Does this include gable ends?

Only if you include their area in your average wall height/perimeter input. For accuracy, calculate triangular gable areas separately (base x height / 2) and add the equivalent square footage.

What's a 'square' in siding terms?

Same convention as roofing — 100 square feet of coverage, regardless of the physical panel size.

Does this account for house wrap or trim?

No — this estimates siding panels only. House wrap, corner posts, and trim pieces are calculated separately.

How many lap planks or vinyl cartons does the answer come to?

Divide its area by what one piece covers on the wall, exposure times length: a 12 ft (3.66 m) fiber-cement plank at a 7 in (178 mm) exposure covers 7 sq ft (0.65 m²), about 14.3 planks a square. Turn the answer into an area first — multiply the squares by 100 for square feet, or use the square-metre figure on the metric page — and count the exposure rather than the full width: a fiber-cement (fibre cement) plank 8-1/4 in (210 mm) wide laid at that exposure hides 1-1/4 in (32 mm) under the course above. The answer already carries the waste allowance, so divide it straight through and do not add waste a second time. Vinyl siding is sold in cartons marked with the squares they cover, so the carton count is the squares divided by that figure, rounded up.

How do I order UK cladding, sold by the metre, from this answer?

Work from area. The square is a North American ordering unit, and on the metric page the same result is shown in square metres, with the waste allowance already inside it. UK timber and fibre cement weatherboard, shiplap and feather-edge are sold by the linear metre or in stated board lengths, so divide the area by the board's cover width in metres — the face left showing once it is lapped over or tongued into its neighbour, not the width it is sold as. A board with a 110 mm (about 4.3 in) cover width needs about 9.1 linear metres for every square metre of wall. Then plan the lengths, since each butt joint has to land on a batten behind, and a length that ends between battens is cut back to the last one.

What average height should I enter when parts of the house are taller than others?

The height weighted by wall length, not the midpoint between the tallest and shortest walls. The page multiplies the whole perimeter by the single height you give it, so each wall should count in proportion to how long it is. If two-thirds of the perimeter is two storeys and one-third is a single-storey wing, enter two-thirds of the tall height plus one-third of the short one; the plain midpoint under-counts, because it gives the short wing as much say as walls twice its length. The exact route is to run each section on its own and add the answers, which also lets each carry its own doors and windows.

How do I deduct a patio door or a garage door properly?

Enter it as the number of standard doors its area is worth, each taken off at 1.95 m² (21 sq ft): divide the real opening by that and round down to a whole number. A two-car garage door 16 × 7 ft (about 4.9 × 2.1 m) is 112 sq ft (about 10.4 m²), 5.3 doors, so enter five; a UK single garage door of 2134 × 2134 mm (7 × 7 ft) is about 4.55 m² (about 49 sq ft), 2.3 doors, so enter two. A patio door 6 ft (1.83 m) wide and 6 ft 8 in (2.03 m) tall is 40 sq ft (about 3.7 m²), just under two doors: enter one, or two if you accept deducting about 2 sq ft (0.2 m²) more than the opening. Rounding down leaves a little extra cladding on the order rather than a shortfall, which is the safer side to be wrong on.

Renovation & Construction

Siding Calculator

Estimate the wall area, in squares or square metres, and the siding needed to cover it, minus doors and windows.

Siding is cladding in the UK and Australia.

Answers as you typeNo submit button
Every formula citedNamed published standards
Calculated in your browserNo account, nothing uploaded

SettingsSettings for this calculationUS

Market

Imperial · sales tax

Who is doing the work?

The standard allowance most suppliers and estimating guides assume for ordinary work.

Total Wall Length (perimeter)

The total perimeter of exterior walls to be sided.

Add up the length of every exterior wall around the building.

Tools needed: Tape measure or measuring wheel

Average Wall Height

The average height from foundation to eave.

For gable ends, use an average height, or calculate the gable triangle area separately and add it to your total.

Tools needed: Tape measure

Number of Doors

Doors aren't sided over.

Each standard door opening is assumed to be about 1.95 m².

Number of Windows

Windows aren't sided over.

Each standard window opening is assumed to be about 1.4 m².

