Carpet and Flooring Area Calculator

This calculator works out the floor area of a room and how much carpet or flooring you should buy in New Zealand, adding a waste allowance so you are not caught short partway through the job. Measuring up sounds simple, but the bare floor area is rarely the amount you actually need to order, because cuts around doorways and alcoves, joins between pieces, and pattern matching all create offcuts that get thrown away. Buying exactly the floor area almost always leaves you short, and running back for more flooring risks a different dye lot that does not match. The fix is a waste allowance, a small percentage added on top to cover the bits that end up in the skip. You enter the room length and width, and the waste percentage you want to allow, and the calculator returns the bare floor area in square metres and the area to buy once waste is included. Use around five to ten percent for tiles and planks, and more for carpet, patterned floors or rooms with awkward shapes and diagonal lays. For L-shaped rooms, split them into rectangles and add the results. Carpet in particular comes in fixed-width rolls, so confirm the final quantity with your retailer based on the roll width. An estimate to plan and budget your flooring job.

Carpet comes in fixed-width rolls, so the cut may need more than the area. Confirm with your retailer. An estimate for planning only.