About
About Tallyard
Tallyard builds free calculators and buying guides for home improvement projects. Every tool shows its formula, every guide shows its math, and nothing on this site asks for your email, phone number, or credit card.
That sounds like an obvious approach, but it's not how most of the internet works. Most online calculators exist to collect your contact information and sell it to contractors. Most comparison articles exist to send you to a lead form. Tallyard exists because somebody needed to just show the math and get out of the way.
Founder
Ash K.
LinkedIn →I build data-driven web tools. Tallyard started because I needed a concrete calculator that showed its formula and could not find one. Every result on every other site was a black box: enter your numbers, get an answer, no idea how it was calculated or whether it was right. So I built one that shows the math. Then I built 43 more.
I am not a contractor, an electrician, or an HVAC technician. The formulas on this site do not come from my personal trade experience. They come from the people and organizations who set the standards: the International Residential Code (IRC), ACCA Manual J, the Tile Council of North America (TCNA), manufacturer product specifications from companies like GAF, Trex, Owens Corning, and James Hardie, and industry associations like NADRA, NWFA, and APA. Every calculator cites its sources in a methodology section so you can verify the math independently.
Before Tallyard, I built JaankariHub and other reference tools that serve millions of users. The approach is the same across all of them: find a question people search for, find the authoritative source for the answer, build a tool that makes the answer accessible without requiring expertise to interpret it.
Editorial process
How we build calculators and write guides
Calculator formulas
Every formula is derived from manufacturer specifications, industry standards, or building codes. Coverage rates (how much a gallon of paint covers, how many bricks per square foot) are sourced from product data sheets, not guesswork. Each calculator's methodology section cites specific sources so you can check our work.
Guide research
Buying guides are researched against current pricing data (Angi, HomeGuide, NerdWallet cost reports), manufacturer technical specifications (James Hardie, Trex, Mitsubishi), federal program details (IRS Form 5695, DOE HEEHRA program pages), and building codes (IRC 2021, IPC 2021). Total cost of ownership calculations show their assumptions explicitly so readers can adjust for their situation.
What we don't do
We don't accept payment from manufacturers, retailers, or contractors to influence calculator results or guide recommendations. We don't collect personal information. We don't run affiliate links. Calculator inputs are processed entirely in your browser. We have no financial relationship with any brand mentioned on this site.
Corrections
If you find a formula error, an outdated cost figure, or a factual mistake in any calculator or guide, email hello@tallyard.com. We review and update within 48 hours for confirmed errors. Calculator updates note the correction in the methodology section.
Why “Tallyard”
A tallyard is an old English word for a measuring rod used in construction. Builders carried one to measure lengths, check squareness, and verify that materials fit before committing to a cut. The name fits what this site does: measure twice, cut once.