rough opening width.
The hole cut in the panel, from the window maker's rough opening, including any lumber lining your maker's detail sets into it.
Each window's rough opening height.
With the width, the area each window takes out of the panels.
Door openings cut out of the panels in this run.
A door's opening runs down to the bottom plate.
Each door's rough opening width.
From the door maker's sheet.
Each door's rough opening height.
With the width, the area each door takes out of the panels.
Panels to order
9 panels
9 full-height panels stood side by side along the run, the last cut down to fit and every opening cut out of them; a spline at each of the 8 joints.
- Width cut off the last panel
- 3 ft
- Panels if every off-cut round the openings is used again
- 7 panels
- Splines, one per panel joint
- 8 splines
- Splines, lineal
- 64 ft
- Bottom and top plates, lineal
- 99 ft
- Wall face, gross
- 264 sq ft
- Area cut out for doors and windows
- 45 sq ft
- Panel area bought
- 288 sq ft
They open the calculator with your figures already in it
SIP Wall Panel Calculator (Structural Insulated Panels, Splines and Plates): 9 panels — shown in imperial, US market. The link sets both, so the result they see is the one on your screen.
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How this was calculated
Formula source(s)
- Premier Building Systems, Premier SIPS Design Resources: panels connected by splines of three types, Type S (a connection between panels without thermal bridging), Type I and Type L (lumber splines, No. 2 Hem-Fir 1 1/2 in wide, depth equal to the core, at least two members for every 48 inches of SIP width); typical 7/16 in OSB facings; 4 1/2 and 6 1/2 in panels; axial loads tabulated for a single 2x top plate, and for a single 2x plate with a 2x cap plate ripped to the total width of the SIP
- NBS Source, Kingspan TEK Building System: structural insulated panels of a rigid urethane core between two layers of OSB/3; panel width 1220 mm, length 7500 mm, 142 mm thick (172 mm also); panels can be pre-cut to suit the design
Inputs used
- Wall Run Length
- 33 ft
- Panel Height
- 8 ft
- Panel Width
- 48 in
- Top Plate
- A top plate and a cap plate
- Windows
- 2
- Window Rough Opening Width
- 3 ft
- Window Rough Opening Height
- 4 ft
- Doors
- 1
- Door Rough Opening Width
- 3 ft
- Door Rough Opening Height
- 7 ft
Intermediate steps
- Width cut off the last panel
- 3 ft
- Panels if every off-cut round the openings is used again
- 7 panels
- Splines, one per panel joint
- 8 splines
- Splines, lineal
- 64 ft
- Bottom and top plates, lineal
- 99 ft
- Wall face, gross
- 264 sq ft
- Area cut out for doors and windows
- 45 sq ft
- Panel area bought
- 288 sq ft
Confidence note: 9 full-height panels stood side by side along the run, the last cut down to fit and every opening cut out of them; a spline at each of the 8 joints.
What this calculation does not cover
- A count of panels and splines, not a panel design. Which panel thickness, facing and spline carry the wall's loads, and what header an opening needs, are the maker's load charts and the designer's; the page only counts what you choose.
- Panels are laid from one end of the run at full height. At a corner one wall's panel overlaps the end of the other, so measure each wall to the corner on the side you lay from, or the corner's panel is counted twice or not at all.
- The headline buys every panel at full height and cuts the openings out of them. The off-cut count assumes every piece over and under an opening becomes part of another panel's worth, which a factory pre-cut layout can come close to and a site-cut wall seldom does.
- Splines are one per joint, the panel's height long, whichever type your maker and designer specify; the lumber that lines each rough opening, the corner and end posts, sealant, tape and screws are separate items in the maker's details.
- A panel taller than the maker makes, or wider than your openings allow, is not checked here: read the maker's largest size before you rely on the count.
Estimated cost — your price
This site holds no price list for this material — local prices vary too much to publish honestly. Enter your supplier's price and the result is costed with it.
Part of a bigger job
This trade is one line of a job takeoff. Run the whole job and every other trade comes back with it, off the same measurements.
also measuresHouse WrapSidingDrywall
Computed in your browser — nothing you enter is uploaded. Presented in US customary units and US trade terminology. Where a formula follows a published standard, that standard and its edition are cited beside it on this page; where none governs, the page says so. Local amendments override model codes — verify against the code in force where you build.
Sources checked 2026-10-10 · v1.0.0
Regulatory standards & verification citations2
- Premier Building Systems, Premier SIPS Design Resources: panels connected by splines of three types, Type S (a connection between panels without thermal bridging), Type I and Type L (lumber splines, No. 2 Hem-Fir 1 1/2 in wide, depth equal to the core, at least two members for every 48 inches of SIP width); typical 7/16 in OSB facings; 4 1/2 and 6 1/2 in panels; axial loads tabulated for a single 2x top plate, and for a single 2x plate with a 2x cap plate ripped to the total width of the SIP
- NBS Source, Kingspan TEK Building System: structural insulated panels of a rigid urethane core between two layers of OSB/3; panel width 1220 mm, length 7500 mm, 142 mm thick (172 mm also); panels can be pre-cut to suit the design
Cite this page
Your workspace
Most jobs need more than one number. Add the calculators you need next and they open right here, underneath this one — your figures stay on screen and nothing is lost to a page change.
Tools and safety for this job
To frame a stud wall. Generic types, no brands, no prices.
Protection this work requires
- Hardwood dust is a recognised carcinogen: extract at the tool and wear a P2/N95 respirator when cutting or sanding indoors.
- Saws, grinders and breakers run above 85 dB, where hearing damage accumulates and does not recover: defenders or plugs for every cut, not just the long ones.
- Nailing, chiselling and cutting all throw fragments: glasses to EN 166 or ANSI Z87.1, and goggles rather than glasses overhead.
Show the 7 tools this job needsHide tools
Essential
Circular saw
Claw hammer
Combination or framing square
Spirit level
Tape measure
Recommended
Chalk line
Framing nailer
Also needed as materials: chalk refill, circular saw blades, framing nails, fuel cells.
what each carpentry tool is for, and the spec that decides which to buy where one does.