How to Calculate Square Footage For Tile, Carpet, and Flooring

Use our handy calculator!

It calculates using feet and inches.  Pretty cool!

Calculate the square footage of an oddly-shaped room

Rooms with complex shapes can be difficult to figure out. Some people try to figure out the square footage with a single calculation. This is where problems begin! The easiest way to calculate the square footage of an odd-shaped room is to divide it into even shapes, like squares or rectangles. You should then measure each of these shapes and multiply their lengths by their widths. Each of these multiplications can then be added together to give you the overall square footage of your room.

Consider waste

When installing a new floor, you should always consider the waste factor. When ordering flooring materials, you should add around 10% to your total square footage. This is because some materials will become damaged due to errors, accidents and additional cuts. There’s nothing more frustrating than running out of materials during installation. Avoid this by adding an additional 10% for waste onto your flooring order.

Consider asking a professional

If you are not confident with your calculation skills, you may want to hire an expert. A construction expert skilled in floor installations should be able to help work out square footage easily. It can also be worthwhile hiring a flooring installation worker if you have an odd-shaped room. If you are uncertain of how to correctly calculate, you may want to contact us. We can help you understand how to work out square footage of a house.

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How many square feet is a 12×12 room?

The square footage of a room measuring 12 feet wide by 12 feet long is 144 square feet. To calculate this you simply multiply the width by the height. 12ft × 12ft = 144 sq ft.

How to measure for bullnose?

Measure the length of any outside edge where your tile edge would be exposed or you want framed out.  Bullnose (also called trim pieces and decorative tiles) are typically sold by the piece. To figure the quantity you have to establish the length of the trim piece (i.e. 6″ bullnose, 8″ decorative liner), then the rule is:  Your total linear length divided by the length of each piece equals your quantity needed.  

4. What is Net Cleanable Square Feet?

Net Cleanable Square Feet (“NCSF”) is the sum of all floor area that requires custodial services. NCSF is a great metric to know, especially for your facility’s custodial personnel. Having accurate NCSF measurements can help determine custodial staffing, inform budgeting and aid in service provider solicitation.

Custodial budgets will realistically contain chemicals, paper supplies, equipment and custodial labor costs to get the job done. Not knowing your facility’s true NCSF might mean that you are budgeting too little or too much for cleaning. If you want to learn more about custodial budgeting and planning for your facility teams, check out our free guide on creating a custodial cleaning plan.

How to Calculate Net Cleanable Square Feet

Determine the square footage of each room that needs to be cleaned. Areas that require no cleaning, such as closet areas and mechanical rooms, should not be included. Once you’ve gathered square footage (minus non-cleanable areas) for all rooms, add them together. This number is your total square footage that needs to be cleaned.

You can take this process a step further and add cleaning costs to the equation. Multiply total cleanable square footage by a base price for cleaning. For instance, if your total area to be cleaned is 5,000 square feet and the price per square foot is 25 cents, you can multiply $0.25 times 5,000 to get a total of $1,250 for cleaning fees.

How to Calculate Square Footage

Square footage is area expressed in square feet. Likewise, square yardage is area expressed in square yards.  Square meters is also a common measure of area.

Assume you have a rectangular area such as a room and, for example, you want to calculate the square footage area for flooring or carpet.

The way to calculate a rectangular area is by measuring the length and width of your area then multiplying those two numbers together to get the area in feet squared (ft²). If you have on oddly shaped area, such as an L-shape, split it into square or rectanglualar sections and treat them as two separate areas. Calculate the area of each section then add them together for your total. If your measurements are in different units, say feet and inches, you can first convert those values to feet, then multiply them together to get the square footage of the area.

Convert all of your measurements to feet

• If you measured in feet skip to “Calculate the Area as Square Footage”
• If you measured in feet & inches, divide inches by 12 and add that to your feet measure to get total feet
• If you measured in another unit of measure, do the following to convert to feet – inches: divide by 12 and that is your measurement in feet – yards: multiply by 3 and that is your measurement in feet – centimeters: multiply by 0.03281 to convert to feet – meters: multiply by 3.281 to convert to feet

Calculate the Area as Square Footage

• If you are measuring a square or rectangle area, multiply length times width; Length x Width = Area.
• For other area shapes, see formulas below to calculate Area (ft²) = Square Footage.

How to find the square footage of a rectangle

1. Measure the width and length of the area in feet.
2. Multiply your length and width together to get your area.

Note: If your measurements aren't in feet, convert them to feet first using our length converter.

Once you've carried out your calculation, you will have your square feet (ft²) figure. To calculate your cost of materials, simply multiply this figure by your price per square foot.

How to Find Square Footage: Measuring the Room

After countless hours of going back and forth between the Ambient® samples you ordered (and maybe sending out too many “which one do you like better?” texts to friends and family), you’ve FINALLY made your decision. You’ve found the perfect floor and – before you decide to change your mind for the tenth time – there’s only one thing left to do: determine how much square footage you need to order. To figure that out, it may or may not involve your least favorite school subject. Want to take any guesses? That’s right, it’s math! I can tell you can hardly contain your excitement, so let’s jump right into figuring out how much flooring you’ll need to purchase.

How do I figure our square feet from meters?

One square meter equals 10.76 square feet. To calculate square feet from meters, you should multiply the number of meters by 10.76.

Choosing materials

If you are on a budget, the square footage of your room may influence your choice of flooring material. Large rooms require more materials, so you might want to consider lighter woods or composites in this case. If you would like more information on types of flooring, why not get in touch with Rhodium Floors today? Our friendly and experienced team will be happy to discuss your requirements.

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