Sam Whitaker
Sam Whitaker is the disclosed editorial pen name used for guides on HandyFigures. It identifies a body of site content, not a public résumé or a claim about the writer's legal identity.
Why a pen name
HandyFigures publishes under pen and brand names rather than personal ones, and this page is the honest version of that arrangement rather than an invented biography. The name does not create qualifications or prove hands-on experience. First-person project stories are illustrative composites unless a page explicitly says they were verified firsthand; they are not testimonials.
On a site like this, the byline was never meant to carry the authority anyway — the methodology is the credential. Guides and calculators should show their arithmetic, label assumptions, point to a manufacturer or primary source when a factual number depends on one, and state where an estimate stops being reliable. If a page does not provide a source, its number must be treated as an assumption to verify for the specific product or project—not as a sourced standard.
What the guides cover
The guides handle the quantity-and-cost math behind common DIY home and yard projects: how many gallons of paint a job needs from measured openings, selected coverage and coats; how many boxes of flooring follow from a chosen overage and carton label; and how many bags or cubic yards of mulch, soil or gravel follow from measured dimensions. Quantities and costs only. How to build, wire, plumb or structure something is a different kind of question, and the guides say so rather than winging it.
How the tools treat your data
Every calculator on HandyFigures runs 100% in your browser. Room sizes, bed dimensions and prices are never uploaded, logged or sold — saved projects live in your own browser's storage, and nothing you type is seen by us.
Start with these
The three calculators are the core of the site: thepaint calculator, theflooring calculator and themulch & soil calculator. For the guides, a representative sample of the writing under this byline:
- How much paint for a 12x12 room
- Paint coverage per gallon — product-based inputs
- Flooring waste percentages by layout
- How many bags of mulch in a cubic yard
More about how the site is built and funded is on the About page. If a guide gets a number wrong, get in touch — corrections are genuinely welcome.