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About BuildSums

Free calculators for people planning a job at home, and for small trades pricing materials.

What we do

We build calculators for the questions that come up before a job: how many bags, how many tonnes, how many rolls, what size radiator, and roughly what it will cost. There are 47 of them, all free, with no sign-up.

How we work

  • Every number a calculator uses, such as a bag yield, a density or a coverage rate, comes from a UK manufacturer, merchant, standard or government source. Each page lists them.
  • Every result shows its working with your own measurements.
  • Cost ranges come from published UK cost guides and show the date we last checked them. We review them twice a year.
  • We test every formula against hand-worked examples before it goes live.

What we don't do

We don't replace a builder, surveyor, heating engineer or your council. Use our results to plan and to ask better questions, then check anything structural, gas, electrical or legal with a qualified professional.

Found a mistake? Tell us and we'll fix it.