Measure Carpet
Purchasing new carpet for your house can be a big expense even when installers give you accurate estimates about how much material will be needed. However, it can be even more expensive if their estimate ends up being more than you really need. To avoid this, make your own estimate to compare with theirs. Start by diagramming your house and identifying which areas will be carpeted. Then measure each corresponding room and floor area. After that, simply come up with the total square footage, add five or ten percent, and compare that figure with estimates given by professionals.
Contents
Steps
Diagramming Your Home
- Start with your first floor. Use either a paint program on your computer, graph paper and a pencil, or even just plain paper. Start with an outline of the whole first floor. Then divide that space according to the layout of the rooms you have on that floor.
- Don’t worry so much about making your drawing 100% accurate when it comes to proportions. As long as it roughly matches the layout of your house, you’re fine.
- Fill in key details. First, add any interior spaces that may be within each room, like closets or pantries. Then add any permanent standing fixtures that take up floor space, like cabinets or stairs. Finally, mark any areas where the floor height differs between rooms (or even within them).
- Floors with different heights should be treated as their own space, even if they’re within one room. For example, if part of your living room is a step lower than the rest, mark that step on your diagram.
- Repeat with other floors. Create a separate diagram for each floor to your home. Outline each, divide according to rooms, and fill in key details for your upper floors and basement. With connecting stairs:
- Include them in your diagram for each appropriate floor, but treat these as their own space to be dealt with separately.
- Note which areas will and won’t be carpeted. Determine which rooms and spaces you need to measure. First, shade in any rooms that won’t receive carpeting at all. Do the same with any interior spaces where you want to keep the floor bare while carpeting the rest of the room. For example:
- Say you want to carpet a bedroom, but not its closet. Simply shade the closet out.
Measuring Your Floors
- Designate “length” and “width.” Before you start measuring rooms, ensure that the measurements you mark down are consistent. Pick one side of your home to represent your length, and its perpendicular side to be its width. Once you do, stick to this throughout your home, even if the shapes of individual rooms tempt you to switch it up. For example:
- Hallways tend to be long and narrow, so it seems obvious to denote the longest measurement as its length and the shortest as its width. But if a second hallway meets another at a 90 degree angle, do the opposite to express your measurements consistently from one end of your home to the other.
- Measure length, then width. Once you decide on which side of your house is the length and which is the width, measure each room in that order. Measure the length first with a tape measure and mark that number down on your diagram. Then do the same with the room’s width.
- Measuring each room’s dimensions in the same order will ensure that your notes remain consistent as you move from room to room.
- Measure interior spaces separately. Say you’re carpeting a bedroom and you want to include the closet. Anticipate the floor area in the closet to require a separate piece of carpeting for installation. Measure the length and width of the bedroom by itself, then repeat inside the closet.
- Make smaller measurements for oddly shaped rooms. Expect perfectly square and rectangular rooms to be the easiest to measure, since you only need to take two measurements. However, other rooms may follow a different shape (or have permanent fixtures that take up floor space and create a new shape). In this case, break the room up into smaller areas and measure each individually.
- For instance, if you have an L-shaped room, break it into two areas. Start with the length of one area, and then measure its width. Then do the same with the remaining floor space.
- Now say two sets of cabinets face each other from opposite walls in a square room. This transforms the floor area a T- or H-shape. Measure the length and width of the floor space between the cabinets. Repeat with the remaining areas.
- Measure twice. Avoid mistakes. Double-check your work by measuring each room a second time before moving on to the next. If you find that you made a goof the first time around, correct your diagram if you already recorded the incorrect measurement.
- Always use a pencil to mark your diagram so you can erase mistakes. This will make your corrections easier to read. This in turn will minimize the risk of reading the wrong information when you tally up your totals.
- Skip the Carpet-Stairs. Don’t worry about measuring your stairs, even if you plan on carpeting them. Expect the material needed for these to vary depending on a number of different factors. For now, just forget about them and worry about the rest of your house. Then, when you start fielding bids from installers, ask each for their own estimate regarding your stairs.
Calculating Your Total(s) and Comparing Estimates
- Anticipate needing more carpeting than your exact measurements. Before you start tallying up the square footage of each room, keep in mind that you’ll want more carpeting than the room’s exact square footage. Plan on purchasing extra material. This is needed for:
- Mending mistakes
- Creating seams
- Matching patterns
- Choose between two methods to estimate extra material. If you’re purchasing the same type of carpeting for every room, keep things simple. Plan on adding an extra 10% to the total square footage for all rooms once you figure that out. However, if ordering more than one type, then:
- Round each measurement (length and width) up to the next half-foot before you start calculating each individual room’s square footage. For example, if one room measures 15’6” L x 20’3” W (4.72 x 6.17 m), round up to 16 x 20.5 feet (4.88 x 6.25 m).
- Then plan on adding an additional 5% of the total square footage once you determine that.
- Find each room’s square footage. First, create a list of all the rooms to be carpeted. Include the dimensions for each one. Then find the square footage of each room by multiplying its length and width. For example: 1) Master Bedroom: 16’ L x 20.5’ W = 328 square feet; 2) 1st Bedroom: 12’ L x 10’ W = 120 square feet; 3) 2nd Bedroom: 12’ L x 10’ W = 120 feet, and so on.
- Treat each interior space as its own separate line item. For instance: Master Bedroom Closet: 10’ L x 3’ W = 30 square feet.
- For odd-shaped rooms with multiple measurements, list each area separately. With an L-shaped living room, for example, enter line items like “LR Area #1” and “LR Area #2.”
- Add up the total square footage(s). If you’re using just one type of carpeting for your whole home, simply add up each individual square footage from your list to find the total. If using more than one type, only add each line item that will use Type 1. Then do the same for each additional type of carpeting that you’ll be using.
- You want a separate total for each specific type of carpeting to be used in order to budget accordingly, in case one type is more expensive than another.
- However, for quotes regarding labor and installation, you really only need the general total. So if you’re using more than one type, add up the total square footage for all types, too.
- Remember extra material. If you didn’t round up your measurements before calculating each room’s square footage, then multiply your total square footage(s) by 0.1. Add that figure to your total. If you did round up, err on the side of caution. Multiply your total square footages by 0.05 and add that number to the total. For example, if your total square footage is 1600:
- An extra 10% would bring it up to 1760 square feet (1600 x 0.1 = 160, and 1600 + 160 = 1760).
- An extra 5%, on the other hand, would bring you up to 1680 (1600 x 0.05 = 80, and 1600 + 80 = 1680).
- Compare estimates. Always do some comparative shopping before settling on a carpet installer. Arrange for at least a couple different companies to visit your home and give you an estimate (minus any stairs). Ask each estimator how much material is needed to do the job. Compare this with your own estimate. Then:
- If their estimate seems pretty close to your own, ask them for a second estimate that includes any stairs you want carpeted, too.
- If, however, their initial estimate is way higher than what you came up with on your own, move on to the next company.
Things You’ll Need
- Computer, graph paper, or plain paper (for diagramming)
- Pencil
- Tape Measure
- Note paper
- Calculator (optional)
Warnings
- Never expect a carpet refund if you rely on your own measurements. Most stores will not refund your money if you make the mistake.
- Do not pay a deposit on the carpet until you agree with all the carpet and pad details, including the manufacturer, the carpet style, its color, its density, the total yardage, the type of yarn and the unit and total price. Make sure each detail is on the invoice correctly.
