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Drywall repair calculator quantities and codes, priced at import.

Turn room dimensions into a drywall repair scope: board and sheet count, joint compound and tape, texture, seal and paint, and baseboard. Enter the room, subtract the doors and windows, choose the work, and the tool returns real Xactimate line items with quantities and actions. Xactimate prices them at import, so no rates are shown here.

Water claims

Drywall flood cut repair, sized to the water line

In a water loss you rarely tear out a whole wall. Wet drywall wicks up from the floor, so the standard repair is a flood cut: a straight horizontal cut across the wall above the water line, tear out the wet band below it, dry the cavity, and hang new board back to the cut. A 2 foot flood cut is the common call for a shallow loss; a 4 foot cut is standard when the water stood higher or the wall stayed wet longer.

Pick 2 ft or 4 ft and the calculator bills the tear-out per linear foot of affected wall and cuts the replacement board to the same height, instead of charging the full wall. The tear-out family follows the water category: a clean or gray loss uses the standard wet tear-out, a Cat 3 loss uses the contaminated-disposal variant, and an NFIP flood loss uses the no-bag family. Texture and paint still run the full wall so the repair blends and does not read as a 2 foot stripe of fresh finish.

The engine behind this calculator

This same math runs inside AI Estimate Assistant

AI Estimate Assistant, from Antero Trail, turns field notes, photos, and floor plans into carrier-ready Xactimate estimates. The calculator on this page is one piece of that engine, pulled out and made free. In the app, room dimensions come from your sketch and these quantities become priced DRY and PNT line items automatically, with the water category and flood-cut height carried through.

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Method

How the scope is built

Wall drywall starts from the perimeter of the room multiplied by the wall height, which gives the gross wall area. The tool then subtracts each door and window you mark as subtract from wall, because you do not hang board across an opening. If you include the ceiling, its area is the length times the width of the room. Texture and paint are figured on the full finished surface so the repair blends, and paint follows the number of coats you choose.

Every line comes back as a real Xactimate item with a category and selector: remove board, hang board, texture, seal and paint, baseboard, and door trim each resolve to a verified code. When there is water damage the tear-out switches to the water items, a Cat 3 loss uses the contaminated-disposal variants, and an NFIP flood loss uses the no-bag family. A 2 or 4 foot flood cut bills the tear-out per linear foot and cuts the replacement board to the cut height. Because these are your Xactimate items, the tool never publishes pricing. It shows the quantities, the codes, and the action, and Xactimate prices them against your price list at import.

FAQ

Common questions

How much drywall do I need for a room?
Take the room perimeter (twice the length plus twice the width) and multiply by the wall height to get gross wall square footage, then subtract the area of every door and window you are not hanging board across. Add the ceiling as length times width if it is in the scope. Divide the finished surface by 32 square feet per 4x8 sheet and add about 10 percent for waste and cuts. A 14 by 12 room with 8 foot walls is a 52 foot perimeter, so 416 square feet of wall before openings. That works out to 13 sheets, call it 14 with waste. The calculator does this and subtracts the openings you mark.
How does a 2 ft or 4 ft flood cut change the quantities?
A flood cut only tears out and replaces the wet band of drywall, not the full wall. Pick 2 ft or 4 ft and the tool bills the tear-out per linear foot of wall at that height and cuts the replacement board to the same height, so a 52 foot perimeter at a 2 ft cut is about 104 square feet of board instead of the full 416. The upper wall stays, and texture and paint still run the full wall so the repair blends.
How do I match existing texture?
Match the method that is already on the wall: light or heavy hand texture, machine orange peel, machine knockdown, or a smooth skim coat. Pick the closest one and the tool figures it on the full finished surface, not just the patch, because a texture that stops mid-wall reads as a repair. On a patch, texturing the whole wall to a natural break is usually what makes it disappear.
How much paint will the room take?
One gallon covers about 350 to 400 square feet per coat on primed drywall. New or bare board needs a seal coat first, then your finish coats. Set 1 or 2 coats and the tool figures paint on the full finished surface times the coats. A 416 square foot wall at 2 coats is about 832 square feet of coverage, so roughly 2 to 3 gallons plus the seal coat.
When should I paint the whole wall instead of touching up?
Paint to a natural break, meaning a corner, not a spot in the field of the wall. Sheen and age make a touch-up flash, so once a repair is more than a small patch you paint corner to corner, and if two walls meet with no trim between them you often carry it around. The tool figures paint on the full wall for that reason.
How much baseboard do I need?
Baseboard runs by the linear foot along the room perimeter, less the door openings. Detach and reset keeps the existing base and puts it back; remove and replace installs new base at the size you pick; leave in place masks and preps it per linear foot so it can stay while the wall is painted. The tool measures the run from the room dimensions.
Can I use these quantities in Xactimate?
Yes. Every line resolves to a real Xactimate item (DRY for board, texture, and tear-out, PNT for seal and paint, FNC for baseboard and trim), so the quantities map straight to line items and Xactimate prices them against your loaded price list at import.
Why is there no price on the line items?
Because Xactimate prices them at import against your price list, and publishing a rate here would be inventing a number. The tool gives you the defensible codes, quantities, and actions so the scope holds up, and the pricing comes from your list.
Rate basis

Sources

These calculators produce planning estimates from published public rate schedules. They are not a formal quote. Confirm equipment, access, and pricing with a licensed operator or rental yard before you rely on any number for an estimate.