Enter the room and layout to get the square footage, waste allowance and whole boxes to order.
area = length × width
order = area × (1 + waste)
boxes = ceil(order ÷ box coverage)Waste allowance is not padding — it's the offcuts. Every board cut at a wall leaves a piece too short to use elsewhere, and a diagonal layout mitres both ends of every edge board.
The allowance depends on both material and pattern, which is why this asks for both. Vinyl plank laid straight wastes about 7%; solid hardwood in herringbone wastes 17%. Small tiles waste more than large ones because there are more cuts per square foot, and natural stone wastes most of all because pieces break and colours have to be sorted.
Buy the whole job in one order. Boxes from different production batches can differ slightly in shade, and running short means either a visible batch line or a second delivery charge.
It depends on the material and the pattern, not a single flat number. Vinyl plank laid straight needs about 7%, laminate 8%, solid hardwood 10%, and natural stone 15%. Laying at 45 degrees adds roughly 5 points to any of those, and herringbone adds more again. Pick your material and pattern above and the calculator applies the right figure.
In a straight lay only the boards meeting a wall get cut. In herringbone every board sits at an angle to the wall, so both ends of every perimeter board are mitred, and the offcuts are angled pieces that rarely fit anywhere else.
Yes, if you are flooring them. Measure each closet as its own small rectangle and add it to your total. Closets are also why the extra-cuts option exists — several small enclosed spaces generate far more offcut waste per square foot than one open room.
You order more, and the new boxes may come from a different production run. Shade and texture vary slightly between batches, and a batch line across a finished floor is visible and permanent. Buy the whole job in one order, and keep a spare box for future repairs.
Laminate and vinyl plank usually cover 18 to 25 sq ft per box, and solid hardwood around 20 sq ft. It varies by manufacturer and is printed on the box — enter your actual figure above rather than relying on the default.
Split it into rectangles, run each through the calculator, and add the square footage together before applying waste. An L-shape is two rectangles; a room with a bay is three. Tick the extra-cuts option too, since every additional corner is another cut.
Floating floors — laminate and most vinyl plank — need it unless the boards come with it pre-attached. Rolls come in 100, 200, 360, 450 and 630 sq ft, and you want about 10% more than your floor area because the seams overlap by roughly 6 in.