How to Measure Square Footage for Flooring (Room by Room Guide)

The most common flooring mistake is ordering based on the main room and forgetting the rest. Hallways, closets, pantries, and transitions all consume material. Come up short and you’re scrambling to match a dye lot that might be sold out.

Measuring for flooring correctly takes 30 minutes with a tape measure and a notepad. The math is simple. The discipline is walking every space and writing it down. This guide covers the full process with two worked examples.

To skip straight to the numbers, use the square footage calculator to add your room dimensions, then run them through the flooring calculator to apply the correct waste factor.

Quick Answer

Measure every room length times width. Break irregular spaces into rectangles and add the sections together. Include hallways, closets, and transitions. Apply the waste factor for your flooring type (hardwood: 10%, tile: 15%, LVP: 7%, carpet: 10-15%). That gives you your order quantity.

Formula: Total SF x (1 + Waste Factor) = Square Feet to Order

Example: 200 SF room with hardwood: 200 x 1.10 = 220 SF to order

What You Need Before You Start

A 25-foot tape measure
A notepad or phone to record measurements
A rough sketch of the floor plan (hand-drawn is fine)

Draw the layout before you measure. A quick sketch forces you to think through every room and hallway that needs flooring. The spaces you forget to sketch are the ones you forget to measure.

How to Measure Each Room Type

Standard Rectangular Rooms

Most rooms are close enough to rectangular. Measure wall to wall at the widest points.

Length x Width = Square Feet

Measure at floor level, not at eye level. Walls bow. Measure in two spots if the room feels off and use the larger number.

L-Shaped and Open-Plan Spaces

Open-plan layouts connect two or more spaces without a wall between them. A kitchen that flows into a dining area, or a living room that opens to a hallway, needs to be measured as one continuous space if it’s getting continuous flooring.

Break the L-shape into two rectangles. Calculate each section separately. Add them together.

How to split it: Stand in the corner where the shape changes. Extend an imaginary line straight across the room. Everything on one side is rectangle A. Everything on the other side is rectangle B.

Hallways

Hallways are always longer than they feel. A 3-foot-wide hallway running 15 feet is 45 SF. A long hallway in a ranch home can easily hit 100 SF. Measure width times length for every hallway section. If the hallway changes width at a doorway or landing, break it into segments and add them up.

Closets

Standard reach-in closets (roughly 2 ft x 4 ft) are 8 SF each. A walk-in (6 ft x 8 ft) is 48 SF. In a three-bedroom house, closets can add 100-150 SF to your total.

Whether to include closets depends on the material. For hardwood, most contractors run the flooring into closets for a seamless look. For carpet, closets are sometimes done separately in a lower-grade carpet to cut costs. For LVP, it’s up to preference. Make the decision before you measure so your total reflects what you’re actually ordering.

Under Appliances and Built-Ins

If you’re installing flooring before cabinets are set (the right way to do it), measure the full room including the footprint of future cabinets. If you’re working around existing cabinets, measure only the exposed floor area. This decision alone can swing a kitchen estimate by 30-50 SF.

Waste Factors by Flooring Type

This is where most under-orders happen. The waste factor is not padding, it is real. Every floor gets cuts at the walls. Planks and tiles get broken. Pattern layouts waste more than straight layouts. You need extra material for repairs down the road.

Flooring Type	Standard Lay	Diagonal / Pattern	Herringbone
Hardwood	10%	15%	15-20%
Tile	15%	18-20%	N/A
Luxury Vinyl Plank (LVP)	7%	10%	12-15%
Carpet	10-15%	N/A	N/A
Laminate	10%	15%	15%

Why Tile Needs 15%

Tile is brittle. Wet saw cuts create kerf waste. Pieces crack during handling and cutting. On a diagonal layout, every edge tile gets cut at 45 degrees and those triangular off-cuts rarely fit elsewhere. 15% is the minimum on straight tile. Go 18% on diagonal.

Why LVP Only Needs 7%

LVP cuts with a utility knife or score-and-snap. It rarely breaks. Short off-cuts from one row can often start the next because of the click-lock system. It is the most forgiving material to install.

Why Pattern and Direction Change the Number

A herringbone pattern requires precise 45-degree cuts on every plank. Those triangular leftovers cannot be reused. Even switching from straight-lay to diagonal bumps waste by 5 percentage points because every wall cut becomes an angled cut.

If you are hiring a contractor for herringbone or chevron hardwood, confirm which waste factor they are using. Some default to 10% and run short.

Worked Example 1: Open-Plan Living Room and Kitchen

This is the most common scenario for a main-floor flooring replacement. The living room and kitchen share a continuous LVP floor with no transition strip between them.

Measuring the space:

The living room is a standard rectangle. The kitchen has a peninsula that juts into the dining area, creating an L-shape when combined. The two spaces are measured separately and added together.

Space	Dimensions	Square Feet
Living room	16 ft x 14 ft	224
Kitchen (main area)	12 ft x 14 ft	168
Dining nook extension	8 ft x 10 ft	80
Entry/transition zone	4 ft x 6 ft	24
Total measured		496 SF

Applying the waste factor for LVP (7%):

496 x 1.07 = 531 SF to order

LVP comes in boxes covering 20-24 SF. At 22 SF per box:

531 / 22 = 24.1, round up to 25 boxes

Notes on this job:

The entry zone is included because the LVP runs from the front door through the living area. Forgetting those 24 SF means coming up short at the door.
If this were a diagonal LVP install (10% waste instead of 7%), the order quantity would be 496 x 1.10 = 546 SF, or 25 boxes. Same box count in this case, but on a larger job the difference adds up.
Keep 1-2 extra boxes after installation. LVP gets scratched, especially near heavy furniture. Matching material from the same lot is far easier than hunting down the right color three years later.

