How to Measure Carpet
in 4 Simple Steps
© 2011 Alan J
Fletcher - Carpet Expert, Consumer Advocate
To
protect yourself from being overcharged for materials or labor,
Lets find out approximately how much carpet you need to buy. But
remember, having a carpet professional measure your home for you is always the
best way to go! Notice that I said "Carpet Professional", I did
not say "Carpet Salesperson".
Learn how
to measure your home for carpet in four simple steps. Avoid being overcharged
for carpet, pad and installation. Free Carpet Yardage Chart. This will give you
a basic estimate so you can know how much carpet you will need to buy before you
begin shopping for carpet.
After
you do all four steps and measure your home for carpet, you can take your
diagrams to the carpet retailer or other carpet seller and they can
determine how much carpet you need from your diagram. This will help you
confirm how much carpet you need and prevent you from being
overcharged.
Step
One
Draw a
simple diagram of your home. I did this drawing on my computer using a simple
" paint" program, you have a paint program on your computer too, look
in "accessories" in your program files. The drawing doesn't have to be
perfect but the measurements need to be accurate. Just a
simple drawing with all the rooms shown is all you need. If you have a two story home, then do
two drawings, one for upper , one for lower. Your drawing should look something like this:
Step
Two
Now
you need to measure each room and write down the measurements on your
diagram. We will round up each measurement to the nearest 1/2 foot mark.
if your room is 15 feet 3 inches long, round it up to 15 feet 6 inches or
15.5. (We will use the decimal .5 instead of 6"inches) This little
bit of extra carpet will help make sure you have enough. There is
only one thing worse than not having enough carpet to finish the job, and
that is being charged for more material than you actually need.
If
your room is 15 feet 8 inches long round it up to 16 feet or 16.0
Always
mark the length first, then the width to make thing uniform.
(example 15 x 10.5)
How
do I know which is length and which is width? It doesn't matter, just
choose a direction and measure each room the same way.
Here
is how it should look after you measure.
Notice that I
have colored vinyl flooring areas yellow. The white areas have
carpet.
Step
Three
Make
a list of your measurements and multiply the length by the width of each
room. Then add them up for a total square footage. It should look like
this:
Living
room 27.5 x 15.0 = 412.5
Hall
16.0 x 4.5 = 72.0
Bedroom
1 16.0 x 9.5 = 152.0
Bedroom
2 16.0 x 9.5 = 152.0
788.5 square feet
Step
Four
Add
10% to the total. This makes allowances for seams and other extra carpet
needed to complete the job.
788
+78
866
square feet
To
get the total yardage, divide the square footage by 9.
866
divided by 9 = 96.22 square yards.
That's
it! If your home is larger or has a difficult floor plan it will be more
difficult to measure. If you have stairs you can access my stair yardage
chart in my ebook The Complete Carpet Buying Guide. Besides, you will need
to read my book before you buy carpet to save money and avoid the carpet
scams that are everywhere. I guarantee you will save money or I'll give
you a full refund.
Measuring
Carpet for Stairs:
Measuring
for stairs can be very tricky. Some stairs are wrapped over one or both
sides, some have to be upholstered which may require additional material,
some are pie shaped and are very difficult to measure, some have landings
that must be considered. I have included a stair yardage chart in my eBook
to help you measure a simple flight of stairs.
Important
to Remember:
Carpet
usually
comes 12' feet wide
Other
widths that may be available are 13'.6" and 15' feet. These are much less common
and may or may not be a good choice for you depending on your room sizes. Only
a professional can determine the best course of action that will be most
cost effective for you.
-
There
will be
some material waste if your rooms are less than 12 feet wide.
-
You
must
have seams if your rooms are wider than 12 feet.
-
All carpet
in connecting rooms must run in the same direction.
-
Order
my downloadable Carpet Buying
Guide to learn how to save the most money on
your carpet purchase.
To
calculate your total square footage for a room, just multiply your room
width and length together.
Example
2:
A
simple 15 x 20
room would add up to 33.33 yards.
That
is 15 x 20 = 300 divided by 9 = 33.33 yards.
-
In
this case, there would need to be a 3' ft. x 20' ft. seam
along one wall in this size of a room because the carpet width is only
12 feet wide, but this extra material is already figured into the total
yardage of 33.33 yards.
Remember,
you are just getting a basic estimate of your material needs, you will most likely need a few more or less
yards than you figure here, so don't be surprised if you are quoted 5 to 10%
more or less than you calculated yourself. It is always
wise to get a professional to measure your home accurately before ordering
carpet.
Questions
most frequently asked: How to measure carpet, measuring carpet, carpet
measured right, accurate carpet measurements, carpet measuring scams, how much
carpet do I need?
Alan's
Preferred Carpet Dealer Directory
It's
getting harder to find a reputable Carpet Dealer! I've spent countless hours
building my special hand-picked list of over 260 locally-owned Carpet Dealers.
I believe that every homeowner deserves to be treated Right! And that includes
getting FREE Estimates, LOW Prices, HELPFUL Salespeople, HONEST Measuring and
QUALIFIED Installation!
See
who I Recommend
near you!
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