App Aims: Quick Calculations for Common Home Improvements

Reviewer’s Comments
Any weekend handyman can tell you how frustrating it is to be standing in the aisle at the hardware store trying to guesstimate how many gallons of paint will be needed to cover the living room or how much mulch you need for the flower garden in the front yard. Each project takes three trips to the store because your guess is almost never enough.

HandyMan Sidekick is great for reducing those redundant trips to the hardware store. This app provides at-your-touch unit conversion and estimates the amount of materials needed for a variety of home improvement projects.

Figure out how much paint it will take to cover a room by simply entering the length, width, height and number of windows and doors and this app calculates the amount. You can even adjust the expected coverage per gallon to be more accurate. Remember, don’t forget the primer.

Deciding on how much mulch you need for the garden is easy too. HandyMan Sidekick even converts cubic feet into cubic yards (which is how the bag at the hardware store is usually labeled) for even more convenience.

HandyMan Sidekick can also calculate wallpaper, flooring, or simply act as a feet-to-yard, meter-to-feet, or centimeter-to-inch converter. Need that measurement in metric units? No problem. With a quick setting change your imperial unit conversion is changed to metric.

One downside to this app is the conversions can’t be saved or converted into a list. It would be even handier if there was an “add to list” feature included with HandyMan Sidekick. Check out the TopTenREVIEWS iPhone 3G review, landscape and home design software reviews, and other iPhone App reviews to help you get the most out of your iPhone experience.