Worked Example 2: Hallway with Three Closets

Hallways and closets are the most under-measured spaces in flooring jobs. Homeowners focus on the bedroom square footage and tack on “a little extra” for the hallway. That approach consistently comes up short.

This example covers a bedroom wing hallway with a linen closet, a coat closet, and a walk-in closet off the master bedroom. The material is nail-down hardwood (10% waste).

Measuring the spaces:

Space	Dimensions	Square Feet
Main hallway (straight run)	3.5 ft x 18 ft	63
Hallway elbow (turn to bedrooms)	3.5 ft x 6 ft	21
Linen closet	2 ft x 4 ft	8
Coat closet (reach-in)	2 ft x 5 ft	10
Walk-in master closet	7 ft x 9 ft	63
Total measured		165 SF

Applying the waste factor for hardwood (10%):

165 x 1.10 = 182 SF to order

Notes on this job:

The hallway elbow is easy to forget. It is just a turn in the corridor, but it is 21 SF of real floor that needs material. Forgetting it means the hallway comes up short right at the bend where the cut pieces are the shortest.
The walk-in closet is 63 SF, a full third of this section’s total. Homeowners sometimes skip closets to save on hardwood costs, which works fine, but the decision needs to be made before the order is placed.
Hardwood in hallways and closets requires more cuts per square foot than an open room because the space is narrow. The 10% waste factor covers this, but narrow hallways (under 4 feet wide) sometimes need a bump to 12% if the plank width is also wide (7 inches or more), because wide planks in narrow spaces create more waste per row.

Spaces People Consistently Forget

Even experienced contractors miss these on the first walkthrough. Go back and check:

Doorway transitions. Flooring runs to the center of the doorway threshold. That is 1-2 SF per door. With 8-10 doorways, you lose 10-20 SF if you skip this.

Pantries. A small pantry (3 ft x 5 ft = 15 SF) is often the last item on the list and the first one left off the sketch.

Laundry rooms. If the laundry room is getting the same flooring as the kitchen, measure it separately. A typical laundry room is 6 x 8 = 48 SF.

Under appliances. If flooring goes in before appliances are set, measure the full room footprint including where the fridge and range will sit. If appliances stay in place, measure only the exposed floor.

Stair landings. A landing at the top or bottom of a staircase needs to be measured and included.

Try EstimationPro free

Calculating Your Order Quantity

Step 1: Add up every space getting new flooring.

Step 2: Find the waste factor for your material (see the table above).

Step 3: Total SF x (1 + Waste Factor) = SF to order.

Step 4: Divide by coverage per box and round up to the nearest whole box. Never round down. A 0.3-box overage still means buying a full box.

The flooring calculator handles steps 3 and 4 automatically. For tile, the tile calculator accounts for tile size and layout pattern when calculating waste.

How Layout Direction Affects Waste

Confirm which direction the flooring will run before ordering.

Parallel to the long wall produces the least waste. End cuts from one row often start the next, and cuts stay square.

Diagonal (45 degrees) creates angled end cuts that rarely reuse as starters. Add at least 5 percentage points to your waste factor.

Perpendicular to the long wall in a narrow hallway means cutting every plank twice. In a 3.5-foot-wide hallway with 5-inch hardwood, every single plank gets cut on both ends. The off-cuts pile up fast and most go in the trash.

If a contractor is doing the work, ask which direction they plan to run the flooring and confirm it matches the waste percentage in your order.

FAQ

How do I calculate square footage for an L-shaped room?

Divide the L-shape into two rectangles at the inside corner. Calculate each section separately, then add them together. Use the square footage calculator to track multiple sections without losing numbers.

Do I measure under furniture?

Yes. Measure wall to wall including where furniture sits. Flooring goes in before the furniture comes back. The full floor area needs material, not just the walkable zones.

How much extra should I order for a small room?

Small rooms still need the full waste factor. A 10 x 10 room with hardwood needs 10% waste, so 110 SF to order. Small rooms often produce more cuts per square foot than large ones. Do not reduce the waste factor for small spaces.

Should I measure closets separately or include them with the room?

Measure closets separately and add them to your total. This makes it easy to adjust if you decide to use a different material in a closet.

What happens if I run short on material mid-install?

Running short mid-install is expensive. If the material is still available from the same production lot, you pay a second delivery fee. If the lot is sold out or the product is discontinued, you may need to replace more material than planned to get a consistent color match. Order the full amount with the correct waste factor from the start.

Does waste factor change for a DIY install versus a contractor?

The same waste factors apply to both. First-time DIY installs on hardwood or tile benefit from adding an extra 2-3% on top of the standard factor. Learning curves produce more wasted cuts early in the installation.

A Note on Measurement Accuracy

Every number in your order is only as good as the measurement behind it. Measure twice. Write the numbers down before moving to the next room.

For larger jobs, a laser measure speeds things up and cuts transposing errors. A basic 25-foot tape measure works fine if you are methodical.

The instinct to “round up a little” instead of actually measuring closets and hallways is what causes shortfalls. The spaces that feel too small to bother with are the ones that show up as a shortage on the last room. Take the 30 minutes, walk every space, write it down, and run the numbers. The extra boxes can usually be returned. The boxes you do not have on a Saturday afternoon when the floor is half done cannot.