Measuring

When estimating the approximate cost of materials needed for your flooring project the first thing you will need to do is calculate how many square feet your room is.

In case you forgot, area can be calculated by multiplying the width of a room by the length of the room.

Lengh X Width = Area

To keep things simple the first example I'll use is a room that is 10 feet wide by 10 feet long.

Floor Plan 1

10 X 10 = 100 square feet

Unfortunately when you install flooring there will be some waste, meaning there will be pieces you don't use, usually end cuts and angle cuts that leave other pieces left over that are too small to use. This is referred to as the waste factor and generally when calculating the material you need you will want to calculate a 10% waste factor.

So for this example

10 X 10 = 100 square feet

and then add 10% waste

which is 100 X 1.1 = 110 square feet

Because laminate is sold by the case and not by the square foot (meaning you can't buy a single square foot of laminate) the next thing you need to figure out is how many cases of laminate you need. Laminate collections rarely have the same amount of laminate per box, some may have 15 square feet per box while others may have 25 square feet per box. So the first thing you will need to do is find out how many square feet per box the laminate you're using has.

For this example I'll be using Armstrong's American Duet collection which has 18.82 square feet per box. Now all you need to do is divide the total square feet of your room by 18.82

110 / 18.82 = 5.84

Obviously, you can't buy 5.84 cases of laminate so you'll have to round up to 6 cases.

Most of the time, however, floor plans aren't so basic. The next example is a common L shaped room layout. In this example you'll need to break the room up into two different areas.

Floor Plan 2

To calculate the area in this room all you will need to do is multiply the length and the width of each area and then add the two together.

10 X 20 = 200
10 X 10 = 100
Total = 300

Don't forget to calculate a 10% waste factor!

300 X 1.1 = 330

Next, you need to know how many boxes of laminate you will need for 330 square feet. Assuming you are using the same kind of laminate as in example #1, with 18.82 square feet per box, you will need to divide 330 square feet by 18.82.

330 / 18.82 = 17.53

This means that you will need 18 cases.

Now take a look at floor plan #3.

Floor Plan 3

At first calculating the area of this room may seem mind boggling. You can't exactly multiply lengh X Width in this room can you? Well, actually you can but first you will need visually break down the room into smaller areas.

Floor Plan 4

Here you can see how I sectioned off the room into 5 smaller, more manageable areas.

Now you can calculate the total area by multiplying the length and width of each separate area and then adding them all together.

Floor Plan 5

5'5" X 2 = 11
18 X 7 = 126
10 X 6 = 60
4'5" X 5 = 23
10 X 8 = 80

Total = 300

Remember to calculate 10% waste

300 X 1.1 = 330 square feet

Note: 5'5" X 2 isn't exactly 11, it's actually 10'10" but when calculating area for materials needed I generally round up to the nearest 1/2 foot. It's not enough of a variance to make a difference in the amount of cases needed, and remember, if you keep your receipts you can always return any un opened boxes.

In the last example I have a common kitchen floor plan. What's important to know when calculating the materials needed to do a kitchen floor is that the flooring isn't supposed to be installed under the kitchen cabinets. So when calculating a kitchen's area, I generally find the total area and then subtract the area of the cabinets.

Floor Plan 6

The first thing I'll do here is calculate the area.

12 X 20 = 240
  8 X 2  = 16

Total = 256

Next I will calculate the total area of all the kitchen cabinets.

Because the standard kitchen cabinet, from the back to the front, is 20 inches I generally just add together the total length of all the kichen cabinets and then multiply that number by 1 foot, 8 inches, which for this formula will be, length x 1.66 = total square feet.

5 + 3 + 2.6 + 2 + 1.6 = 14.2

14.2 is the total length of all the kitchen cabinets

14.2 (length) X 1.66 (width) = 23.57

Total   = 23.57

Now that you have the area of the kitchen and the area of the cabinets, subtract the area of the cabinets for the area of the kitchen

256 - 23.57 = 232.43

Now calculate a 10% waste factor.

232.43 X 1.1 = 255.67

Finally, all you need to know now is how many cases of laminate you need for 256 square feet. In this last example I'll use Wilsonart's Classic Tile collection which comes with 15 square feet per box.

256 / 15 = 17.06

I usually round up, but in this last example 17 cases of laminate should be enough.