New flooring can have a significant impact on the look and feel of a room. If you’ve decided it’s time to take the plunge and replace yours, one of the first things to do is understand how much flooring you’ll need. To work this out, you need to measure your room. Here at Virtuoso Flooring, we offer a fully comprehensive measure, supply, and fit service. However, if you’re looking to get a clearer understanding of the scope of your flooring project first, it’s easy to measure any room yourself. In this guide, we’ll show you how and give you our top tips for streamlining the process too.
1. Draw Out Your Room
Having a birds-eye sketch of the room in question will make jotting down measurements easy. It also allows you to note the length of each wall/side individually and gives you a visual tool to work to. Don’t worry about being overly accurate here. Just draw a quick square, rectangular, L-shaped, or whatever shape your room is on a piece of paper. Keep a pencil handy to note down the individual measurements.
VF Tip: If you have chimney breasts, alcoves, or other nooks in your walls, these can be left out of your drawing. When you order flooring, you’ll want to order enough to cover the full surface area, as if these features didn’t exist. The floor will be cut to size during installation. Taking these features out of your measurements will ensure you order enough floor to cover the entire room.
2. Measure Each Wall Individually
Next, work your way around the room and measure each wall. Remember that skirting boards will be fitting on top of most types of flooring. So you need to measure as if these weren’t installed. Also, measure into doorways, fireplaces, and alcoves. Measure each wall and jot it down on your drawing.
VF Tip: Once you’ve taken the measurements, add 10% to your figure. This will account for waste and ensures you order enough floor to cover staggering, irregularities, and cutting errors.
3. Measure Again
Remember the old saying, ‘Measure twice. Cut once’? Keep that in mind when measuring your room for flooring. Make sure to double or triple-check the figure you come to for each wall. In doing so, you’ll reduce the risk of error.
VF Tip: If you can, ask another person to measure the second time.
4. Calculate Square Foot
Now you have all the right calculations, you’ll need to work out the square footage of the room. For a square or rectangular room, follow this equation:
Length x Width = Square Footage.
If you’re measuring an uneven room, split it into rectangles or squares before following the same equation above. Then add the two calculations together.
Our specialist team here at Virtuoso Flooring can take care of everything when it comes to your brand new flooring. With flooring options for both residential and commercial environments, we’re here to ensure you find the right solution – no matter how busy a space is expected to be. Get in contact if you would like more information about our services.
