Plan it before you build it
Quick, free calculators to size up a project, then take it all the way to a photoreal design.
A quantity is the easy half of a project. Twelve litres of paint and forty square metres of decking are answerable from a tape measure, and these tools will do that arithmetic faster and more reliably than you will on the back of an envelope.
The expensive half is the part a number cannot settle. Whether the deck catches the evening sun or sits in the shade of the fence from four o’clock. Whether that colour still reads warm under north light in November. Whether the sofa you measured for leaves enough room to walk past it. Those are decisions you can only make by looking at the space, which is what 3D home design software is for.
If you are sizing a deck, the deck design guide covers layout and shade before you price anything. If you are planning a room, start with how to make a floor plan.
- Are these calculators really free?
- Yes. No account, no email, no trial timer. They run in your browser and nothing you type is stored. They exist because the questions they answer are the ones people ask before they are anywhere near buying design software.
- How accurate are the estimates?
- They are planning figures, not quotes. The deck estimator uses typical material and labour rates and the paint calculator assumes two coats over a prepared surface, so both land close enough to budget with and far enough off that you should still get a written quote before committing.
- Why does the paint calculator ask for door and window counts?
- Because openings are the difference between an estimate that is roughly right and one that sends you back to the shop. A standard door and window subtract around 3.7 square metres of wall between them, which on a small room is most of a tin.
- What do I do once I have the numbers?
- A quantity tells you what a project costs. It does not tell you whether the layout works, whether the deck lands in the afternoon shade, or whether the colour survives north light. That is what the design software is for, and the free trial covers it.