Flooring calculator

Flooring cost calculator:
boxes and price

Calculate laminate, vinyl plank, engineered wood or parquet for your room. Compare layouts and estimate floor area, full boxes, individual planks, underlay, perimeter trim and cutting waste. Then enter your price per square foot to cost the whole floor.

Enter measurements

1 Room size

Room length feet Room width feet Excluded area square feet

2 Flooring type

3 Layout pattern

4 Colour

Plank length feet Plank width feet Coverage per box square feet Doorways

Include underlay
100 square feet per roll Include perimeter trim
Doorways are deducted

Show walls
Adds two walls to the 3D preview

Optional

What will it cost?

Every material the calculator worked out gets its own price. Each field starts at a typical US figure so you have something to work from — change any of them to what your own supplier charges.

These prices are approximate. They are national US retail figures, and what you actually pay varies with your region, your supplier, the season and how much you buy at once. Treat them as a starting point, not a quote — always price the job from your own supplier's current figures before you order.

Your prices

Flooring per square foot USD Typical $2–$8

Add an installed cost estimate
Adds a labor band of $2–$4 per square foot

Tools for the job

What makes this job easier

Tools and materials that suit this kind of job. These are affiliate links: if you buy through one, Renovimo may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. It never changes the figures on this page.

Jeedeson SPC click-lock plank Rigid-core, waterproof vinyl plank for kitchens and basements. Check price

Jeedeson Click-lock bamboo flooring Floating, no glue — 20 sq ft per box. Check price

Jeedeson Engineered hardwood flooring Real wood wear layer on a stable core, 6.5 in wide. Check price

Jeedeson Sheet vinyl roll One-piece waterproof floor for small rooms, 3.3 × 16.4 ft. Check price

Garvee Floor gap fixer kit Suction cup and mallet to close gaps in laminate and vinyl plank after laying. Check price

Garvee Dehumidifier, 50 pint Pulls the water out of a room so slabs, mud and new floors dry on schedule. Check price

Not the tool you were after? Browse the whole range at Jeedeson or Garvee — the stores these picks come from.

Laminate flooring installation with underlay, mallet and measuring tools

Based on your result

What you'll need

Quantities update after every calculation. Choose the brand and finish that match the selected floor type.

Flooring boxes: Full boxes including layout waste; Calculate above
Floor planks: Estimated individual boards; —
Underlay: Acoustic layer below the floor; —
Perimeter trim: Skirting or matching edge trim; —
Installation kit: Mallet, tapping block and spacers; 1 kit

The maths

How we work out your flooring

We start from the room's footprint and take off anything you won't be covering — islands, a hearth or built-in units. That usable area is padded for offcuts based on how the planks are laid, then divided by the coverage printed on a box and rounded up to whole packs. Underlay is worked out separately from the un-padded area.

usable area = length × width − exclusions
order area = usable area × pattern waste
boxes = ⌈ order area ÷ box coverage ⌉
underlay = ⌈ usable area ÷ 100 sq ft ⌉

+7%: straight rows
+10%: staggered / brick
+12%: diagonal & basket
+15%: herringbone / chevron
16–24 sq ft: per box, by type
ft ↔ m: converted automatically

01
Measure the footprint
Length multiplied by width gives the gross room area before anything is taken off.
02
Remove exclusions
Permanent islands, hearths, kitchen units or built-ins are subtracted so you only buy for the floor you can see.
03
Apply layout waste
Straight rows waste the least; staggered adds a little, and herringbone or chevron need the most because every plank is cut on an angle.
04
Divide by box coverage
The padded order area is divided by the coverage on a pack, which differs between laminate, vinyl, engineered wood and parquet.
05
Round up to full boxes
Shops sell whole packs only, so the order is always rounded up — the spare planks become your attic offcuts for future repairs.

Choosing a covering

Laminate vs vinyl plank vs hardwood vs carpet

Four coverings, four different answers to the same room. What separates them is not the look — it is what happens when water reaches the floor, how the boards are fixed down, and how long the floor lasts before it is replaced rather than repaired. Engineered wood sits between hardwood and laminate: a real wood wear layer on a plywood core, so it takes damp better than solid hardwood and can float like laminate.

Covering	Cost / sq ft	Water	Install	Lifespan	Radiant heat
Laminate	$1–$5	Resists splashes, swells if water sits	Click-lock float	15–25 yrs	Yes, under 85 °F	Open the calculator
Vinyl plank	$2–$7	Waterproof core, fine in a bathroom	Click, glue or loose-lay	15–25 yrs	Yes	Open the calculator
Hardwood	$6–$15	Poor — never below grade	Nail, staple or glue	50–100 yrs, refinishable	Engineered only	Open the calculator
Carpet	$2–$7	Poor — holds what it absorbs	Stretched over pad	5–15 yrs	Yes, with a low-tog pad	Open the calculator

One question cuts across all four: what goes underneath. Every floating floor wants a pad unless the plank carries its own, carpet is only as good as what it is stretched over, and a floor that is not flat telegraphs every dip. The underlay calculator sizes the rolls, and the self-leveling compound calculator handles the subfloor before any of this goes down.