Waste Factor (%)

Extra siding for cuts and corners.

10% is standard for a simple rectangular home.

Estimated siding needed

12.51 squares

High confidence

Net wall area: 1,137.46 sq ft
Openings subtracted: 162.54 sq ft

Then change the inputs to see how far the answer moves.

Show calculation logic

How this was calculated

Formula source(s)

Vinyl siding is conventionally quoted in 'squares' of 100 sq ft, the same convention used for roofing

Inputs used

Total Wall Length (perimeter): 130 ft
Average Wall Height: 10 ft
Number of Doors: 2
Number of Windows: 8
Waste Factor (%): 10

Intermediate steps

Net wall area: 1,137.46 sq ft
Openings subtracted: 162.54 sq ft

Final result12.51 squares

What this calculation does not cover

Every door is deducted at a fixed 1.95 m² (21 sq ft) and every window at 1.4 m² (15 sq ft), so a sliding patio door, a garage opening or a floor-to-ceiling window is taken off the total as though it were an ordinary one.
Openings are subtracted in full, which assumes courses stop cleanly at each frame — in practice panels are cut around a window and the short offcuts often cannot be used anywhere else on the wall.
Wall area is a single rectangle of your perimeter multiplied by one average height, so gable triangles, dormer cheeks, bay projections and a wall that grows taller across a sloping lot register only to the extent you have already folded them into that average.
The waste allowance is one flat percentage applied to the finished area, and the field accepts nothing outside 5-20%, with no term in the arithmetic reacting to the number of outside corners or to how much of each panel length is lost where wall runs are short.
The answer is a coverage area rather than a count of panels or boxes: exposure, panel length and the overlap between courses play no part in it, so convert the figure using the coverage printed on the product you actually order.
Should the openings you enter add up to more than the gross wall area, the net is held at zero rather than flagged, and the confidence rating stays high for every combination of inputs, so a mistyped count returns a quiet answer rather than a warning.

Estimated cost — your price

Price per square ($)

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 bigger jobs

This trade is one line of several job takeoffs. Run the whole job and every other trade comes back with it, off the same measurements.

Or plan the space itself: measure it once, doors and windows included, and this figure comes back worked out on that space, with what goes with it.

Exterior wall planner

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 2026-09-05 · in the site-wide review of 2026-09-06 · v1.0.1

Regulatory standards & verification citations1

Vinyl siding is conventionally quoted in 'squares' of 100 sq ft, the same convention used for roofing

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 hang siding or cladding. 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.
Most fatal falls on small jobs are from under three metres: use a tower or a ladder tied at the top, and never work off the top two rungs.

Show the 7 tools this job needs

Essential

Chalk line
Circular saw
Cordless drill/driver
Spirit level
Tape measure
Tower scaffold or trestles

Recommended

Mitre saw

Also needed as materials: chalk refill, circular saw blades, drill and driver bits, mitre saw blades.

what each cladding tool is for, and the spec that decides which to buy where one does.

Now that you have the number

These guides cover the work this quantity is for — the first ones run this calculator inside the section that raises the question.

Choosing a Framed Exterior Wall Build-Upuses this calculator
Stud size and spacing, cavity insulation, vapour control, sheathing and cladding: what each choice changes in the order, and what it never does.
Fixing Timber Cladding on a Ventilated Cavityuses this calculator
Timber keeps moving after you fix it. Batten depth, batten centres, cavity depth and the fixing line, all sized around that one fact.
Installing Siding and the Drainage Planeuses this calculator
Siding is a screen, not a seal: build the wall outward so every drop that gets behind the cladding has a way back out.

Called something else where you work? Cladding / siding — the term in each market, how close the equivalence really is, and the standard that governs it.

Still deciding? Board and Batten vs Lap Siding · Repaint vs Replace Siding · Vinyl Siding vs Fiber Cement — the factors that actually differ, with no invented prices.

Already have some? How much wall will my squares of siding cover?

