How Much Flooring Do I Need? Measuring, Waste and Packs

To work out how much flooring you need, measure each room’s length and width, multiply to get square metres, add them up, then add a waste allowance for cuts. Straight boards usually need a smaller allowance than herringbone. Divide the total by the coverage of one pack and round up to a whole pack. For our standard oak plank that is 2.166 m² per pack, and for herringbone 1.62 m².

Step 1: measure each room

You need a tape measure or a laser measure, a pencil and a rough sketch of the floor plan. Measure every room separately and write the numbers on the sketch.

• Measure the longest length and the widest width of each room, wall to wall, in metres.
• Round each measurement up to the next 5 or 10 centimetres, as walls are rarely square.
• Include wardrobes, alcoves and the space under the kitchen island overhang if the floor runs there.
• Measure hallways and entries as their own spaces. They often add more area than people expect.
• There is no need to subtract for furniture, as the floor goes under beds and couches.
• Leave out areas that aren’t getting the new floor, such as the bathroom and laundry, but note where the new floor has to meet them.

L-shaped and odd rooms

Split them into rectangles, measure each one and add them together. A living room with a dining nook might be one 6 × 4.5 m rectangle plus one 2.5 × 3 m rectangle. For a bay window or an angled wall, measure it as if it were square. The small extra covers the extra cutting those shapes need.

Stairs are separate

Stairs aren’t worked out in square metres. Count the treads, risers and any landing, and note whether the stair turns. Stair cladding uses its own pieces and nosings, so it is measured and quoted as its own item. Our stairs page explains the options.

Decide where the new floor stops

Before you add anything up, walk through the house and mark on your sketch exactly where the new floor starts and ends. This changes the total more than people expect.

Does the floor run into the kitchen or stop at the bench line? Does it go into the bedrooms, or only the living areas for now? Where it meets tiles at the bathroom or laundry door, where it meets carpet you’re keeping, and where it reaches a sliding door track, there will be a trim or threshold. Mark each of those points, because they are measured and quoted too.

It also helps to list “maybe” rooms separately. Measure the study or the second bedroom even if you haven’t decided, and keep those numbers apart from the main total. Then you can see what adding a room does to the pack count, and to the quote, without measuring twice. If the maybe rooms end up in the job, order them with everything else for the batch reasons below.

Step 2: add a waste allowance

Every floor loses some material to cuts at walls, around door frames and at the ends of rows, plus the odd board with a defect you’d rather not lay. The allowance depends on the pattern and the shape of the rooms.

Layout	Rough planning allowance	Why
Straight plank, simple rectangular rooms	Around 5 to 7%	Offcuts from one row usually start the next
Straight plank, lots of corners, cupboards and doorways	Around 8 to 10%	More short offcuts that can’t be reused
Herringbone	Around 10 to 15%	Angled cuts at every wall, plus set-out
Boards laid on a diagonal	Higher than straight plank	Every row ends in an angled cut

Treat these as planning figures. The installer sets the real allowance after seeing the rooms, and it goes on the quote. If a quote includes almost no allowance, it is worth asking how the job will be finished if the material runs short. Ordering more boards later is where the colour problems in step 5 start.

Step 3: convert square metres to packs

Flooring is sold by the pack or carton, so the last step is to divide your total, including waste, by the coverage of one pack, then round up. These are the pack sizes across our range.

Product	Board size	Per pack	Coverage
Engineered oak, standard plank	1900 × 190 × 15 mm	6 boards	2.166 m²
Engineered oak, wide board	2200 × 220 × 15 mm	6 boards	2.904 m²
Engineered oak, herringbone	900 × 150 × 15 mm	12 pieces	1.62 m²
Laminate	2260 × 236 × 12 mm	4 boards	2.13 m²
Blackbutt and Spotted Gum	1820 or 2100 × 180 × 14 mm	6 boards	1.966 or 2.268 m²

The hardwood coverage depends on which board length you order, and Victorian Ash packs cover slightly different areas again, so check the product page. For example, Natural Oak comes in the 2.166 m² pack, and our laminate in 2.13 m² cartons.

Step 4: a worked example

Say you’re doing a living area, a hallway and one bedroom.

1. Living and dining: 6.2 × 4.8 m = 29.76 m²
2. Hallway: 1.1 × 7.5 m = 8.25 m²
3. Bedroom including the built-in robe: 3.6 × 3.4 m = 12.24 m²
4. Total: 50.25 m²

Using a straight plank through all three with a 7% allowance, you need 50.25 × 1.07 = 53.77 m². Now divide by the pack size:

• Standard oak plank: 53.77 ÷ 2.166 = 24.8, so 25 packs (54.15 m²)
• Wide board: 53.77 ÷ 2.904 = 18.5, so 19 packs (55.18 m²)
• Laminate: 53.77 ÷ 2.13 = 25.2, so 26 cartons (55.38 m²)

Now suppose you want herringbone in the hallway only, with plank in the other two rooms. The hallway is 8.25 m² plus 12%, which is 9.24 m². Divide by 1.62 and you get 5.7, so 6 packs of herringbone (9.72 m²). The living room and bedroom come to 42 m², plus 7% is 44.94 m², which is 20.7, so 21 packs of plank. Herringbone takes more time and more material per square metre, which is why it is quoted separately. Our post on herringbone flooring cost explains the difference.

Step 5: order it all at once

Timber is a natural material, and colour varies between production batches. Boards from the same batch will match each other. Boards from a batch made months later may not quite match, and the difference shows most where old and new meet in a doorway.

We recommend ordering the whole job in one go, rounded up, rather than the bare minimum with a plan to top up. If you might do another room later, it can be worth ordering those packs now as well. After the job, keep a few spare boards, or a whole pack if you can, somewhere dry and flat. If a board is ever damaged, you’ll have a matching replacement.

This matters even more with our reactive-finish boards such as Westminster, where colour varies from board to board by design. Installers mix boards from several packs as they go so light and dark boards spread evenly.

Mistakes we see on DIY measurements

• Forgetting wardrobes and the hallway, which can add several square metres on their own.
• Measuring to the skirting on one side and to the architrave on the other.
• Using the floor plan area of the house, which includes walls, instead of measuring the rooms.
• Adding no waste at all, or the same allowance for herringbone as for plank.
• Rounding down when the division lands on something like 24.2 packs.

Your own numbers are useful for budgeting and for comparing boards. For the real order, let the installer measure, because they also see what the rooms need in trims, levelling and transitions.

Next step

Send us your sketch and measurements, or a floor plan, and we can give you a rough idea of quantity. For a firm figure, book a free measure and quote. We measure every room, set the waste allowance for the layout you’ve chosen, and give you an itemised quote with the pack count on it. Our guide to timber flooring installation cost explains the other lines you’ll see. You’re welcome to call 1300 690 160 or visit us at 2/1386 Toorak Road, Camberwell.