PlumbCut
Free calculator

Stud & wall framing calculator.

Give it the wall length, the height, and your on-center spacing, then tell it how many corners and openings. It counts your studs, breaks out the field, corner, and opening pieces, and adds up the plate lineal feet and how many 16 ft boards that takes. You get a short materials list you can carry straight to the yard.

The wall
The count
Total studs
24
Field studs
16
Corner studs
4
Opening studs (king + jack)
4
Plate lineal feet
60.0 ft
Plate boards (16 ft stock)
4

Precut studs for an 8 ft wall run about 92 5/8 in, which leaves room for the single bottom plate and the double top plate. Set your own wall height above if yours is different.

The wall elevation

A straight-on look at the wall: the single bottom plate, the double top plate, the studs at your spacing, and one framed opening with king and jack studs under a header. Screenshot it and take it to the wall.

Single bottom plateDouble top plateHeaderKing + jackWall height 8.0 ftWall length 20.0 ft, studs 16 in on center
The short materials list
Studs
24 ea
Plate stock (16 ft boards)
4 ea
Headers
1 opening

How the count comes together: field studs are one every 16 in plus one to close the end. Each corner adds two studs for the corner post. Each opening adds four, two kings and two jacks. Openings are not subtracted from the field studs, so the count runs a little long on purpose. That is what you want at the yard. Plates are the wall length times three: one bottom plate and a double top plate. Headers depend on the span and the load, so pick your header stock off the plan.

How the numbers come out

The same count you’d do on the tailgate.

Field studs

One stud every 16 or 24 inches along the wall, plus one more to close the far end. A 20 ft wall at 16 on center comes out to 16 field studs.

Corners and openings

Each corner adds two studs for the corner post. Each opening adds four: two kings and two jacks. The openings are not subtracted from the field studs, so the count runs a touch long. That is on purpose. Better to have a stud left over than to come up short.

Plates

A single bottom plate and a double top plate mean three runs of the wall length. We add those up into lineal feet and divide by 16 ft stock to get the board count.

The waste cushion

Leave waste at zero for the bare count. Want a cushion for cull and bad boards? Add 10 to 15 percent and the total rounds up to whole studs.

While you’re here

This is the free warm-up. PlumbCut reads your whole plan set and prices the entire frame: every wall, the headers, the sheathing, and the trusses. Counting studs on one wall is the easy part. Let the AI do the takeoff on your next real job and hand you a customer-ready bid.