Caulk and weatherstrip counter
Count your windows and doors. See the feet of caulk and weatherstripping that takes, and how many tubes to buy at the bead you will run.
Your windows and doors
Bead you will run
1/4 inch: most window and door trim.
- 7 tubes of caulk
- 167 feet of caulk joint
- 161 feet of weatherstrip
- 2 door sweeps
5.4 tubes by the geometry at about 30.9 feet a tube, rounded up, plus one for waste (the outlined tube).
A worked example
8 standard windows (36 by 60 inches) and 2 standard doors (36 by 80):
| Feet | |
|---|---|
| Caulk around the trim | 167 |
| Weatherstrip on the moving joints | 161 |
| Door sweeps | 2 doors |
At a 1/4 inch bead that is 7 tubes: 5.4 by the geometry, rounded up, plus one.
How it counts
Caulk runs all the way around each window and door frame. Weatherstripping runs where something moves: the full edge of a window sash, and a door's two sides and top. A door's bottom takes a sweep instead, so the counter lists sweeps apart.
A 10.1 fluid ounce tube holds about 18.2 cubic inches. Drawn as a round bead, that is about 123.8 feet at 1/8 inch, 30.9 feet at 1/4 inch and 13.8 feet at 3/8 inch. A real bead is not a perfect cylinder, and the first one is always practice, so the counter rounds up and adds one tube. That rule is ours; the geometry is not.
Before you buy
Do the paper test first: a joint that holds a sheet of paper tight may not need anything. ENERGY STAR's own project pages, cited below, cover which kinds of caulk and weatherstripping go where.
Sources
- ENERGY STAR: Seal and insulate with ENERGY STAR energystar.gov
- ENERGY STAR: Sealing behind window and door trim project energystar.gov
- ENERGY STAR: Applying plastic over windows project energystar.gov
Drafted on October 26, 2026 with a language model from the pages listed above, each opened that day, and sampled by the editor after publication. Every figure is computed by the same code the tools run, and a test fails the build if one stops matching.
Found an error? See Corrections.