Count Loft Boards Still Needed Before Cutting — Free
A run of loft boarding can be measured once and still come up short after the cut boards are laid. Compare each bay with the board width you actually bought before a second trip.
The proof surface
Paint quantity covers a painted area and drawer liners cover flat footprints. This counts whole boards per run, subtracts boards already cut, and never assumes an offcut can be reused in another bay.
Why the flat version breaks
Using the room width
Skirting, tanks and pipe runs rarely follow the walls.
Reusing an offcut in the count
A cut board from one bay often cannot fill the next.
Treating this as a structural plan
Board thickness, spans and loading are outside this arithmetic.
How to work the loft board tally
Enter the usable width between trimmers or party walls. A 340 cm bay is the reference even when the room measures wider; skip tanks, cabling and unreachable corners.
Use the finished board width, not the nominal pack size. A 340 cm run at 120 cm boards needs three boards; keep one row per bay so a long run cannot hide a short one.
Count only boards that match this bay and are not damaged. Three boards needed minus one already cut leaves two to buy for the first bay in the sample.
Any bay that does not divide exactly is flagged because the last board is cut and its offcut usually cannot span another bay. Confirm joist spacing, loading and any relevant building guidance with a competent person.
What the loft board tally replaces
| Question | Before | Visible working |
|---|---|---|
| Using the room width | Skirting, tanks and pipe runs rarely follow the walls. | Divide by the board width you own |
| Reusing an offcut in the count | A cut board from one bay often cannot fill the next. | Subtract the boards already cut |
| Treating this as a structural plan | Board thickness, spans and loading are outside this arithmetic. | Allow for the cut before buying |
A local arithmetic aid replaces hand calculation, not expert review. No paid AI service is needed.
Run it on the samples, right here
FIRST-LOAD
Research prototype — checkout unavailable. Input is processed locally and a draft is saved automatically in this browser profile when storage is available. Reset to sample clears that draft; Pro history has its own clear button. A state link encodes your inputs in its URL: share only non-sensitive rows. Browser history, clipboard and anyone receiving the link may retain it. Optional AI use below leaves this device; it is not required.
This counts boards for flat runs only. It is not a structural, electrical or fire-safety assessment; confirm loading, cable routes and any relevant building regulations with a competent person before boarding a loft.
Data note: Everything runs in this browser tab on the loft board tally: your loft bay | run width cm | boards already cut stays on this device, nothing is uploaded, and the reading is rebuilt only when you press run.
Go deeper: the companion app files the same reading as a till receipt with a tear-off foot
The article demo above runs without limits. The companion app keeps a local history, exports the rows as CSV, prints the loft board tally reading, and holds your drafts on this device — one complete free run; the proposed $4 one-time filing layer is not currently for sale.
The loft board tally reading is complete for free. The optional $4 layer adds print, row CSV and the last five local reading summaries; it does not add hidden answers. Checkout is not configured yet; the article demo remains unlimited.
Open the count loft boards still needed before cutting companionBoundary
This counts boards for flat runs only. It is not a structural, electrical or fire-safety assessment; confirm loading, cable routes and any relevant building regulations with a competent person before boarding a loft.
What this is built on
- Method: Count only boards that match this bay and are not damaged. Three boards needed minus one already cut leaves two to buy for the first bay in the sample.
- All sample records are invented examples. The app does not fetch measurements, policies, files or personal records.
- Google’s official pricing page, fetched 2026-09-29, lists free-tier access including AI Studio. Optional formatting only; limits and availability can change. Free-tier content may be used to improve products. Never paste private records there.
Before: Skirting, tanks and pipe runs rarely follow the walls. After: the loft board tally shows the working beside each named row so the reader can change the assumption and inspect the consequence.
Optional AI formatting, not calculation
For this loft board tally, use the free AI Studio interface only if available to you, with no paid API key. Manual entry completes the same workflow for free. Supply only fictional or non-sensitive notes. Review its output against the source; never paste unresolved questions into the numeric rows.
Format my non-sensitive notes for a loft board tally. Return plain rows only: loft bay | run width cm | boards already cut. Preserve supplied quantities exactly. Do not guess missing values; list questions separately. Do not calculate or add advice. I will check every row before pasting into the local tool.
Accepted schema: loft bay | run width cm | boards already cut. No AI response is executed as code.