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Boxes of flooring, with the waste in.

Floor area, plus closets and hallways, plus your waste for cuts and layout, divided by what one box covers. It also shows what you'll have left, so the spare boxes don't surprise anyone.

ft
ft
sq ft
Closets, a hallway, the other leg of an L-shaped room.
%
Your number. Diagonal and herringbone layouts cut more.
sq ft
Printed on the box.
Floor area240 sq ft
Area with waste264 sq ft
Boxes to order14 boxes
Left over after the job, if waste runs as planned16 sq ft

Boxes, underlayment, transitions and install by the square foot: tell Redline the rooms and it drafts the flooring quote.

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How the math works

Length times width for the room (16 x 15 = 240 sq ft), plus any other areas. Add your waste: 240 plus 10% is 264 sq ft. Divide by the coverage on the box (264 ÷ 20 = 13.2) and round up: 14 boxes.

14 boxes hold 280 sq ft, so if the waste runs the way you planned, 16 sq ft is left over. That's attic stock for a future repair, and worth telling the customer about before they ask why there are boxes in the garage.

Same 16 x 15 room, three waste settings

20 sq ft per box.

WasteTo orderBoxesLeft over
5%252 sq ft138 sq ft
10%264 sq ft1416 sq ft
15%276 sq ft144 sq ft

10% and 15% land on the same box count here. On a single room, rounding to whole boxes can matter as much as the percentage.

What to watch for

  • Waste is your call. Straight lay in a plain room wastes less than diagonal, herringbone or a room full of jogs. Set it from your own jobs.
  • Same lot. Order everything from one production lot when you can. A box bought later may not match.
  • Coverage is exact on the carton. It's often not a round number. Type it as printed.
  • Not counted: underlayment, transitions, quarter round, stair nosing and adhesive.
  • Tile sold by the piece? Divide the area to order by one tile's area instead of using the box line.

Questions contractors ask

How many boxes of flooring for 500 sq ft?

With 10% waste and 20 sq ft per box: 550 sq ft to order, so 28 boxes. Put in your own box size; it's printed on the carton.

Waste per room or for the whole job?

Rooms with different layouts can need different waste, so run them one at a time and add the boxes. Rounding up each room will land you a box or two higher than one big run; one open area with one layout can go in as a single run.

How does Redline handle a flooring job?

Say "quote the Liu kitchen and hall: 285 sq ft LVP, 16 boxes, pull the old vinyl, new underlayment, quarter round" and Redline drafts the quote at your per-square-foot prices and saves it to their file. If the subfloor needs work once the old floor is up, write it up as a change; see the flooring change order template. Invoices with card pay links are on Solo and up.

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