About HandyFigures

HandyFigures makes free material calculators for DIY home and yard projects — and shows the math behind every answer.

Why this exists

A stressful moment in many DIY projects is standing in the store aisle and guessing quantities. The calculators the big retailers offer often answer one room at a time, hide their assumptions, and have a funny habit of rounding up. We wanted the opposite: a small set of calculators that plan the whole project, show every step of the arithmetic, and never ask who you are.

How we build our calculators

• Show the math. Every tool explains its formula, exposes project assumptions as editable inputs, and separates exact conversions—such as 27 cubic feet per cubic yard—from values that must come from a product label, supplier or measured site. You can check the result with a pencil.
• Run everything in your browser. The calculators are 100% client-side. Your room sizes and prices are never uploaded, logged, or sold. Saved projects live in your own browser's storage.
• Round like the store sells. Gallons and quarts, whole boxes, whole bags. An estimate you can't buy isn't an estimate.
• Stay inside our lane. We do quantities and costs. How to build, wire, plumb or structure something is a different kind of question, and we say so rather than winging it.

Who's behind it

HandyFigures is built and maintained by a small independent publisher. The guides use the disclosed editorial pen name Sam Whitaker. First-person project stories are illustrative composites unless a page explicitly documents firsthand verification; they are not testimonials. We're not a retailer and we don't sell materials — which means we have no reason to round your order up. If a calculator gives a strange answer or a guide gets something wrong, we genuinely want to know:get in touch.

Our method and corrections

We publish browser-based tools with written formulas, assumptions and worked examples. Example prices, work schedules and household budgets are chosen to explain the calculation; they are not market surveys, customer results or verified personal experiences. External rules and product specifications should be checked against the primary sources linked on the relevant page.

A pen name does not imply professional credentials or independent expert review. Calculation checks can find software errors, but they do not certify every statement or make an estimate suitable for every situation.

To report an error, use our contact address and include the page URL, non-sensitive sample inputs, expected result and any supporting source. Substantive content corrections are reflected in the affected page’s update date. A layout change alone does not mean its facts have been reverified.

How we keep it free

Advertising is currently disabled, and affiliate links are not enabled. The publisher currently covers operating costs. Advertising may support the site in future; we will update the disclosure and privacy information when that changes. See our Ad & Affiliate Disclosure.