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Resources · How to measure a room

Planning

How to measure a room for flooring.

A tape measure and a few minutes, and you will know exactly how much flooring to buy. Every floor we sell with a carton size, 2,913 of them, has a carton calculator on its own page. This guide shows you what to put in it, and the helper below adds up all your rooms for you.

Add up my roomsHow to measure
A floor plan: an L shaped living room split into two rectangles, a closet, a doorway and the stairs, each measured20 ft10 ft9 ft12 ftA 20 × 10 = 200B 12 × 9 = 108closet4 × 6 = 24hall: count stairs332sq ft in all

What you need.

A tape measure

A 25 foot tape with big, easy to read numbers. Hook it on one wall and read it at the other.

Easy to read tape measures on Amazon

Or a laser measure

Point it at the far wall and press. Quicker for big rooms, and you can measure alone.

Laser measures on Amazon

Paper and a pencil

A sketch of each room with its measurements on it. Keep it by the phone when you talk to us.

The Amazon links are plain searches. We earn nothing from them.

Measure it, step by step.

Work in feet and inches, one rectangle at a time. Write every number on your sketch as you go.

  1. Sketch the room

    Draw the room on paper, wall by wall. It does not need to be neat, only complete: every closet, nook and doorway the new floor will reach.

    A rough pencil sketch of a room on paper, every wall with its measurement14' 2"11' 9"9' 6"5'cl

  2. Measure each rectangle

    Measure wall to wall at the floor, along the longest stretch, and round up to the next inch. Length times width is the square feet. Inches are twelfths of a foot: 6 inches is half a foot.

    A rectangle 14 feet by 12 feet 6 inches is 175 square feet14 ft12 ft 6 in175 sq ft14 × 12.5

  3. Split other shapes into rectangles

    An L shaped room is two rectangles. Draw a line where they meet, measure each one, and add them up. Any room can be broken down this way.

    An L shaped room split into two rectangles: 16 by 10 feet is 160, 8 by 8 feet is 64, together 224 square feet16 ft10 ft8 ftA16 × 10 = 160B8 × 8 = 64160 + 64224 sq ft

  4. Add the closets and nooks

    A closet the new floor runs into is a small rectangle of its own. Add it to the room.

    A room 12 by 11 feet with a closet 3 by 6 feet: 132 plus 18 is 150 square feet12 ft11 ft3 ft6 ft132the room18closet132 + 18 = 150 sq ft

  5. Run into the doorways

    Where the new floor meets another floor at a doorway, it usually stops under the middle of the closed door, where a transition covers the joint. Measure into the doorway to that point.

    Two rooms and a doorway: the new floor runs into the doorway and stops under the middle of the closed door, where a transition covers the jointnew floornext roomstops under the doorMeasure to where the new floor stops

  6. Count the stairs, do not measure them

    Stairs are bought and priced by the step, a tread and often a riser each, so count them. A landing is measured like a small room.

    A staircase of six steps, each tread numbered, and a landing: stairs are counted, not measured123456landingCount each step. A landing is measured like a room.

  7. Box in the odd shapes

    For a bay window, an angled wall or a curve, measure the rectangle that holds it. A little extra is better than a carton short.

    A room with a bay window: measure the rectangle that holds the bay3 ft17 ftthe room, 17 × 12box the bay in: 17 × 3A little extra is better than a carton short

  8. Leave out what the floor will not go under

    Measure the open floor. Base cabinets and a fixed kitchen island stay where they are, so measure around them.

    A kitchen: the base cabinets and the island are left out, and the open floor around them is measuredbase cabinets, not countedisland,not countedMeasure the open floor, around them

Then add the waste, and round up to whole cartons.

Flooring is lost to cuts at the walls, the doorways and the ends of rows, so every real job buys a little more than the floor. How much depends on who lays it.

WasteWho is laying it
10%A homeowner or DIY, with a little room for error
7%Someone handy, or a general contractor
5%A professional flooring installer
0%The waste was already included in your number

square feet × (1 + waste) ÷ square feet in a carton = cartons, rounded up

500 sq ft plus 5 percent is 525. At 28.84 sq ft a carton that is 18.2, so 19 cartons: 547.96 sq ft of flooring. Always up: a job one plank short is a second delivery.

An extra carton or two. We recommend keeping one or two back, for a board damaged years from now when the floor may no longer be made.
Refinishing what you have? Sanding and finishing is figured by the square feet of floor, with no waste, and the stairs are counted.

Add up your rooms.

Type in each room as you measure it. Pick a floor and the helper works out the cartons the way its own page does. Your rooms stay in this browser, so you can come back to them.

Your rooms

counted, not measured: stairs are priced by the step

Floor to cover

0sq ft

Add a room to start.

Pick a floor

    sq ft

    Add your rooms and pick a floor, and the cartons show here.

    Questions people ask.

    How do I work out the square feet of a room?

    Measure the length and the width of the floor in feet, and multiply them. A room 14 feet by 12 feet 6 inches is 14 times 12.5, which is 175 square feet. For an L shape or any other shape, split it into rectangles, work out each one, and add them up.

    How much extra flooring should I buy?

    Add a cutting waste to the square feet, then round up to whole cartons. Our rule of thumb: 10 percent for a homeowner or DIY, 7 percent for someone handy or a general contractor, 5 percent for a professional flooring installer, and none when the waste was already included. On top of that we recommend an extra carton or two to keep, in case a board is damaged later and the floor is no longer made.

    How many cartons do I need?

    Take the square feet, add the cutting waste, and divide by the square feet in one carton, then round up, always: a job one plank short is a second delivery. 500 square feet plus 5 percent is 525; at 28.84 square feet a carton that is 18.2, so 19 cartons, 547.96 square feet. Every floor we sell with a carton size does this for you on its own page.

    Do I measure under kitchen cabinets?

    No. Measure the open floor, around base cabinets and a fixed island.

    How do I measure stairs for flooring?

    Count them rather than measure them. Stairs are bought and priced by the step. Measure a landing like a small room.

    What if the walls are not square?

    Measure each wall at both ends and use the longer figure. Rooms are rarely perfectly square, and the cutting waste covers the rest.

    Refinishing the floor I already have?

    Sanding and finishing is figured by the square feet of floor you have, with no waste added, and the stairs are counted. The same measuring works; there are no cartons to buy.

    Or let us measure. It is free.

    Your numbers get you close. The free visit measures your rooms with you and comes with a written, line by line estimate for the floor, the installation and anything else the job needs.