Home improvement planning guides
Step-by-step guides for measuring a job, turning the measurements into quantities, and planning a budget you can hold a contractor to. Every equation written into them is parsed and evaluated on each build, so a worked example that does not add up fails before it can be published.
Last reviewed September 7, 2026 by the developer who builds and maintains this site. Rewritten. The introduction claimed a personal history with the projects, which is the kind of credential P7-04 withdrew everywhere else; what replaced it is how a guide is checked before it goes up.
How to Calculate How Much Paint You Need for Any Room
A complete walkthrough of the wall area formula, number of coats, primer decisions, waste factors and common mistakes, so you buy the right amount of paint once.
How to Estimate Concrete for DIY Projects
Whether you are pouring a patio slab, setting fence posts, or building a footing, this guide explains how to calculate cubic yards, choose bag sizes, and avoid over- or under-ordering.
How to Plan a Home Renovation Budget
A step-by-step approach to scoping a renovation, estimating costs per square foot, building in contingency, comparing DIY against contractor pricing, and getting quotes you can actually compare.
Mulch, Soil & Gravel Buying Guide
How to measure landscape beds accurately, convert square footage and depth into cubic yards or bags, understand bulk against bagged pricing, and choose the right material for each application.
About these guides
A guide goes further than a calculator result. It explains why the formula is the formula, which variables move the answer most, and where a planning number needs checking against a product label, a supplier or a local building office before you spend anything. Each one links to the calculators it discusses, so you can put a number in as soon as you understand what it is for.
If a topic you want is not here, the contact page reaches the person who writes them.
How a guide is checked before it goes up
The same standard as the calculators, because a guide that states a figure is making the same promise a calculator does. Three things are enforced on every build rather than reviewed by eye:
- Every equation in the prose is parsed and evaluated. A worked example that states a sum which does not hold fails the build. This has caught real errors, including a paint example that had quietly dropped its waste factor.
- Any constant a guide quotes has to match the calculator it belongs to. A figure corrected in the code and left standing in the prose is a defect, and it is tested for by name.
- A guide may not date a price or attribute a figure to a publication this project has not read. Where a number needs a source, the source is named with the date it was read; where there is none, the guide says so instead of implying one.
What a guide will not do is design anything, check your local code, or replace a professional on structural, electrical, plumbing, gas or permitted work. Where a job crosses that line the guide says so at the point it matters rather than in a footer. What is corrected after publication is listed on the corrections page with the old figure beside the new one.