How to calculate the amount of flooring for the floor?

How much flooring to buy? Prepare yourself before the purchase

Calculating how much flooring to buy before you start your renovation is extremely important. It will allow you to significantly speed online shopping or your visit to the DIY store – there will be no need to make a quick estimate of the right amount of flooring. You will also be prepared as far as the money is concerned – the cost will not surprise you.

A well-considered purchase of flooring will also facilitate the renovation. When you have the right amount of materials prepared, you won’t have to worry that you will run out of a few planks during installation. In that way, you can avoid an additional trip to the shop, or the delays associated with waiting for delivery. What is more, once the renovation is complete, a carefully calculated amount of flooring will ensure that you will not regret unnecessary costs or wonder where to store the remaining planks. Unused flooring will take up valuable space and selling it can be problematic. However, if you are left with intact packages in its original packaging, you can ask about the possibility of returning them to the shop. However, you should keep your receipt and respect the dates specified in the terms and conditions.

It is not always possible to buy exactly as much flooring as you need – it is sold in packages of several pieces. Nevertheless, a well-made calculation will certainly be more accurate than a rough estimate. It is also better to avoid referring to the amount of flooring you bought for a previous renovation. Even if the room had the same dimensions, you may need more or fewer packages than before. Manufacturers offer flooring in different sizes. Even a few centimetres of difference between models can completely change the results.

How to you count the amount of flooring? Key rules

In order to determine how much flooring you will need, be prepared to do the calculations. The best way to do this is to empty the room of furniture and measure the length and width of the walls accurately. Multiply both these values to get the area of the floor where you will install the flooring. On the package with the specific flooring, there should be information not only on the dimensions of the individual planks, but also about the area that will be covered by all the planks laid on the floor. Such data is usually also available on the shop’s website or directly on the manufacturer’s website. Divide the previously obtained floor area by this value. The result is the minimum number of packages needed for a given room.

However, this is not enough to determine precisely how much flooring you will need. During the installation, it is often necessary to cut the planks to fit the shape and dimensions of the floor. To have an adequate amount of material, when calculating the amount of flooring you need, add 10% to the resulting value and perform the next steps. In this way, you will be prepared for possible damage to the flooring during the installation as well as for cutting the planks. However, you will not run the risk of buying too many packages.

How much flooring will you need in a standard 4 × 3 m room? The area of this room is 12 m2 and, if you add the spare 10%, the result is 13.2 m2. So, if you want to fill the room with water-resistant laminate flooring, a package of which is enough to cover 2.158 m2, divide 13.2 by 2.158. The result is 6.12. Round the result up to be safe and buy 7 packages of flooring.

A small surplus of flooring may also turn out to be useful tin the future. Manufacturers change their collections – they withdraw old decors and replace them with models adapted to the latest trends. For this reason, if one or two planks become damaged after a few years, it may not be possible to buy the same model, and as a result, the entire floor will have to be replaced to achieve attractive effects. However, if you keep a few planks in your storeroom or basement, it may be possible to renovate the floor quickly.

In a similar way, you can calculate the length of the skirting boards with which you will finish the floor. Instead of the floor area, determine the perimeter of all the walls – add their lengths together. Then subtract the width of the door openings. As in the previous case, add a 10% margin to the result, as the skirting boards can also be damaged or cut during installation. Multiply the resulting length by 1000 to get the length of the walls in millimetres – it is in this unit that the length of the skirting boards is most often given. All you need to do is divide the dimensions of the room by the length of the skirting board you have chosen. Then you can go shopping or place your order without worrying about running out of materials or having too much material left over.

Installation of flooring is not difficult

Once you have purchased the flooring, you can start the renovation. If you want to carry out a quick installation of the flooring yourself, choose a variant with the Easyloc or Megaloc system tailored to your needs. With their help, you will be able to install the flooring perfectly. If you are inexperienced in renovation work, the glueless, tool-free installation systems will be the best choice. In the case of Megaloc, the planks edges are equipped with a click system. In order to achieve a stable, even, attractive floor, all you have to do is connect them together.

If you want to protect your floor against moisture as much as possible, choose water-resistant laminate flooring installed with the Megaloc Aqua Protect system. The planks have been given an innovative shape and a special coating that, like a lock, tightly seals the joints. This makes it difficult for water to penetrate into the floor. Therefore, the flooring installed with this system will not swell after contact with liquid or detach from the substrate.

Even if you choose the flooring with a glueless installation system, make sure you have the accessories to protect your floor from damage and to highlight the unique properties of your flooring. In particular, insulating underlays will come in handy. They will help you protect the substrate even better against the negative effects of moisture, dampen sounds and improve the functioning of the underfloor heating by retaining the warmth reliably. The calculations you made earlier will help you to choose the right sizes of underlay.

Now you know how to count the amount of flooring!

Counting the amount of flooring materials – flooring and skirting boards – can seem complicated. For this reason, many people are discouraged right from the start and buy the flooring according to inaccurate estimates. Performing the appropriate calculations will take you only a few minutes. However, it will save you a lot of time during your shopping and renovation, you will also avoid additional costs and the stress of having to search for additional planks. We encourage you to make use of our advice and carefully prepare to start your renovation!