How to know how much flooring you need

When we are about to refurbish or install new laminated flooring in our house, we need to make a brief estimation of how big the room we want to cover is. With this in mind, we will know how many boxes of laminate flooring we need to buy. Lots of laminate flooring websites have their own flooring calculator in each product page. Each shop knows how many square meters one box would cover. All you need to do is it type in the ‘Area’ of your room, and you will be informed of how many boxes you’ll need to buy! So, you need to know how to figure out the area of a room!

It is an easy calculation, so don’t worry!

If you have a square or rectangle room , this is a particularly easy equation!

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Flooring calculator: Square or rectangle

Room area flooring calculator - RectangleSo, to find out the area of your room, you just need to measure two sides of the room; the length and the width. Multiply these numbers together and you have figured out the area of your room! For example, if one side of your room measures 7 meters, and the other side measures 5 meters, the area of your room will be 7×5=35 meters squared. Another way of writing this, is 35m2.

If your chosen room is not a simple square or a rectangle shape, you will have to make a slightly trickier calculation!

There are two equation options to choose from! The first one is simple; Inside the geometric shape of your room, divide it into small squares or rectangles and figure out the areas of all of them. Add these area’s together, and you got it! This is probably the most archaic way to do it, and may be a little time consuming, So we encourage you to try the second equation! If not a square or rectangle, the shape of your room is likely to be a trapeze or trapezoid; we are assuming your room is not a triangle or a circle!

The equation for trapeze and trapezoid rooms is explained below!

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Flooring calculator: Trapeze and trapezoid

Room area flooring calculator - RectangleYou just need to know the length of each parallel side of the room and the distance between them, which is the height of the trapeze. So, it is the sum of the length of each parallel side divided by 2, and the result, multiplied for the distance between them (the height). It is not so difficult, is it?

For the more laid back type, we have a third option; you could go to the shop and buy one box of laminate flooring. Lay it out in your chosen room and estimate how many boxes it would take to fill the room.

You could even buy loads of boxes in one go, and return any boxes you didn’t need to open!

In any case, it is always a good idea to buy a little more laminate flooring than you will actually need, just in case you made your calculations wrong (that’s life!), or you cut something wrong (that’s life!), or you make a mess after some time of having placed it (don’t worry… that’s life!)

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