MovePik

Flooring calculator with boxes and baseboard

Add your rooms, the box size and a waste allowance, and get the boxes to buy and what is left over.

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Measure each room once. Every material on this page is planned from these measurements.

Units

Changing a unit only changes how values are shown. Your measurements stay exactly as entered.

Feet and inches: type 12' 6", 12 6 (= 12 ft 6 in) or 12.5 (decimal feet). Inches alone: 30".

Rooms

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What this planner works out

From your room sizes and the coverage printed on the box, the planner works out how many boxes of flooring to buy, how many rolls of underlay if your floor needs one, and how many lengths of baseboard (skirting board) to go around the room. It adds a waste allowance, rounds up to whole packages and shows what will be left over.

It does not check the subfloor. It cannot tell whether the base is level, dry or strong enough, whether you need a moisture barrier, or how to deal with heating pipes, wiring or thresholds. It is not a structural, waterproofing or safety assessment, and it does not replace the manufacturer’s installation instructions.

How to measure

For a rectangular room you need the length and the width. For an L-shaped room, measure the overall rectangle and the corner that is cut out, or split the room into rectangles that do not overlap. For baseboard you also need the width of each doorway. If you split the room, also measure the perimeter for the baseboard (see the guide). The guide how to measure a room walks through each case.

The method in plain words

  1. Floor area. Length × width, or the sum of the rectangles. Doorways are not subtracted.
  2. Add up the same flooring. Rooms you assign to the same flooring entry are added together before rounding, so leftover from one room can count towards the next.
  3. Add the waste allowance. Area × (1 + allowance ÷ 100). The allowance covers cut ends, offcuts that are too short to use, damaged planks and matching the pattern.
  4. Round up to whole boxes. Divide by the coverage per box and round up. The difference between what you buy and what you need with the allowance is the leftover.
  5. Baseboard. Room perimeter minus the width of each doorway gives the length to cover. Windows do not interrupt baseboard. The length gets its own allowance and is rounded up to whole lengths.

Worked example

A room 4.5 m × 3.8 m with one 0.8 m doorway. Flooring sold in boxes of 2.2 m², baseboard in 2.4 m lengths, 10% allowance on both:

  • Floor area: 4.5 × 3.8 = 17.1 m²
  • With 10% allowance: 17.1 × 1.1 = 18.81 m²
  • Boxes: 18.81 ÷ 2.2 = 8.55, rounded up to 9 boxes (19.8 m², about 0.99 m² left over)
  • Perimeter: 2 × (4.5 + 3.8) = 16.6 m
  • Baseboard: 16.6 − 0.8 = 15.8 m; with allowance 15.8 × 1.1 = 17.38 m
  • Lengths: 17.38 ÷ 2.4 = 7.24, rounded up to 8 lengths (19.2 m, about 1.82 m left over)

In feet: a 14 × 11 ft room is 154 sq ft; with 10% it is 169.4 sq ft. With an example box of 20.1 sq ft, 169.4 ÷ 20.1 = 8.43, so 9 boxes (180.9 sq ft, about 11.5 sq ft left over). Box sizes vary a lot between products, so always use the number on your box.

Rounding is strict: an amount just over a whole number of boxes adds a whole box. The guide how pack rounding works shows that boundary step by step.

Waste depends on the layout

The allowance is the number you are most likely to need to change. Planks laid parallel to a wall waste least, a diagonal layout cuts a triangle off every row end, and herringbone or chevron patterns cut both ends of many short pieces. Commonly quoted examples are around 5 to 10% for a straight lay, 10 to 15% for diagonal and 15 to 20% for herringbone. They are examples, not rules; your product’s installation guide, and the shape of your room, should decide. A room with many corners, a bay or pipes to cut around needs more than a plain rectangle.

Baseboard is counted by total length, not by wall. A wall longer than one length needs a joint, and short offcuts between doors may not be usable, so check the result against your walls if they are long or broken up.

Before you start: old flooring

Old vinyl tiles, sheet vinyl backing, asphalt tiles and the adhesives under them may contain asbestos. Fibers can be released when they are broken, sanded or scraped, so do not disturb old flooring you are unsure about. In the United States, see the EPA’s page on protecting your family from asbestos; in Great Britain, see the HSE asbestos pages. In other countries, check your national guidance.

To plan new paint at the same time, the room refresh planner reuses these measurements for the paint calculator.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need underlay?

It depends on the product. Some planks have an underlay or pad attached and the manufacturer may say not to add another; others need a separate underlay or a moisture barrier. Follow the installation guide, and if you need one, add it as its own material with the coverage per roll.

Should I subtract the door opening from the floor area?

No. The floor usually runs into the doorway up to a threshold or transition strip, so the floor area is the full room. Doors are only subtracted from the baseboard length, because there is no baseboard across a doorway.

How much waste allowance should I use?

Follow the installation guide for your product first. Commonly quoted examples are around 5 to 10% for planks laid straight, 10 to 15% for a diagonal layout and 15 to 20% for herringbone. Small rooms, many corners and long-pattern repeats need more.

Does the planner make a cutting plan?

No. It works from areas and lengths, not from the position of each plank or the length of each wall, so it cannot say where to start a row or which offcut to reuse. The allowance is there to cover those cuts.

Can I plan two rooms with the same flooring?

Yes. Assign both rooms to the same flooring entry and their areas are added together before rounding, which can save a box compared with rounding each room on its own. If you enter the same product twice by mistake, the planner flags it so you can merge the two entries.

What is a dye lot or batch number, and can I return boxes I do not open?

Boxes from different production runs can differ slightly in shade or finish, and the run is printed on the box as a lot or batch number. Buy all boxes in one purchase, check that the numbers on them match, and keep one box label or a photo of it. Boxes bought later may come from another lot, so the leftover the planner shows is often the best source of matching pieces for a repair. Return rules differ between stores and between stock and special-order products, and some may charge a fee, so check them before you buy extra boxes on the assumption that they can go back.

How do I add a closet or a hallway?

A closet that opens off the room and gets the same floor can be part of the room: draw the room as Several rectangles and add the closet as one more rectangle. A hallway is easier as its own room. Either way, assign it to the same flooring entry so the areas are added together before rounding. Rooms drawn as rectangles need a measured perimeter for baseboard.

Can I plan a stair runner or flooring for stairs?

For a runner, add a Stair runner in step 2: treads × (tread depth + nosing wrap) + risers × riser height + any landings, rounded up to the step the store sells in. 12 treads of 10 in with 1 in around each nosing and 13 risers of 7.5 in come to 229.5 in, so 20 ft when it is sold by the foot. For a covering on every tread and riser, add them as rectangles of a stairs entry drawn as Several rectangles; for fixing and slip resistance, follow the maker’s instructions. What to count and measure on the stairs is in how to measure stairs.

How many transition strips do I need?

One set of whole pieces per doorway where the floor changes: add a Transition strip or nosing in step 2, type the length of one piece and pick the strip for each door, in one of the two rooms only. A 0.8 m door from a 0.9 m strip takes one piece, a 1.01 m opening from 1 m strips takes two, and offcuts are not reused for another doorway. Choose the profile made for the height difference between the two floors; a raised edge is a trip hazard.

How many boxes of carpet tiles do I need?

Plan them like any other flooring: add a Flooring in step 2 with the area one box covers as Coverage per box, and set the waste allowance yourself. A 154 ft² room with 10% is 169.4 ft², and boxes covering 48 ft² give 3.53, so 4 boxes. Cut tiles are covered by the allowance, and all boxes should come from one dye lot, as in the question above.

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