How to Use This Calculator
Select Rectangle for standard rooms, bedrooms, and living areas. Enter length and width in feet, measured wall to wall. The Quantity field multiplies one room's area by the number of identical rooms, useful when ordering flooring for several same-size bedrooms in one shot. Enter a price per square foot to get an exact material cost. The 10% waste factor result is what you should actually order, not the base square footage. For L-shaped or irregular rooms, use the calculator twice for each rectangle and add the results. Closets count; include them in your measurement if you're flooring the whole room.
How to Calculate Room Square Footage
Room square footage formula: sq ft = length × width. Measure the room length from wall to wall in feet, then the width. Multiply together. To get flooring quantity, multiply by 1.10 for 10% waste and round up to the next full carton.
Example: a bedroom that is 13 feet long and 11 feet wide. 13 × 11 = 143 sq ft. With 10% waste: 143 × 1.10 = 157.3 sq ft. Round up to 158 sq ft. If laminate cartons cover 22 sq ft each: 158 ÷ 22 = 7.2 cartons, so buy 8.
| Room type | Dimensions | Sq ft | Order (+10%) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small bedroom | 10×10 | 100 | 110 |
| Standard bedroom | 12×12 | 144 | 158 |
| Master bedroom | 14×16 | 224 | 246 |
| Living room | 15×20 | 300 | 330 |
| Large living room | 20×20 | 400 | 440 |
| Kitchen | 10×12 | 120 | 132 |
| Studio apartment | 12×28 | 336 | 370 |
Always measure in at least two places along each wall. In older homes, rooms are rarely perfectly square. Use the larger measurement. Ordering short is a bigger problem than ordering slightly extra; a second order from a different production batch may not match.
Room Measurement Tips
Include closets. Flooring runs into closets in almost every residential installation, and they're easy to forget when measuring. Measure the closet separately and add its area to the room total. A standard 2 × 4 foot reach-in closet adds 8 square feet, small but real.
Increase your waste factor for diagonal layouts and complex rooms. A standard 10% waste factor works for straight-run flooring in rectangular rooms. Tile installed at 45 degrees, or hardwood in a room with a bay window and multiple doorways, easily needs 15% to 20% waste. The extra boxes cost less than running short and special-ordering from a discontinued batch.
Buy all material from the same production batch. Hardwood, laminate, and tile all have batch or lot numbers on the carton. Colors, textures, and finishes can vary between production runs, often subtly but noticeably once installed. If you run short and reorder, the new cartons may not match. Buy one extra box as a permanent repair reserve.
What to Buy
For laminate: cartons typically cover 18 to 25 square feet each depending on plank size. Calculate total area with waste, divide by carton coverage, round up to the nearest whole carton, then add one more for repairs.
For carpet: most retailers price by the square yard. Divide your square footage by 9 to convert. A 150 square foot room is 16.7 square yards; order 17 square yards. Ask the retailer before comparing quotes whether they're pricing in square feet or square yards. The same room looks like two very different numbers, and mixing units is an easy and expensive mistake.