How to measure for your New Flooring

For your convenience, we have included a graphic diagram and detailed instructions of how to properly measure a room to determine how much flooring you should buy.
Most flooring is sold by the square foot. The square footage is the actual measurement of the area to be covered by flooring. A waste factor of 10% - 15% must be added to the amount of square footage of flooring needed to allow for cutting waste. Example: a 10' x 10' room = 100 sq. ft. Using a waste factor of10% we calculate 10% of 100 is 110      so you will have to purchase 110 sq. ft. in order to have enough flooring. The cutting waste also allows for some minor defects if any in the wood to be cut out. If you are doing a project that involves many rooms and a lot of cutting you should calculate 10% additional. You will have less waste in one large room opposed to several smaller rooms. Please review the Diagram provided below to properly measure for your new floors.

Hardwood Flooring-10% - 15%

When measuring for square footage:

Simply multiply length x width of any room.

This equals your square footage. (length x width = sq.ft) Add an additional 10% for waste.

Remember to take measurements for length x width of every room separately.

Things to remember-

Most areas of the home can be divided into square or rectangular shapes,

therefore simple length x width calculations will determine square footage in most cases.

In the event you have a:

Triangular area-

measure the length of side 1 and multiply it by the length of side 2 and divide by 2 for the square footage.

Basically a triangle is ½ of a square.

Circle area-

treat it as a square measuring to the widest point.

Determining the number of cartons of flooring to order-

Flooring is sold in full cartons only.

For Example if you measure that you need 876sf of flooring with waste and you would like to purchase flooring that is sold in 17.6 sf/carton you will require 50 cartons of flooring because 876 divided by 17.6= 49.77 cartons. 50 cartons x 17.6 = 880 sf of flooring you will need to purchase.