WittyFuttyFootball culture archive and pitch & grounds tools

Tool

Football pitch marking calculator

Enter your pitch and the coverage figure printed on your container. The calculator works out the marked line length, the painted area, and how much paint to buy once coats and wastage are included.

Pitch

Choosing a format fills in a starting length and width, and decides which line groups are included.

m

Between goal lines.

m

Between touchlines.

mm

IFAB Law 1 caps line width at 120 mm and requires every line to be the same width.

Product
m² per litre per coat

Take this from your container or its technical data sheet. There is no default, because a borrowed figure gives a wrong answer.

Number of passes over the same line.

%

Priming, purging, spillage and overmarking.

litres

Leave blank if you do not want a pack count.

Enter your figures and select Calculate. Results appear here.

Method

Every line is measured once, along its centreline.

  1. Line length is the sum of the line groups listed below for your chosen format.
  2. Painted area in square metres is line length in metres multiplied by line width in metres.
  3. Neat paint in litres is painted area multiplied by the number of coats, divided by the coverage figure you entered.
  4. Purchase volume is neat paint multiplied by one plus your wastage allowance.
  5. Packs are the purchase volume divided by your pack size, rounded up to the next whole pack.

Full precision is kept through the calculation. Figures are rounded only when they are displayed.

Assumptions

  • The penalty area and goal area are marked on three sides, because the goal line forms the fourth.
  • The penalty arc is only the part of the circle outside the penalty area, and is only included for formats that use one.
  • Corner arcs are quarter circles at all four corners.
  • The centre mark and penalty marks are painted as spots rather than runs of line, and are excluded.
  • Technical areas, spectator lines and competition-specific extra markings are excluded.
  • Coverage is treated as uniform across the whole job.

Limits of this tool

This is a planning estimate produced from the figures you enter. It is not a compliance check, a safety assessment or an approval of any product. Coverage, drying and surface suitability come from the product instructions and safety data sheet supplied with the paint you are using.

Pitch sizes and markings are set by the competition you play in. Check the current IFAB Laws of the Game and your league or county FA handbook before you mark out.

Sources