How this flooring calculator works
Flooring sells by the box, not the square foot — so the math is area with waste, rounded up to whole boxes at the coverage printed on the carton:
boxes = buy area ÷ box ft², rounded up · underlayment = area ÷ 100/roll
Worked example: flooring for a 16 × 13 room
208 ft² plus 10% waste is 229 ft² to cover. In 20 ft² boxes that's 12 boxes — 240 ft² bought, about $720 at $3/ft² — plus 3 rolls of underlayment if the plank has no attached pad.
How many boxes of flooring by room size?
| Room | Area | Boxes |
|---|---|---|
| 10 × 12 | 120 ft² | 7 |
| 12 × 14 | 168 ft² | 10 |
| 16 × 13 | 208 ft² | 12 |
| 20 × 16 | 320 ft² | 18 |
| Layout | Waste |
|---|---|
| Large simple rectangle | 5% |
| Typical room | 10% |
| Diagonal / herringbone | 15% |
| Many closets & jogs | 15% |
Flooring FAQ
How much flooring do I need?
Room area plus waste, bought in whole boxes: a 16 × 13 ft room is 208 ft², 229 ft² with 10% waste — 12 boxes at 20 ft² a box, which puts 240 ft² in the house. The spare pieces are your repair stock.
How much waste should I add for flooring?
10% for a typical room, 5% for big simple rectangles, and 15% for diagonal or herringbone lays and rooms full of closets and jogs. Plank floors always lose material at row ends — the waste chip sets it in one tap.
How many boxes of flooring do I need?
Divide the waste-inclusive area by the coverage printed on the box — commonly 17–24 ft² for laminate and LVP. The default room needs 12 twenty-square-foot boxes; a different box size recomputes instantly.
Do I need underlayment under laminate or vinyl plank?
Only when the plank has no attached pad: bare-bottom laminate wants a foam underlayment (about 100 ft² a roll — 3 rolls for the default room), while most modern LVP ships with the pad attached. Untick the box and the roll line drops out.
How much does new flooring cost?
Material in 2026: vinyl plank about $2–5 per ft², laminate $1–4, engineered hardwood $4–9, solid hardwood $5–12. The default room is $720 at the editable $3 figure — installed, add roughly $2–5 per ft² for labor.
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