Flooring Calculator
Calculate how many boxes of flooring you need, with a wastage allowance.
Assumptions used in this calculation
- Uniform coverage per box: Assumes every box covers the same stated area with no accounting for planks damaged in shipping or unusable due to defects.
- Waste default: 10% waste is typical for a simple straight-lay pattern, diagonal or herringbone layouts should use a higher percentage.
About this calculator
Ordering flooring boxes based on raw room area alone almost always comes up short, since every cut plank at a wall edge or around a doorway produces an offcut that can't be reused, and that lost material adds up across a whole room. This calculator takes your room area, adds a wastage percentage to account for cutting losses, then divides by the coverage each box provides and rounds up to a whole box, since flooring is sold in full boxes and a partial box isn't purchasable. Enter room area and coverage per box, and it returns a ready-to-buy box count instead of you estimating waste and doing the division and rounding by hand. Getting this right matters beyond convenience: buying short on a specialty flooring often means a second trip and the real risk of a different production dye lot that doesn't quite match the first batch's color.
Worked example
300 sqft room, 20 sqft/box, 10% waste
Result: 17 boxes
Was this helpful?