Laminate flooring has raised more and more popularity in recent years as well as the question how do you measure your room for laminate flooring. Due to the number of times I get phone calls and emails asking this question I believed it’d be better to write a post noting it.

Where do I start?

Right let’s start at the beginning. The basic thing you should start with is to find out how many square meters of flooring you are going to need. To get this done right, you have to estimate the coverage area, the width and the length of your room in meters. Write it down, afterward multiply both together. The final number will give you the size of your room in square meters. You’ll then have to add 10% for waste.

Example:

Width 6 metres x Length 5 metres = 30sqms 10% = 33sqm
So that means you may need 33 sqm.

Now you need to know the number of packs you need. In case the laminate flooring, you’ve got chosen comes in packs of let’s say 1.7sqm then simply break up you room size by this amount.

Example:

33sqm broken up by 1.7sqm = 19.41 packs.
Rounded up to another pack means you’ll need 20 packs of flooring.

In addition, you will have to get this done for the amount of underlay needed.

What else are you going to need?

If you are setting the laminate flooring on a concrete subfloor then, you may additionally get a Damp Proof Membrane (DPM). Most top brands have underlay that includes a built-in DPM. That is worth buying as it saves cash plus time.

Doorways

For doorways, you’ll need some of the following transition profiles.

End Cover – This can be used in doorways that meet with carpeting, ceramic or stone tiles. In addition, it can be used to finish off the flooring against things like a sliding glass door.

Reducer – You use this when there’s a difference in height between the floor covering and the laminate flooring you are meeting up with, like vinyl tiles or linoleum.

T Moulding – This can be needed in doorways where the laminate and laminate meet. Alternatively, for anything where is a tough surface within 1/8 inch of being the same height as the laminate flooring, you may use a T moulding.

Finishing of around the room’s perimeter

With laminate flooring, you must leave an expansion gap, of around 10mm, everywhere the flooring and a wall meet. You will find just two ways of concealing this gap difference.

One way would be to change out your skirting boards, this way the brand new skirting boards fit over the expansion gap. This obviously adds time and extra cost to your job.

The 2nd, faster and more economical method would be to cover the expansion gap with beading. This fits up against the expansion gap being covered with the skirting boards. Most brands offer the beading in the colour that matches to your laminate flooring.

To measure this is simple, just measure all round the margin of your room, where you are likely need a beading. You may again have to add 10% for wastage. As soon as you have this figure you’ll then split it by the length of the beading; they often come in lengths of 2.4 metres.

On the top of it, you will need to get a fitting kit. This normally includes pulling bar, spacers and a tapping block.

Check List

Okay, now we learn the best way how to measure your room for laminate flooring. Here is a measurement checklist for you, you can copy it or download it as pdf file and to print out.

Flooring Required

Width ____metres x Length ____metres= ______sqm 10% = _____sqm (A)
Break Up (A) by pack size = _____ packages needed.
Break Up (A) by underlay roll size = _____ rolls of underlay needed.

How many doorways

End Caps ____ Reducer____ T Moulding____

Beading

Margin _____metres 10% = _____metres
Broken up by beading length = ____ bars of beading needed

Download PDF checklist