Timber Frame House Material Calculator

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Category Bulk & Lumber

Wall Length (feet)

Wall Height (feet)

Stud Spacing

Lumber Size

Item	Qty	Unit
Vertical Studs (Pre-cut)	0	pcs
Linear Plate Material	0	ft
Est. Plate Boards (12')	0	pcs
Sheathing (4x8 Sheets)	0	sheets

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About

Stick framing remains the dominant method for residential construction in North America. Accurately estimating lumber requirements prevents costly mid-project hardware store runs or excessive budget waste. This calculator generates a Bill of Materials (BOM) for standard stud walls, accounting for the structural reality of framing: plates, cripples, trimmers, and offcuts.

Logic accounts for standard industry practices, such as double top plates for load distribution and specific on-center (OC) spacing. The result includes a safety margin (waste factor), crucial for accommodating warped boards or cutting errors.

Formulas

The estimation logic follows standard framing arithmetic:

Studs = (LengthSpacing + 1) + Corners

Plates_LF = Length × 3 (1 Bottom, 2 Top)

Note: Linear Feet (LF) of plate material is converted to standard board lengths (e.g., 8ft, 10ft) in the final BOM.

Reference Data

Component	Common Dimension (Nominal)	Common Dimension (Actual)	Usage
Stud	2x4	1.5" x 3.5"	Vertical support members.
Plate	2x6	1.5" x 5.5"	Top/Bottom horizontal tracks.
Sheathing	4'x8'	4' x 8'	Exterior structural skin (OSB/Plywood).

Frequently Asked Questions

"On Center" (OC) refers to the distance from the center of one stud to the center of the next. 16" is the standard for load-bearing walls, while 24" is sometimes used for non-load-bearing or advanced framing techniques.

Standard code usually requires a single bottom plate (sole plate) and a double top plate. The double top plate adds structural integrity and overlaps corners to tie walls together.

This is a basic wall calculator. It adds a generalized 10% waste factor which often covers basic headers for small openings, but large headers (LVL/Glulams) should be calculated separately.