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Solve backwards

How much house will my rolls of house wrap cover?

House wrap is lapped over itself at every course and seam and folded into every opening, so a roll wraps less wall than its face. Enter the rolls you have and the sheathing they cover comes back, laps taken off, read as the walls of a house at an ordinary wall height.
  • 2 rollsThe example worked below
  • House Wrap CalculatorEvery figure is its own

You have

How much house wrap?

rolls

Worked by the House Wrap Calculator at the settings below.

Saved amounts stay in this browser.

The settings it uses

Lap Allowance (%)
10

What it will do

2,455 sq ft of sheathing

228 m²

  1. One house. Enough for the walls of a house about 77 × 77 ft with 8 ft walls.

  2. Or several. About 1 house of the size the House Wrap Calculator opens on: the walls of a house about 67 × 67 ft with 8 ft walls.

Check it forwards

Exterior Wall Area
2,455 sq ft
It asks for
2 rolls
You have
2 rolls

The House Wrap Calculator asks for 2 rolls at that size, and 3 rolls one step larger.

Open this in the House Wrap Calculator

If you had more, or less

Around your amount

Each worked by the House Wrap Calculator at the same settings.

  1. Half

    1 roll

    1,227 sq ft

    the walls of a house about 38 × 38 ft with 8 ft walls

  2. Yours

    2 rolls

    2,455 sq ft

    the walls of a house about 77 × 77 ft with 8 ft walls

  3. Half as much again

    3 rolls

    3,682 sq ft

    the walls of a house about 115 × 115 ft with 8 ft walls

  4. Double

    4 rolls

    4,909 sq ft

    the walls of a house about 153 × 153 ft with 8 ft walls

Common amounts

What each amount of house wrap covers

The sizes it is usually sold in, each worked by the House Wrap Calculator at the settings above.

You haveIt coversAs one houseAverage houses
1 roll1,227 sq ft(114 m²)the walls of a house about 38 × 38 ft with 8 ft wallsunder 1
2 rolls2,455 sq ft(228 m²)the walls of a house about 77 × 77 ft with 8 ft walls1
3 rolls3,682 sq ft(342 m²)the walls of a house about 115 × 115 ft with 8 ft walls1
5 rolls6,136 sq ft(570 m²)the walls of a house about 192 × 192 ft with 8 ft walls2

The roll is nine feet by a hundred and fifty

The calculator fixes the roll at 9 by 150 feet, 1,350 square feet or about 125 m², the common size its source gives. A wrap sold in any other width or length changes the number of rolls without changing the wall — so with a different roll, read the area from the table and divide by your own roll's coverage.

Laps are a tenth, until the gable

Each course laps over the one below and each seam laps in the drainage direction, and the flaps cut and folded into rough openings are wrap too. A plain wall with few openings is near the calculator's ten per cent; a gable full of windows, or a product asking for wider laps, spends more of each roll and wraps less wall.

Openings stay in, and the tape is extra

Window and door openings are included in the wall area, because the cut-outs are made on site and folded in rather than subtracted. Seam and flashing tape, cap nails or staples, and any rainscreen furring over the wrap are separate orders — and a job begun with a fresh roll on each face will use more than the count.

How the answer is worked

Nothing here is a second formula. The House Wrap Calculator runs forwards — a size in, a quantity out — and this page grows its own starting house in proportion until the quantity it asks for is what you have. Where it rounds up to whole containers, the answer is the largest size before the next one would be needed.

Where the calculator adds an allowance for cuts or breakage when you order, the same allowance comes off here, because it is the same calculator: a stack you already own finishes less than its face value. Where it adds none, neither does this page — the settings beside the answer say which.

House Wrap Calculator

runs it forwards

Estimate how many rolls of house wrap (weather barrier) you need for your exterior wall area.

Work out what to buy instead

Solve backwards

Other things you might already have

Solve backwards

Start from what is already in the yard

Paint, sheets, rolls, bags and pieces, each read the other way by the calculator that orders it.

Every Solve Backwards pageHouse Wrap Calculator

  • The calculator's own figures

    Nothing is estimated twice: the page runs the same calculator you would order with.

  • The largest size that fits

    Where a calculator rounds up to whole containers, the answer stops before the next one.

  • Both unit systems

    Gallons and litres, square feet and square metres, side by side.

Frequently asked questions

How much sheathing does 2 rolls of house wrap cover?
At the House Wrap Calculator's own settings, 2,455 sq ft (228 m²) — the walls of a house about 77 × 77 ft with 8 ft walls. That is about 1 house of the size the calculator opens on: the walls of a house about 67 × 67 ft with 8 ft walls. Every figure follows the settings, which you can change in the calculator.
How many square feet does a roll of house wrap cover?
A standard 9 by 150 foot roll is 1,350 square feet, about 125 m². With the usual ten per cent spent on laps and opening flaps it wraps about 1,230 square feet (114 m²) of wall. Rolls in other sizes cover in proportion to their area.
Do I subtract windows and doors when ordering house wrap?
No. The wrap runs over the openings and is cut and folded into them on site, so the openings stay in the wall area. The folded flaps are part of what the lap allowance pays for, which is why a wall full of windows needs a bigger allowance rather than a smaller area.
Which way should house wrap laps face?
Shingle-fashion, so water runs over each lap rather than into it: upper courses over lower ones, and vertical seams lapped away from the prevailing weather. Seams are then taped with the product's own tape, and the wrap is folded into rough openings before the window flashing goes on.