Carpet Calculator
Calculators, Flooring by Danny Lipford
Carpet is sold by the square yard, which is equivalent to an area 3 feet by 3 feet. Waste is usually figured at 10% but may be changed to any amount desired. To see how many square yards you would need, enter the measurements of your room in feet and inches, and click the calculate button. Totals are rounded up to the nearest whole number.
8 Comments on “Carpet Calculator”
You can follow comments to this article by subscribing to the RSS news feed with your favorite feed reader.
January 12th, 2008 at 8:02 am
Am I missing something. The instructions don’t say how to calculate amount of carpet, wood flooring, tile etc. needed.
Do you multiply the width X Depth and divide by three to get square yards etc.
It has been so long since I have figured how to do this that I have forgotten.
Sorry if I seem so dense, but I need to measure for wood flooring for my upstairs.
Thanks for your help.
Ben Erickson Says:February 25th, 2008 at 6:20 pm
Lee,
To find the number of square feet or square yards in your room, just type the dimensions of your room in the boxes above and click on the calculate button.
If you want do the calculations yourself, the formula is:
width x length = square feet
Divide that number by 9 to get the number of square yards.
April 23rd, 2008 at 3:53 pm
How do I find the required amount of carpet when my rooms all run together? The main floor of my Townhouse is all open. Do I take the dimensions of the entire floor and subtract the SQ ft of the unuseable space (like the open stairs, bath, foyer and kitchen)?
Ben Erickson Says:November 20th, 2008 at 11:50 am
Kathy,
Depending on how many nooks and crannies there are, you can either subtract the parts that are not included from the whole, or divide the room up into various sections and add the square feet for each of them together.
July 23rd, 2009 at 4:03 pm
If I am pouring concrete how do i measure the sq yards width by length but what about the depth of the mix
Ben Erickson Says:August 4th, 2009 at 10:58 am
Hi Donna,
To find the number of cubic cubic yards of concrete needed, multilply the length x width x depth in yards (or fractions of a yard). One cubic yard of concrete equals a volume of 3′ x 3′ x 3′, which is the same as 27 cubic feet, so you can also measure it in feet (or fractions of a foot), then divide the total by 27 to find the number of yards. For example, to calculate the yards of concrete needed for a slab 12′ x 12′ x 4″, multiply 12 x 12 x 0.33 = 47.52 cubic feet ÷ 27 = 1.76 yards. Another way of thinking about it, is that a 4″ thick slab 9′ x 9′ equals one yard of concrete.
August 12th, 2009 at 6:51 pm
Danny,
need the correct formula to calculate measurements for replacing shingles on a roof. How many yards do I need for the job. (e.g.) 50×14 = Sq Yrds?
Thanks, Ed
Ben Erickson Says:August 13th, 2009 at 11:05 am
Hi Ed,
Roof shinges are measure by the square which equals 100 square feet and usually comes packaged as 3 or 4 bundles of asphalt shingles. To find out how many squares you need, multiply the width of the area times the length in feet and divide by 100 (i.e. 20′w x 10′h = 200 sq. ft. ÷ 100 = 2 squares). It’s usually a good idea to add 1% to 5% in for waste. You can find out more about roofs and roofing in our article How to Choose a Roof for Your Home.