TheJobCalc — Free home-improvement calculators

Estimate exactly how much material a job needs before you drive to the store. Every calculator below works in US units or metric, adds a waste allowance, and converts the answer into the units suppliers actually sell in — cubic yards, bags, boxes, gallons and squares.

ConcreteCubic yards and bag counts for slabs, footings, columns and post holes.GravelTons and cubic yards of gravel, crushed stone or sand for driveways and bases.TileHow many tiles and boxes to buy, with grout joints and a cut allowance.DrywallSheets, screws, joint compound and tape for a room or a known area.InsulationBatt insulation bags for walls or attic, with an R-value guide.PaintGallons and cans for walls and ceilings, with doors and windows deducted.Mulch & soilCubic yards, bags and weight for mulch, topsoil, compost and gravel.Sod & seedRolls or pallets of sod, or pounds of grass seed, for any lawn area.Square footageArea of any shape, added into a running total, with cost per square foot.Roof pitchPitch, angle, slope factor, roof area, squares and shingle bundles.FencePosts, rails, pickets and concrete bags for a run of fence.DeckDeck boards, joists and screws for a deck of any size.StairsRisers, treads, total run, stringer length and angle from a total rise.

Why these numbers matter

Bulk material is priced by volume but sold in fixed packages, so a small measuring error turns into either a second trip or a pile of returns. A 10 × 12 ft patio poured 4 in thick needs 1.48 cubic yards of concrete; the same slab at 5 in needs 1.85. That single inch is seven extra 80 lb bags. The calculators here keep the arithmetic and the unit conversions out of your hands.

How the estimates are built

Geometry first. Volume or area is computed from your measurements in feet, then converted — 27 cubic feet to the cubic yard, 144 square inches to the square foot.
Waste allowance second. Cuts, spillage, uneven subgrade and breakage all cost material. Each tool has a default allowance you can change.
Packages last. The result is rounded up to whole bags, boxes, gallons or bundles, because that is how you buy.

Cost estimators

Deciding whether to hire it out? The cost estimators turn the same measurements into an itemised project estimate — concrete and gravel by the cubic yard, labour by the square foot — using prices you collect locally, so you can compare a contractor’s bid line by line.

Driveway costItemised driveway estimate from your local prices: concrete, base, labour, finish and removal.Roof costItemised re-roof estimate from your local prices: squares from footprint and pitch, tear-off, materials, labour, flashing.Deck costItemised deck estimate from your local prices: footings, framing, decking, railing, stairs and labour by height.

Pay calculators

The job matters as much as the jobsite: convert an hourly rate to a salary, price an overtime-heavy week, and estimate what a paycheck actually deposits — using your own effective tax rates, not a tax table that goes stale every January. See all of them on the pay calculators page.

Hourly to salaryConvert an hourly wage to annual, monthly, biweekly and weekly pay — or back.OvertimeTime-and-a-half and double-time pay for a week with overtime hours.Take-home payWhat lands in your account each paycheck, using your own effective tax rates.

Plan a whole project

The project walkthroughs chain several calculators into one complete takeoff — a 12 × 16 concrete patio, 100 ft of privacy fence, a 16 × 12 deck — from excavation to the shopping list. And the jobsite cheat sheet puts every constant these tools use on one printable page.