Shiplap · budget
Shiplap cost calculator
Find out what the wall costs before you fall in love with it. Set your wall size, then change the board price to whatever the store is actually charging — the total, the fixings and the cost per square foot follow along.
- Edit any price
- Fixings included
- Cost per sq ft
Your wall in three answers
Corner to corner, along the floor.
Floor to ceiling, at the tallest point.
How long the boards are at the store. Longer boards mean fewer joints.
Add up every window and door on this wall. Blank wall? Leave it at 0.
Cutting allowance. Keeps you from a second trip — and a slightly different dye lot.
The shadow line between boards. Already taken off every board's coverage.
No calculate button — the numbers follow your typing.
Wall preview
Final row needs cutting, leftover width: 4.63 in
12 ft × 8 ft = 96 sq ft total.
What you need
10% waste includedBoard rows
18rows
5.38 in face each
Total linear
216 ft
96 sq ft covered
Boards to buy
30boards
about 10 packs of 3 · exact fit
30 boards needed with cutting waste. Each board covers 5.38 in once the reveal is taken off.
18 rows, 216 ft of board, 30 boards to buy.
What will it cost?
Pop in the shelf price. 30 boards (about 10 packs of 3) at the store.
- Shiplap boards30 × $12.98 each
$389.40
- Brad nails1 box × $9.98
$9.98
- Construction adhesive2 tubes × $6.48
$12.96
Project total
Fixings: $22.94 · $4.30 per sq ft
$412.34
Excludes paint, caulk, primer and tools. Prices are estimates you can edit above.
Your shopping list
30 boards (about 10 packs) · 96 sq ft · 10% waste built in
- 1
Buy 30 8ft 1x6 shiplap boards (about 10 packs of 3)
- 2
Buy 1 box of 1.5-inch 18-gauge brad nails
- 3
Buy 2 tubes of Liquid Nails construction adhesive
30 boards needed with waste, and 10 packs of 3 covers it exactly. Always round up — a second trip costs more than a spare board.
Where the money actually goes
Four line items. Only one of them is the shiplap.
- 1
Boards — 85 to 90%
Everything else is noise once you price the boards. The single biggest saving is choosing a cheaper species or profile, not shopping around for a dollar off brads.
- 2
Fixings — 4 to 7%
One box of 18-gauge brads and two tubes of construction adhesive cover a normal room. If you are going into masonry or over tile, add a furring layer and the number changes.
- 3
Finishing — 5 to 15%
Caulk, filler, sandpaper and paint are cheap individually and add up fast on a 100 sq ft wall. Prefinished boards move this cost into the board price instead.
Ways people quietly overspend
Spot these before the checkout, not after.
- Buying 8 ft boards for a 12 ft wall and paying for a 4 ft offcut on every single row.
- Ordering exactly the calculated count with no waste — the second trip always costs more than the extra pack.
- Upgrading to prefinished boards before checking whether two coats of paint would do the same job.
- Forgetting the trim, caulk and paint when the budget is approved by a partner.
- Renting a brad nailer when a £120 / $120 18-gauge nailer pays for itself on the first wall.
Questions people actually ask
Prices move, so treat every number as a starting point and edit it in the calculator.
How much does shiplap cost per square foot?
Doing it yourself, most people land between $3 and $5 per square foot in materials — boards, brads and adhesive, paint excluded. A pro install runs $8 to $12 per square foot because you are paying for labour, caulking, filling and painting. Prefinished boards push the material number up and the finishing time down.
What does a 12 ft by 8 ft shiplap wall cost?
About $410 in materials at typical 2026 prices: 30 boards of 1x6 at $13 each ($389), one box of brads and two tubes of adhesive ($23). The calculator above starts from your actual wall and your actual shelf price, so edit the board price to match the store you are standing in.
Is shiplap cheaper than drywall?
No — plain drywall is two or three times cheaper per square foot. Shiplap is a finish, not a substitute for drywall, so the fair comparison is against panelling, wallpaper or tile. The upside is that a shiplap wall goes up in a weekend with no mudding, sanding or drying time.
How do I get the shiplap look for less?
Three levers: use 1x4 or MDF shiplap instead of wide pine, buy 12 ft boards instead of 8 ft to cut down on joints, and paint raw boards yourself instead of buying prefinished. Those three choices can halve the material cost — the look barely changes.
Does a wider board save money?
Slightly. The square footage is the same, but wider boards mean fewer rows, fewer cuts and fewer brads. On a tall wall the saving in labour and fixings is real; the board price per square foot is usually higher, so it tends to wash out.