Hardwood Flooring: How Much Do You Need?

Q. How do I calculate how much hardwood flooring I need for my project?

A. It can be difficult to calculate the exact amount of hardwood flooring needed for your project. To help in this calculation, however, you should consider:

1. The size of the room
2. Condition of the material
3. Skill of the installer to be as economical as possible

Condition of the Material

Regardless of how neatly and slickly packaged the hardwood flooring you get is, some of the flooring might be missing grooves, cracked, discolored, water-stained or have other imperfections.

Although most of the installers are skilled at working with imperfect material, they prefer more to work with a neat material because in some cases the floorboards cannot be used at all.

The Hardwood Flooring Installers’ Skills

Hiring a skilled hardwood floor installer can hugely reduce the amount of waste materials as opposed to using unskilled installers who may cut off the end boards without coming up with a better solution.

How Much Hardwood Flooring Should Be Ordered?

If you’re planning to install your hardwood flooring yourself, you can reduce the 8%-12% wastage percentage considerably.

But if you’re hiring a hardwood flooring installer, make sure to never order the material to the exact size of your room. You do not want to run out of the material during the project. Without the material, you and the installer both will suffer. A good rule of thumb is  to go for a 10% overage rule.

Some homeowners believe that if there is more material on hand, flooring installers will have the freedom to be more wasteful. We can’t really say how true this is; it depends on the installer.

Check with your retailer to see if they accept returns of unopened boxes or unbundled flooring materials. This will allow you to return the hardwood flooring to the retailer for a refund.