Laminate Flooring Calculator

The boxes, and the layer that goes under them.

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

Units

Width

8' · 96 in · 8 ft · 2.4384 m

Length

5' · 60 in · 5 ft · 1.524 m

Surface

Quantity

Add or subtract

80 ft²

What you are laying

Layout

Waste for cuts (%) ≈

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

Save image Excel

Boxes

5 × 20 ft² box

80 ft² of floor · 5 boxes

Area to tile 80 ft²

Ticked items cost $262.00

More numbers

With the 10% for cuts 88 ft²

Underlayment 80 ft²

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	8' × 5'	Add ×2	80 ft²	100%

What to buy

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

Laminate, by the box 5 5 × 20 ft² box $240.00 Price, box of vinyl plank Reference price $53.00. Type your store's. Price, box of laminate Reference price $48.00. Type your store's. Price, box of hardwood Reference price $95.00. Type your store's.

Underlayment 1 1 × 100 ft² roll $22.00 Price, 100 ft² roll of underlayment Reference price $22.00. Type your store's. Price, 200 ft² roll of underlayment Reference price $38.00. Type your store's.

Ticked items $262.00

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

Save image Excel

How this was worked out

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

Area 1 8' × 5' × 2 80 ft²

With the waste for cuts 80 ft² × (1 + 10%) 88 ft²

Boxes to buy 88 ft² ÷ 20 ft² 5 × 20 ft² box · 12 ft² left over

Underlayment 80 ft² × 1 80 ft² → 1 × 100 ft² roll

Change:Underlayment per unit area

What it comes to 5 × $48.00 + 1 × $22.00 $262.00

Assumptions

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

Assumption	Value	Confidence
Installation standard
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 room	5%
Straight, many doorways	7–10%
Diagonal	10–15%

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.