How to Calculate Carpeting Square Footage

An important first step prior to shopping for new carpet for your home is taking measurements to determine the quantity of carpet you need. A few simple measurements of the areas to be carpeted will not only allow you to estimate the cost of the carpet you will need, but it may well also save you money at the time of purchase. Many homeowners who have allowed the carpet salesperson to take carpet measurements have later learned that the resulting measurements are rounded up to the nearest yard or are padded to allow for non-existent waste and other unexplained carpet losses. The homeowner who is armed with specific knowledge about the area that his or her carpet will cover will receive the best carpet installation price.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Tape measure
• Pencil
• Note paper
• Calculator

1. Using a note pad and pencil, draw a rough sketch of each room to be carpeted. Your sketch should reflect the approximate proportion of each room's length and width and you should label each sketch to identify the room. Include any closets or adjoining areas to be carpeted in each room sketch.

2. Using the tape measure, determine the length of the longest wall in the room, being careful to measure to the extremities (wall to wall). Note the measurement and add 3 inches to allow for trim waste loss during installation. Record the first measurement, plus 3 inches on the appropriate sketch, then, following the same procedure, measure the second wall and record this measurement plus 3 inches. If closets are to be carpeted, measure the closet in the same manner and record these measurements.

3. Determine the area of the room measured by multiplying the length by the width. For example, if the longer wall measures 18 feet in length and the shorter wall measures 12 feet in width, adding 3 inches would provide measurements of 18.25 feet by 12.25 feet, and the area of the room would be 224 square feet (18.25 x 12.25 = 224).

4. As carpet is most often sold by the square yard, you will need to convert the number of square feet required to square yards. To do this you will divide the number of square feet by nine (the number of square feet per square yard). Dividing 224 square feet by 9 square feet equals 25 square yards.

Tips & Warnings

• All measurements will be most accurate if you can have one person on each end of the tape measure.

References

• Measuring carpet