If your construction or renovation project requires caulking, you’ll obviously have to buy a certain amount of sealant.
But do you know exactly how many cartridges or sausages you need to buy to get the job done?
To help you answer this question, our sealant product specialists have decided to provide you with a method for calculating the amount of sealant you will need.
Method for calculating the amount of sealant needed for a project
Calculating the amount of silicone sealant needed for a caulking project requires a method you may remember from math class. It involves determining the volume of the joint you want to seal.
Although the calculation itself is simple, it’s important to be consistent with your units of measurement. In the method presented below, we use the metric system, so you should do the same.
Note that m and ml are used for clarity and concision to streamline the step of multiplying and dividing by 1,000 as would be necessary if everything were expressed in mm and mm2.
To calculate the approximate amount of sealant you will need in ml, use a tape measure and apply the following formula:
Joint depth (mm) x joint width (mm) x joint length (m)
Example calculation
There’s nothing like an example to help you understand how to apply the formula!
Imagine that you need to caulk the perimeter of a window and you have the following measurements in hand:
Joint depth: 5 mm
Joint width: 10 mm
Window perimeter: 4.6 m
This is how to apply the formula with the above measurements:
5 x 10 x 4.6 = 230 ml
You will therefore need around 230 ml of sealant.
Calculating the number of cartridges or sausages of sealant you need
If you know the amount of sealant you need in ml, you can easily calculate the number of cartridges or sausages you need for your project.
Just apply the following formula:
Amount of sealant needed (ml) / Amount of sealant in the cartridge or sausage (ml)
Example calculation
Cartridges of silicone sealant generally contain around 300 ml of product, while sausages can contain 400 ml or 600 ml of product.
(Note that it’s important to use the right caulking gun for each of these formats to apply the sealant.)
If you have a caulking gun designed for 600 ml sausages and you want to know how many sausages you need for a project that requires 4,500 ml of sealant, use the following calculation:
4,500 / 600 = 7.5
You will therefore need eight 600 ml sausages of sealant. As you might have guessed, it’s important to round up the result to make sure you’ll have enough. Also, it’s always a good idea to account for the possibility that you might waste some of the sealant, even if you’re a caulking pro.
If you happen to need a very large quantity of sealant, note that some products are also available in pail and drum formats.
Keep things simple with Adfast’s sealant calculator
Even if you aren’t a math whiz, it’s easy to calculate the amount of sealant you need for your project and the number of cartridges or sausages you’ll have to buy.
That being said, there is an even simpler option that will produce the same results. To make your life easier, we have developed a handy digital tool that will calculate the quantities for you.
Just enter your measurements into our sealant calculator, and one click will tell you how many cartridges or sausages to buy.
Go to our website now to find out how much sealant you need and discover all of our indispensable caulking tools and products!
