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Laminate Flooring Calculator

The boxes, and the layer that goes under them.

An estimate of quantities — box coverage varies by product; type yours.

16' · 192 in · 16 ft · 4.8768 m

13' · 156 in · 13 ft · 3.9624 m

208 ft²

Inch Calculator advises about 10% for tile laid straight, which is where this starts; 15% for diagonal, and Alpine 10-15% for herringbone. Mullican advises 5% for wood laid straight. It is added once, to whatever gets cut — the tiles or the planks, and the baseboard. A grout or mortar figure, where the page has one, is worked out on the surface as laid.

This page recalculates as you type. There is no Calculate button.

Answer

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Boxes

11 × 20 ft² box

208 ft² of floor · 11 boxes

Area to tile 208 ft²
Ticked items cost $662.00
More numbers
With the 5% for cuts 218.4 ft²
Underlayment 208 ft²
Baseboard 58 ft
DrawingThe project drawn to scale. Area 1: 16' × 13'.16'13'Area 1

Buying noteThe baseboard runs the whole way round the floor here. It does not stop at a doorway, and how many doorways a room has is not something a shape can tell us — take off about 3 ft (1 m) for each.
Buying noteBuy the spare box with the rest, out of the same dye lot. A box bought a month later is a slightly different color, and nobody tells you until it is on the floor.

Breakdown

Surface Measurements Qty Area Share
Area 1 16' × 13' Add ×1 208 ft²

What to buy

Buying noteThe baseboard runs the whole way round the floor here. It does not stop at a doorway, and how many doorways a room has is not something a shape can tell us — take off about 3 ft (1 m) for each.
Buying noteBuy the spare box with the rest, out of the same dye lot. A box bought a month later is a slightly different color, and nobody tells you until it is on the floor.

Shopping list

11 11 × 20 ft² box $528.00 Reference price $53.00. Type your store's. Reference price $48.00. Type your store's. Reference price $95.00. Type your store's.
2 1 × 200 ft² roll + 1 × 100 ft² roll $60.00 Reference price $22.00. Type your store's. Reference price $38.00. Type your store's.
4 4 × 16 ft stick $74.00 Reference price $9.50. Type your store's. Reference price $14.00. Type your store's. Reference price $18.50. Type your store's.
Ticked items $662.00

Untick what you already have. Each row has its price beside it — type what your store charges.

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How this was worked out

Every number below is yours. Each constant links to the row where you can change it.

Area 1 16' × 13' 208 ft²
With the waste for cuts 208 ft² × (1 + 5%) 218.4 ft²
Boxes to buy 218.4 ft² ÷ 20 ft² 11 × 20 ft² box · 1.6 ft² left over
Underlayment 208 ft² × 1 208 ft² → 1 × 200 ft² roll + 1 × 100 ft² roll

Change:Underlayment per unit area

Baseboard round the floor 58 ft × (1 + 5%) 60.9 ft → 4 × 16 ft stick
What it comes to 11 × $48.00 + 1 × $38.00 + 1 × $22.00 + 4 × $18.50 $662.00

Assumptions

Every one of these is editable. Change one and the answer changes with it.

Assumption Value Confidence
Underlayment per unit areaUnderlayment covers the floor once. Rolls with a self-adhesive lap seam are butted rather than overlapped, so there is no second allowance here the way there is under a roof. A roll's printed area is its usable area. ≈ ft²/ft² Trade convention

How many boxes of laminate

This page opens on a 12 by 14 foot room: 168 square feet, 176.4 with 5% for cuts, which is 9 boxes at 20 square feet each. Under it goes 168 square feet of underlayment — one 100 foot roll and one 200 foot roll, or whatever combination costs least at the prices you type.

Laminate always wants a layer under it

This is what separates a laminate order from a tile order. Laminate floats: it is not glued or nailed to anything, so it sits on a layer that lets it move, evens out small dips and keeps the click joints from telegraphing every sound in the room.

Some laminate comes with the pad attached, and then you do not want a second one — two layers of soft under a floating floor makes the joints work loose. Check the box first, and untick the underlayment row if it is already on there.

Over concrete you want a moisture barrier as well as a pad, either as a combined underlayment or as a separate 6 mil sheet. That is a decision about what is under the floor rather than about its area, so this page does not guess at it.

Underlayment, counted straight

A roll's printed area is its usable area here. Laminate underlayment is butted edge to edge and taped, or it has a self-adhesive lap built into one side — either way you are not losing area to an overlap the way roof felt does. So the number is the floor area, once, and the box in the assumptions is there for anyone whose roll does overlap.

The waste figure

Layout Waste
Straight, simple room5%
Straight, many doorways7–10%
Diagonal10–15%

Mullican's figures, and they are about end cuts: each row is cut once at each end, and the offcut usually starts the next row. What breaks that economy is doorways and jogs, where a row ends early and the piece does not fit anywhere.

Buy the spare box now

Laminate is printed, in batches. A box bought later will be from a different run and the pattern repeat will not line up, and if the line has been discontinued it will not exist at all. One spare box on top of the waste is the standard advice and it is worth taking.