3 Simple Steps to Measure Your Home for Flooring

3 Simple Steps to Measure Your Home for Flooring

When you measure your home for flooring, accuracy matters. It's the difference between a finished project and a job in limbo. And it's definitely something you can do yourself! You may want to trust a professional with the install, but if you walk into the showroom armed with your floor's square footage, you'll be able to jumpstart the process.

Here's how to measure your home for flooring in 3 simple steps.

Step 1: Measure

Each room needs to be measured separately. And, sometimes, when a room is irregular in shape, you'll want to break it up into rectangles. For instance, an L-shaped room is made up of two different areas.

To measure, use a carpenter's tape measure and round up to the nearest inch. Measure, the length, then the width. Then, simply multiply the length by the width. The resulting number is your room's square footage. For a room that's 10' long by 15' wide, your square footage will be 150'.

Areas that aren't rectangular, such as bay windows, should be measured by the longest distance. Like this:

Note: Don't forget the closets! And, if you're measuring the kitchen, you'll need to decide whether to replace the flooring under your dishwasher or not. This is where a professional's advice can come in handy. Many times, it depends on the thickness of the flooring you're installing.

Step 2: Add

You'll need to buy a bit of extra material to allow for cuts and waste. Here are a few rules of thumb.

For wood or laminate flooring, add 5-10%. Most professional flooring installers work with 5% because of their experience. If you're a DIY kind of person, you'll probably want to allow 10%
For tile or patterned wood, add 20%. The cuts in the flooring will need to be staggered, and tile is especially prone to breakage when it's being cut. Again, a professional installer might be able to get away with less waste.
For carpet, you can just give the installer a true number without adding square footage. They'll know how much to recommend.

Note: You can keep the leftover pieces. You never know when you might need to replace a piece of the flooring.

Step 3: Verify

Check with a flooring professional to make sure your measurements will supply all the material you need. You'll need to discuss flooring elements like transition strips, molding, and underlayment. How each of them affects flooring may be hard to figure out without experience.

Having a good estimate for how much material you need is the perfect place to start your search for new flooring. At McCullough's Flooring, we're more than happy to help! Come in anytime to get started on your road to a new-looking interior.