Flooring Calculator
Simulate the actual plank layout — exact piece count, offcuts, and boxes needed, for rectangular, L-, and T-shaped rooms.
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Room dimensions
Plank & direction
Waste & packaging
Full planks, cut planks, and reused offcuts are shown to scale. Updates a moment after you change a value — the numbers above update instantly.
13 reused, 7 wasted
How this is calculated
Rather than a flat area formula, this simulates the actual installation row by row: how many full planks fit along the laying direction, what gets cut at the row end, and whether that offcut is long enough (at least a quarter of a plank) to reuse as the start of the next row — real installers do this to cut waste. Room shape "nooks" and "cut corners" are handled as exact rectangles, not area approximations: an L-shape from a cut corner decomposes into two rectangles whose combined area matches the original room exactly, so the piece count stays precise. Extra safety margin is added on top of that exact count — a buffer for mistakes and future repairs, not a substitute for the real calculation. Underlayment is quoted at the raw room area, without margin, since underlayment offcuts are rarely usable elsewhere.
Common questions
Do I need underlayment separately from the flooring itself?
Usually yes — most floating floors (laminate, engineered wood, vinyl click) need a separate underlayment layer for cushioning, sound dampening, or moisture protection. Check your flooring's installation instructions.
What happens to the reused offcuts?
A cut-off piece from the end of one row starts the next row, as long as it's at least a quarter of a full plank long — shorter pieces are fiddly to fit and get counted as waste instead. This is standard practice for minimizing material loss.
My room isn't a plain rectangle — what do "add a nook" and "cut a corner" cover?
"Add a nook" is for an L- or T-shaped room where an extra area sticks out (an alcove, a bump-out). "Cut a corner" is for a room with a missing corner (e.g. around a staircase). A notch cut from the middle of a wall (a true U-shape) isn't supported yet.
Part of Home Improvement Calculators