Flooring Calculator — Laminate, Vinyl, Hardwood & Carpet
Boxes of planks or lengths of carpet per room, plus underlay, skirting and door strips.
Units, currency and flooring type
Rooms
Planks and boxes
Carpet roll
Underlay, edges and doorways
Each room
Shopping list
| Item | Quantity | Price | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total of the prices entered | — | ||
About the Flooring Calculator — Laminate, Vinyl, Hardwood & Carpet
Work out the flooring for a room or a whole home. Add each room as a rectangle, an L-shape or a known area, choose laminate, vinyl plank, engineered or solid wood, and the calculator turns the area and a waste allowance for the layout into whole boxes, using the coverage on the box label — or the planks per box and their size. It adds underlayment rolls, skirting or baseboard in whole pieces (walls minus doorways) and a transition strip for each doorway.
For carpet it plans the pieces cut from a roll of fixed width — 12 ft, 13 ft 6 in, 15 ft, 4 m or 5 m — with every piece in a room running the same way so the pile matches, and gives the linear length to order, the seams, the offcuts, underlay, gripper and door bars. Prices can be typed per box, per m², per square yard or per linear foot.
How to use it
- Choose Metric or US units, the currency, and Planks or tiles or Carpet.
- Add each room: a rectangle, an L-shape (the overall size and the corner that is cut out) or a known area. Enter the doorways — each one once, in one of the two rooms it joins.
- For planks, pick the layout (its waste allowance fills in) and enter the box coverage from the label, or the planks per box and their size. For carpet, choose the roll width, the trim your fitter wants at each end and, for each room, which way the pieces should run.
- Tick the extras you need — underlay, skirting or gripper, transition strips or door bars — then type prices into the shopping list. Copy it or download it as CSV.
Examples
20 m² + 10% = 22 m² → 10 boxes (22.2 m²). Skirting 18 − 0.9 = 17.1 m + 10% = 18.8 m → 8 pieces of 2.4 m. Underlay: 2 rolls of 10 m².
168 ft² + 10% = 184.8 ft² → 8 boxes (187.2 ft²)
One piece 5.15 m long = 20.6 m² of carpet for 17.5 m² of floor; offcut 0.5 m × 5.15 m
Two pieces of 14.5 ft running along the 14 ft side = 29 ft = 38.7 yd², one seam
Two pieces of 6.15 m along the width = 12.3 m (49.2 m² for 42 m² of floor)
How it is calculated
- Area: length × width; an L-shape is its overall rectangle minus the cut-out corner, and its perimeter is the same as the rectangle's.
- Boxes = area × (1 + waste allowance) ÷ the area one box covers, rounded up. With planks per box, a box covers planks × length × width.
- Underlay = area × (1 + allowance) ÷ the area of one roll, rounded up.
- Skirting or gripper = the perimeter of each room − its doorways × the doorway width, plus the allowance, in whole pieces.
- Transition strips or door bars: one per doorway; several are cut from one length when they fit.
How carpet is planned
Carpet comes off a roll of fixed width, so a room is covered by pieces ("drops") laid side by side. All the pieces in a room must run the same way, or the pile shades differently on each side of a seam. The number of pieces is the width they have to cover ÷ the roll width, rounded up; each piece is as long as the room is in its strip, plus the trim at both ends. In an L-shaped room the pieces in the narrow arm are shorter, and the calculator tries laying from both sides.
Let it choose the direction that needs least carpet, or fix it per room — many people run the pile towards the main window or the door. The table shows each room's pieces, seams and the offcut left from the last piece; offcuts are not reused between rooms, so a fitter laying several rooms together may need a little less.
Waste allowances
The layouts start at 10% for straight planks with random joints, 15% for diagonal and 20% for herringbone or chevron — common rules of thumb rather than a standard, the same as the tile calculator uses. If the flooring manufacturer's installation guide asks for more, or the rooms are small and full of corners, raise it. Buy all the boxes from one batch.
Limitations
- Rooms are rectangles or L-shapes; other shapes can be entered as a known area (and its perimeter for skirting), but not planned for carpet.
- The carpet plan does not join offcuts across rooms or plan seams around doorways and furniture; a fitter's plan may differ.
- Doorway width is the same for every doorway; for a wide opening, count it as several doorways.
- Box and roll coverages are what you type — the calculator does not know your product.
Privacy
Everything happens in your browser. What you enter or open here is not uploaded or stored by MySmartCoPilot.
Frequently asked questions
How many boxes of laminate do I need?
Measure each room, add the waste allowance (about 10% for straight laying) and divide by the area one box covers, rounding up. A 5 m × 4 m room with boxes of 2.22 m² needs 22 m² ÷ 2.22 = 9.9, so 10 boxes.
Why do I have to buy more carpet than my floor area?
Carpet comes in fixed widths. A room 3.5 m wide covered from a 4 m roll leaves a 0.5 m strip, and every piece needs a few centimetres of trim at each end. Wide rooms need a second piece, and all the pieces must run the same way.
How is carpet priced in the US?
Usually per square yard: the length you buy × the roll width ÷ 9 ft². A 29 ft length of 12 ft carpet is 348 ft² = 38.7 yd². The shopping list also takes a price per square foot or per linear foot.
Do I take the doorways off the skirting?
Yes — skirting and carpet gripper stop at doorways. Enter the number of doorways per room and their width; the calculator takes them off and adds the allowance for mitres and offcuts.
What waste allowance should I use?
About 10% for straight installations, 15% for diagonal and 20% for herringbone or chevron, unless the manufacturer says otherwise. Very small or irregular rooms need more.