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Floor Plan Measurement for Flooring

Ordering flooring short means a delay and a dye-lot mismatch. Ordering too much wastes money. Getting the square footage right from your floor plan before you order is the fix.

What to measure for flooring

For flooring, measure the full room footprint including under permanent cabinets (kitchen island, built-in cabinets, and vanities that will stay in place). Flooring runs under fixed cabinets in most installations. The exception is when you are doing a kitchen remodel where the cabinets are being replaced: in that case, you only need to cover the floor area the cabinets do not sit on, plus transition areas.

For closets, measure and include them. Closet flooring is often overlooked until installation day.

How to measure from a floor plan

1. Upload your floor plan to MeasureFloorPlan.com.
2. Trace the room or rooms being floored as separate polygons. For an open-plan living/dining/kitchen, trace the entire connected area as one polygon if the floor runs continuously through it.
3. Include closets in the room traces (or add them as separate small polygons).
4. Set scale from any labeled room dimension.
5. Read the total area per room and overall total.
6. Apply the appropriate waste factor (see below) to get your order quantity.

Waste factors by flooring type

Waste factors account for cuts at walls, doorways, and irregular room shapes. For rooms with many angles or obstacles, add an extra 2-3% beyond the standard waste factor.

Carpet is sold differently

Carpet is sold by the square yard (1 sq yd = 9 sq ft), and comes in rolls that are typically 12 feet wide. The amount you order depends on how the carpet can be seamed across your room layout — it is not always a simple area calculation. Get your square footage from the floor plan, then share the room dimensions with the carpet supplier. They will calculate the roll cuts and minimize seams for you.