The data behind it: Production rates by operation

How to calculate siding in 6 steps

Total Wall Length (perimeter)The total perimeter of exterior walls to be sided.
Average Wall HeightThe average height from foundation to eave.
Number of DoorsDoors aren't sided over.
Number of WindowsWindows aren't sided over.
Waste Factor (%)Extra siding for cuts and corners.
Read the resultThe tool computes the result from those figures and shows the formula, its sources, and a confidence rating alongside it.

Estimated siding needed by total wall length (perimeter)

Page defaults, not your figures above.

Total Wall Length (perimeter)	squares
100 ft	9.04
150 ft	14.5
200 ft	19.9
250 ft	25.3

Frequently asked questions

Does this include gable ends?: Only if you include their area in your average wall height/perimeter input. For accuracy, calculate triangular gable areas separately (base x height / 2) and add the equivalent square footage.
What's a 'square' in siding terms?: Same convention as roofing — 100 square feet of coverage, regardless of the physical panel size.
Does this account for house wrap or trim?: No — this estimates siding panels only. House wrap, corner posts, and trim pieces are calculated separately.
How many lap planks or vinyl cartons does the answer come to?: Divide its area by what one piece covers on the wall, exposure times length: a 12 ft (3.66 m) fiber-cement plank at a 7 in (178 mm) exposure covers 7 sq ft (0.65 m²), about 14.3 planks a square. Turn the answer into an area first — multiply the squares by 100 for square feet, or use the square-metre figure on the metric page — and count the exposure rather than the full width: a fiber-cement (fibre cement) plank 8-1/4 in (210 mm) wide laid at that exposure hides 1-1/4 in (32 mm) under the course above. The answer already carries the waste allowance, so divide it straight through and do not add waste a second time. Vinyl siding is sold in cartons marked with the squares they cover, so the carton count is the squares divided by that figure, rounded up.
How do I order UK cladding, sold by the metre, from this answer?: Work from area. The square is a North American ordering unit, and on the metric page the same result is shown in square metres, with the waste allowance already inside it. UK timber and fibre cement weatherboard, shiplap and feather-edge are sold by the linear metre or in stated board lengths, so divide the area by the board's cover width in metres — the face left showing once it is lapped over or tongued into its neighbour, not the width it is sold as. A board with a 110 mm (about 4.3 in) cover width needs about 9.1 linear metres for every square metre of wall. Then plan the lengths, since each butt joint has to land on a batten behind, and a length that ends between battens is cut back to the last one.
What average height should I enter when parts of the house are taller than others?: The height weighted by wall length, not the midpoint between the tallest and shortest walls. The page multiplies the whole perimeter by the single height you give it, so each wall should count in proportion to how long it is. If two-thirds of the perimeter is two storeys and one-third is a single-storey wing, enter two-thirds of the tall height plus one-third of the short one; the plain midpoint under-counts, because it gives the short wing as much say as walls twice its length. The exact route is to run each section on its own and add the answers, which also lets each carry its own doors and windows.
How do I deduct a patio door or a garage door properly?: Enter it as the number of standard doors its area is worth, each taken off at 1.95 m² (21 sq ft): divide the real opening by that and round down to a whole number. A two-car garage door 16 × 7 ft (about 4.9 × 2.1 m) is 112 sq ft (about 10.4 m²), 5.3 doors, so enter five; a UK single garage door of 2134 × 2134 mm (7 × 7 ft) is about 4.55 m² (about 49 sq ft), 2.3 doors, so enter two. A patio door 6 ft (1.83 m) wide and 6 ft 8 in (2.03 m) tall is 40 sq ft (about 3.7 m²), just under two doors: enter one, or two if you accept deducting about 2 sq ft (0.2 m²) more than the opening. Rounding down leaves a little extra cladding on the order rather than a shortfall, which is the safer side to be wrong on.

Preliminary estimate, not certified engineering. This tool produces an indicative quantity calculation for planning purposes only — it is not a certified structural analysis, a guaranteed material takeoff, or a substitute for building department approval. Always verify measurements on-site and have a licensed contractor or structural engineer review any load-bearing, code-sensitive, or safety-critical work before purchasing materials or starting construction. Spotted an arithmetic or standards error? Report it to contact@craftquantities.com with your inputs — a confirmed fix gets a permanent check of its own, so the same mistake cannot come back.