Cost

Flooring installation cost per square foot

Every flooring estimate is built from two numbers per square foot: what the material costs and what the installer charges to lay it. Labor is where the coverings differ most — laminate and vinyl plank click together over a pad, while hardwood is nailed board by board and costs the most to put down.

Covering	Material / sq ft	Labor / sq ft	Installed / sq ft
Laminate	$1–$5	$2–$5	$3–$10	Laminate calculator
Vinyl plank	$2–$7	$2–$5	$4–$12	Vinyl plank calculator
Hardwood	$4–$15	$3–$8	$7–$23	Hardwood calculator
Carpet	$1.50–$7	$1–$4	$2.50–$11	Carpet calculator

Flooring estimate by room size

The same rates multiplied out for common areas, with 10% extra material for cutting waste — the figure a staggered layout needs. A 12 × 12 ft bedroom is about 150 square feet; 1,000 square feet is roughly the main floor of a small house.

Floor area	Laminate	Vinyl plank	Hardwood	Carpet
150 sq ft	$465–$1,575	$630–$1,905	$1,110–$3,675	$398–$1,755
250 sq ft	$775–$2,625	$1,050–$3,175	$1,850–$6,125	$663–$2,925
500 sq ft	$1,550–$5,250	$2,100–$6,350	$3,700–$12,250	$1,325–$5,850
1,000 sq ft	$3,100–$10,500	$4,200–$12,700	$7,400–$24,500	$2,650–$11,700

Typical US figures for the covering and its installation only. Underlayment, trim, removal and subfloor work are extra — see below. Enter your own price per square foot in the calculator above to cost your room.

What a flooring replacement estimate adds

The installed rate assumes a clean, flat subfloor. A replacement job usually carries more lines than that. Tearing out old carpet and pad runs about $0.50–$1.50 a square foot plus disposal — the carpet calculator prices that removal. A floor out of level needs self-leveling compound before a floating floor goes down; floating floors need underlayment unless the plank has a pad attached; and every doorway gets a transition strip. Moving furniture and appliances, cutting door casings and stairs — priced per step, not per square foot — come on top.

Check any flooring quote against your own numbers

Most flooring stores measure for free, and their estimate is only as good as that measurement. Run the room through this calculator first and you know the square footage, the waste allowance and the number of boxes before anyone visits — so a quote that orders 30% extra, or bills more square feet than the room holds, stands out. The flooring square footage guide walks through measuring L-shaped rooms, closets and what to subtract.

Good to know

Flooring questions, answered

With 10% waste and typical US rates, about laminate $3,100–$10,500, vinyl plank $4,200–$12,700, hardwood $7,400–$24,500 and carpet $2,650–$11,700. That is the covering and its installation only — removal of the old floor, underlayment, trim and subfloor repairs are extra.

Not always, so ask. Tear-out and disposal are often a separate line, and so is levelling the subfloor. Carpet removal alone runs about $0.50–$1.50 a square foot.

It depends on the layout. Straight rows need about 7%, staggered joints around 10%, and diagonal or basket-weave roughly 12%. Herringbone and chevron are the hungriest at about 15% because every plank is cut at an angle. The calculator applies the right figure once you pick a pattern.

That varies by product, so the calculator works in area rather than plank count. Laminate boxes cover about 22 sq ft, vinyl around 24, engineered wood about 20 and parquet roughly 16. You can overwrite the box coverage with the figure on your chosen product.

Floating laminate, vinyl and engineered floors almost always need an underlay for comfort, sound and a small amount of levelling. We estimate one roll per 100 sq ft of usable area. Glue-down parquet is the usual exception — untick underlay if you are bonding directly to the subfloor.

Yes. If flooring runs up to the units rather than under them, enter their footprint as an exclusion so you are not buying boards for hidden areas. If you plan to floor underneath first, leave the exclusion at zero.

As a rule, lay planks along the longest wall or towards the main window so the light runs down the joints and the room feels longer. Direction does not change the quantity, but it does change how the finished floor reads.

Retailers sell sealed packs, and dye lots can differ between orders — so buying the exact remainder later risks a visible colour mismatch. Rounding up now means the spare planks come from the same batch, ideal for future repairs.

The gap around the perimeter is left empty and later hidden by skirting or beading, so it does not need its own material. The waste margin already covers the offcuts created when planks meet the walls.

It is tuned for plank and parquet flooring sold by the box. Ceramic and porcelain tiles have their own breakage and grout maths, so use the Tile calculator for those; carpet is sold by the roll and measured differently.

Pick the floor you are laying

This page works in square feet, which is as far as area alone can take you. These tools take one material and count it the way the store sells it — boxes, rolls, boards and the pad underneath.