Measured in rectangles, counted to the box

How many boxes do you really need?

64 free flooring calculators for homeowners, DIYers and installers: tile, grout and thinset, hardwood and laminate, vinyl plank and sheet, carpet and pad, the subfloor underneath, and what the whole floor costs. Each one prints its formula, its sourced assumptions and the arithmetic next to the answer.

One 14 × 12 ft room, three floors

Boxes of 12 × 24 in porcelain tile, 10% waste
12
Boxes of 7 × 48 in vinyl plank, 23.6 sq ft a box
8
Carpet from a 12 ft roll, no seam
14.5 ft

A straight layout with a 1/8 in grout joint and 8 tiles to a 16 sq ft box. Change any of it in the calculators.

Calculators

Tile & stone

Floor tile, wall tile, backsplashes and showers, with the grout, thinset, backer board and spacers to go with them.

Hardwood & laminate

Solid, engineered and laminate planks, underlayment, fasteners, plank layout, refinishing and expansion gaps.

Vinyl & resilient

LVP, LVT, sheet vinyl, cork, rubber, garage tiles and play mats, in boxes, rolls and packs.

Carpet & rugs

Broadloom from the roll, carpet tiles, padding, tack strip, stairs and the right size of rug.

  • Carpet Calculator

    The length of 12, 13.5 or 15 ft roll a room takes, the seams, the square yards and the cost.

  • Carpet Tile Calculator

    Carpet tiles and boxes by size and installation pattern, with the adhesive tabs or tackifier.

  • Carpet Padding Calculator

    Rolls and square yards of carpet pad by type and density, with the seam tape and staples.

  • Tack Strip Calculator

    Tack strip pieces and bundles from the room perimeter less the doorways, for wood or concrete.

  • Stair Carpet Calculator

    Carpet or runner for a flight of stairs from the steps, treads and risers, with landings and pad.

  • Rug Size Calculator

    The standard rug size that fits your furniture and still leaves floor showing at the walls.

  • Carpet Seam Planner

    Both ways to lay a carpet roll across a room, with the seams, the light and the offcut compared.

Subfloor & prep

Plywood and OSB, joists, screed, leveling compound, moisture barriers, insulation, radiant heat and height transitions.

Measuring & waste

Areas of odd rooms, waste by layout, boxes from coverage, perimeters for trim, stairs and the weight of the delivery.

Cost & hiring

Materials, labour, removal and disposal, per-square-foot comparisons and whole-house budgets.

Comparison & planning

Compare materials over their lifetime, run radiant heat costs, schedule acclimation and installation, order samples.

How the estimates work

Read the full methodology

  1. The room becomes rectanglesAny room, L-shapes and closets included, is measured as rectangles that do not overlap, with only what the floor stops at subtracted. That area is the starting point for every material.
  2. Waste and coverage become what you buyThe waste follows the layout and the room; tile counts its grout joint; carpet and sheet vinyl are laid out in strips of the real roll width. Every count is rounded up once, to whole boxes, rolls, bags and sheets.
  3. The arithmetic is on the pageEvery result has a breakdown table and a "Show the arithmetic" panel, so a surprising number can be traced to the input that caused it and checked against a store's or an installer's quote.

Most flooring calculators multiply length by width, add ten percent and stop. These count tile by its pitch with the joint, lay carpet out strip by strip on a 12 ft roll, take thinset and leveler coverage from manufacturers' charts, and price labour with dated ranges rather than a single number. They measure and count. They do not inspect a subfloor or replace the instructions in the carton, which always take precedence.

Questions people ask first

How many boxes of flooring do I need?
Measure the floor area, add the waste for your layout, divide by the coverage printed on the box and round up once. A 250 square foot room in vinyl plank laid straight is 250 × 1.10 = 275 square feet to order; at 23.6 square feet per box that is 11.65, so 12 boxes.
How much extra flooring should I buy for waste?
About 10 percent for a straight or brick layout, 15 percent for a diagonal and 20 percent for herringbone or chevron. Add a few percent for closets and many doorways, small rooms, rustic wood grades and printed planks with few faces. Carpet and sheet vinyl are counted by the roll instead.
How many tiles do I need for 100 square feet?
For 12 × 24 inch tile with a 1/8 inch joint, each tile covers 2.031 square feet with its joint, so 100 square feet takes 49.2 tiles, or 55 with 10 percent waste: 7 boxes of 8. Smaller tiles need more, and every size needs the joint counted.
Why does carpet cost more than the room's square yards?
Carpet is cut from rolls 12 feet wide and you pay for every strip in full. A 14 × 13 foot room is 20.2 square yards, but on a 12 foot roll it takes two strips of 13.5 feet: 27 feet of roll, 36 square yards and a seam.
What does flooring installation cost per square foot?
National labour ranges run about $1.50 to $3.50 per square foot for click vinyl plank and laminate, $4 to $8 for nailed hardwood, $5 to $12 for porcelain tile and $0.50 to $1.50 for carpet, before materials, removal and subfloor prep.
Do I need underlayment under vinyl plank?
Not if the planks have a pad attached; a second foam layer makes the floor too soft and strains the click joints. Over a concrete slab, add a 6 mil polyethylene vapour barrier if the maker asks for one. Planks without a pad need the thin, dense underlayment the maker approves.

From the guides

All 25 guides

Built to be checked. Every calculator is tested against its own worked examples before it goes up. Coverage figures come from manufacturers' published charts and labels, installation limits from the TCNA Handbook, ANSI A108 and the National Wood Flooring Association, wages from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and energy prices from the EIA, all listed on the methodology page and last reviewed on October 7, 2026. The site is written by its publisher with AI assistance and human review. Found a figure that looks wrong? Tell us.

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