Every number here names its status — sourced, derived, or a labelled starting point. The ones you replace are yours to measure.
A garland of 10 balloons a foot is the bench's starting point — a labelled estimate: the community guides run 8–10 a foot plus 2–7 small fillers, and another calculator lands near 11 a foot. The honest move is the one the app makes: your most recent build's number replaces it, labelled yours.
The starting mix is 50% of 11 in, 40% of 5 in, 10% of 16 in — sourced from the community arch calculator's default, and labelled a starting point too. The shares turn into whole balloons by the largest remainder (Hamilton's method): the total always comes out exact, and no size rounds down unfairly twice in a row.
A 12 ft garland at 10 a foot: 120 balloons. The mix: 60 of 11 in, 48 of 5 in, 12 of 16 in — the shares land whole on their own here. The double-stuffed: each counts one inner and one outer of the size chosen (sourced, how double-stuffing is done). The spares: 10% per product, rounded up — a labelled starting point, replaced by your own over-ordering history. The bags: they come in 50s and 100s per size and line; the tool rounds your order up into them.
| the mistake | what it costs |
|---|---|
| a count trusted from someone else's build | the density is the decorator's style — run your own past number first |
| the spares skipped | the pops and the bad ties land on build morning; 10% per product is the start |
| the stock left out of the price | every balloon used costs — the app's rule counts stock at bag price ÷ bag count |
The Counts sheet keeps the whole order: the build's counts, the double-stuffed split, the spares, the stock and the bags — every number labelled, and the app never ships a default for the decorator's own inputs.
All of it is the app's craft file: the 10 start and the 10% spares are labelled estimates, the mix and the double-stuffed lines are sourced to the community guides, and the largest remainder is pinned by the engine's tests.