Materials
Cladding cover & linear metres
- where
- linear metres (m)
- area (m²)
- exposed cover width (mm)
- order length (m)
- waste (%)
Explain this equation
Turns a wall area into linear metres of cladding board, then adds waste to give an order length.
A is the area to clad in m². c is the exposed cover width of one board in millimetres: the face you can see once laps or tongues are taken off. L is the net linear metres, w the waste percentage and Lo the order length.
Each metre of board covers c/1000 square metres. Dividing the area by that cover gives the length of board needed. The /1000 turns millimetres into metres, and (1 + w/100) adds the waste.
20 m² at 125 mm cover is 160 m. With 10% waste the order is 176 m. A narrower exposed cover means more metres.
Watch out: use exposed cover, not the overall board width. Corners, trims and cutting to stock lengths are extra.
Estimate cladding length from exposed face coverage.
Enter your values to see the result.
Good to know
Use exposed coverage after overlaps, not overall board width. Allow separately for corners, profiles and stock-length cutting.
Sources
- Geometry / arithmetic
This is a calculation aid, not a structural design or compliance certificate. Every default is an example, not a specification for your project.