Long-Term Debt - Acquisition Debt (Details) $ in Millions	3 Months Ended
Jul. 31, 2020 USD ($)
Term Loan Facility
Long-term debt
Aggregate principal amount	$ 874.4
Borrowing interest rate (as a percent)	2.91%
Loan amortization installment frequency	quarterly
Loan amortization installments	$ 2.5
Loan amortization installments (as a percent)	0.25%
Term Loan Facility \| LIBOR
Long-term debt
Margin added to variable rate (as a percent)	2.75%
Variable rate floor (as a percent)	0.00%
ABL Facility
Long-term debt
Borrowing interest rate (as a percent)	1.43%

The required periodic payments applied to principal as a percentage of the original principal at time of issuance.

No definition available.

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Period Type:	duration

- Definition

Represents the floor of the variable rate on the debt instrument.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

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Namespace Prefix:	gms_
Data Type:	num:percentItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration

- Definition

Percentage points added to the reference rate to compute the variable rate on the debt instrument.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

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Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	num:percentItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration

- Definition

Face (par) amount of debt instrument at time of issuance.

+ References

Reference 1: http://fasb.org/us-gaap/role/ref/legacyRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 835
-SubTopic 30
-Section 45
-Paragraph 2
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=114775744&loc=d3e28551-108399

Reference 2: http://fasb.org/us-gaap/role/ref/legacyRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 835
-SubTopic 30
-Section 55
-Paragraph 8
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=114775985&loc=d3e28878-108400

+ Details

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Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:monetaryItemType
Balance Type:	credit
Period Type:	instant

- Definition

Description of the frequency of periodic payments (monthly, quarterly, annual).

+ References

Reference 1: http://fasb.org/us-gaap/role/ref/legacyRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 210
-SubTopic 10
-Section S99
-Paragraph 1
-Subparagraph (SX 210.5-02.22)
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=6877327&loc=d3e13212-122682

Reference 2: http://fasb.org/us-gaap/role/ref/legacyRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 942
-SubTopic 470
-Section 50
-Paragraph 3
-Subparagraph (c)
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=75038535&loc=d3e64711-112823

+ Details

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Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:stringItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration

- Definition

Line items represent financial concepts included in a table. These concepts are used to disclose reportable information associated with domain members defined in one or many axes to the table.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

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Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:stringItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration

- Definition

Amount of the required periodic payments applied to principal.

+ References

+ Details

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Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:monetaryItemType
Balance Type:	debit
Period Type:	duration

- Definition

The interest rate applicable to the portion of the carrying amount of long-term borrowings outstanding as of the balance sheet date, including current maturities, which accrues interest at a rate subject to change from time to time.

+ References

+ Details

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Data Type:	num:percentItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	instant

- Details

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Namespace Prefix:
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Balance Type:
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- Details

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Namespace Prefix:
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- Details

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Balance Type:
Period Type: