Craft Quantities
Plan & Takeoffs

By trade

Cladding calculators

Cladding is bought by the square metre and fitted by the piece, and the gap between those two is trim. What decides a cladding order is the reveal or the cover width, which turns an area into a number of boards, and then the corners, starters and edges that are all linear.

  • 23Calculators
  • 2Parts of the site

How cladding is measured

Square metres of face for panels and coats, linear metres for every trim and furring run, and counts for fixings at the schedule the system specifies — which for a rainscreen is a density per square metre and for lap siding a rule per board per stud.

What gets left off a cladding order

  • The cover width versus the board width. A 150 mm board with a 25 mm lap covers 125 mm, and that difference is a fifth of the order.
  • Corner posts, starter strips, J-channel and undersill trim — the linear items that cost more per metre than the panels they finish.
  • Ventilation and drainage behind a rainscreen: the cavity has to breathe, and the openings and insect mesh are part of the system.
  • Cutting waste around openings, which on a façade with many windows is material rather than a rounding error.

Job takeoffs6

Where cladders meet the rest of the job: each runs one of these calculators, with every other trade in the same job beside it.

Comparisons9

Two ways of doing the same work, weighed against each other.

Planners1

Work this trade out from a space rather than from a job.