How it's calculated
Laminate, vinyl plank and engineered or solid wood flooring are sold in cartons, and each carton lists the area it covers. The calculator finds the floor area, adds a waste allowance for the cuts at walls, doorways and the end of every row, divides by the coverage per box and rounds up to whole boxes. The cost is the area you actually buy (whole boxes) times the price per square foot.
How much to add depends on the layout. Daltile's installation guide for its luxury vinyl plank recommends adding 10% to the square footage for a standard installation and 15% for a diagonal one Daltile, and Mannington tells buyers that a waste factor of 5–15% is added to an order, depending on the product Mannington. The calculator starts at 10%.
The formula
- Floor area = room length × room width, plus any closets or halls you add.
- Area with waste = floor area × (1 + waste %).
- Boxes = area with waste ÷ coverage per box, rounded up.
- Flooring bought = boxes × coverage per box. Cost = flooring bought × price per square foot (or per m²).
- Left over = flooring bought − floor area: the waste allowance plus the rounding to whole boxes.
Worked example
A 12 × 14 ft room is 168 sq ft. With 10% for waste that becomes 184.8 sq ft, and with cartons that cover 20 sq ft you need 10 boxes, or 200 sq ft of flooring.
| Line | Amount |
|---|---|
| 10 boxes × 20 sq ft × $3.50 | $700 |
Laid on the diagonal at 15%, the same room needs 10 boxes. Adding a 4 × 6 ft closet to the straight layout brings it to 11 boxes.
Assumptions and limitations
- Coverage per box is on the carton. The 20 sq ft default is only an example; plank sizes and box counts vary widely.
- Rectangular rooms. For other shapes, find the area with the square footage calculator and enter it as an extra area with the room size set to zero.
- Waste depends on the job. Many short walls, closets, doorways, patterned layouts and long planks all increase waste. Use the manufacturer's figure for your product where it gives one.
- Underlayment, trim and transitions are not included. Moldings and thresholds are bought by the linear foot or piece.
- Same production lot. Buy every box at once so color and finish match, and keep a few spare planks for repairs.
- Prices are examples. Enter your own.
Tiling instead? The tile calculator counts individual tiles with the grout joint.