How Many Sheets of Plywood for 200 Square Feet?

How that number is worked out

These are the figures this page was built with and every line the calculator produces from them. Change anything above and all of it moves.

Wall area compared

The same wall sheathing question at every common area. House wrap is quoted off the gross wall with ten percent for laps, so it does not fall when openings are deducted, because you wrap over an opening and cut it out afterwards.

What else matters here

Seven sheets covers 200 square feet, and that answer does not change if the 200 square feet is a floor or a roof instead of a wall. One 4x8 sheet is 32 sq ft whatever it is nailed to, so the sheet count comes off the area alone.

What does change is everything under the sheets. Set this page's calculator to wall and it adds house wrap and tape; set it to roof and it swaps in underlayment and H clips; set it to floor and it gives joist footage, adhesive and screws. Same seven sheets, three different orders.

For a wall, 220 sq ft of wrap covers the 200 with ten percent for laps, which is the right way round: wrap runs horizontally with each course lapped over the one below so water sheds down and out, and the lap is the part people trim off when they are short. One roll of tape goes with it, for the seams and for the flashing laps at every opening, which is where the wall actually leaks if it is going to.

What this calculator assumes

• A sheet is 4 by 8, which is 32 square feet, so three and an eighth sheets cover a square.
• Openings come off in full here, not at half. A window hole in a sheathed wall is a real hole and the offcut around it is what the waste line is for.
• The nail count is the fastener schedule rather than a rule of thumb: six inches around every edge and twelve inches into the framing in the field, so a sheet at 16 inch spacing takes 64 nails and one at 24 inch spacing takes 56. Eight penny common runs about 100 nails to the pound.
• Subfloor adhesive is figured on the linear feet of joist under the sheets, at about 84 feet of quarter inch bead from a 28 ounce tube, which is the size subfloor adhesive actually comes in.
• Roof sheathing wants H clips in each bay along the unsupported joint between rafters, which is four per sheet at 24 inches on center. At 16 inches most panel thicknesses do not need them, so the list leaves them off below 19.2 inch spacing.
• A subfloor gets screwed rather than nailed on most jobs, so the list carries the same fastener count in number eight screws at about ninety five to the pound and leaves the nail line under it as the alternative. Only one of those two lines gets bought.
• Thickness does not change the count, only the price and the span rating. Check the panel span rating against your framing spacing before you buy the thin one.

Questions people ask

Other common sizes