Measuring & Calculating For Laminate Flooring

Before going shopping online, or offline for a new laminate floor it helps to estimate how much laminate flooring you will actually need for your areas you want to cover. Here is a simple way to estimate the total square footage of plank flooring you will need.

Measuring the area

  • Square off each section of the area you are going to install laminate flooring so you can measure the width and length to calculate the square footages.
  • Then add the square footage for each section together to get the total square footage for the area you plan on installing flooring in.
  • Add 5% to the total square footage for waste and extra pieces. (Width * Length = Total Square Feet * 1.05)

Note: Laminate flooring is sold in full cartons only. So you will need to know how many square feet are in a carton of flooring. Then divide your total square footage by the square feet per carton and round up to the nearest carton.

(Total Square Feet of Area / Square Feet per Carton = Number of Cartons (rounded up to the nearest integer to get full carton)

(Number of Cartons * Square Feet per Carton = Total Sqaure Feet you are actually buying)

For laminate flooring you will also need to use the total square footage to help estimate the amount of plastic film or vapor barrier is required to be installed underneath your flooring.

If you have an iPhone or iPad go to the iTunes App store and download the Flooring Calculator Lite. It is a free, slick little application that will help you compute your square footages and estimated cost for material.