Laminate, vinyl or wood flooring — area, waste allowance and packs to buy.
Multiply room length by width for the area, add a waste allowance (10% is standard for cuts and offcuts), then divide by the pack coverage to get the number of packs. Always round up to whole packs.
The floor is 14 m². With 10% allowed for cuts that is 15.4 m² to buy. Packs of laminate commonly cover 1.9–2.2 m², so you need 8–9 packs. Keep one unopened pack in the loft: if a board is damaged later, a matching batch will not be on the shelf in six months.
Straight lay (planks parallel to the longest wall) wastes 5–7%. A brick-bond or staggered pattern wastes around 10%. Herringbone or chevron runs 15–20%. Diagonal layouts waste more again because every edge cut is a triangle. This calculator uses the percentage you enter, so change it to match the pattern you intend to lay.
Bring the packs into the room 48 hours before laying so they take on the room's moisture and temperature. Use 3–5 mm acoustic underlay for laminate and engineered boards; foam is cheap, fibre or rubber is quieter underfoot and bridges minor unevenness better. Concrete floors need a vapour barrier even when the underlay claims a built-in DPM. The sub-floor must be flat to about 3 mm over 2 m — flexing joints that click and creak almost always trace back to an uneven base.
Leave a 10 mm expansion gap all the way round and cover it with skirting or scotia beading. In doorways, use a threshold bar; on runs longer than about 12 m, fit an expansion strip across the opening rather than butting the boards tight. Wood expands along its width, so gaps belong on the longest spans.
No expansion gap, and the floor buckles in warm weather. Laying straight onto a dusty or damp slab. Re-using old underlay, which has already compressed where furniture stood. And starting the first row without checking the wall is straight — every subsequent row inherits that error.
Allow 10% for standard rooms and up to 15% for awkward layouts, diagonal laying, or rooms with lots of alcoves.
Typically 1.5–2.5 m² per pack depending on brand and board size — check the pack label and enter it above.
Most laminate needs a foam underlay, and ground-floor concrete needs a damp-proof membrane underneath.