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". Some salespeople measure very well
while others have absolutely no no idea what they are doing.
You
can learn
how to measure your home for carpet in four simple steps. This can help you
avoid being
overcharged for carpet, pad and installation.
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
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 13.5 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.
Remember:
-
There
will be some material waste if your room is less than 12
ft wide.
-
You
must have seams if your room is wider than 12 feet. (unless you
order carpet that is wider than 12 feet)
-
All
similar carpet in connecting rooms must lay down in the same direction.
The carpet nap lays down one way and stands up the other way. The carpet
tends to look darker one way and lighter the other way. It will look bad
if you don't have every carpet nap running in the same direction from
room to room.
-
Order
my downloadable ebook
to save the most money on your carpet purchase. You might think
that you will learn enough by surfing the internet and adding up all the
information to make a smart carpet purchase,
but there is some valuable information in my ebook that is NOT available
anywhere on the internet that could surely help you save hundreds, avoid
scams and choose more wisely. I guarantee it or your money back.
To
calculate your total square footage for a room, just multiply your room
width and length together.
Example
1:
Here
is what a 10 x 10 room would add
up to 13.33 yards: (Remember, carpet comes 12 feet wide)
That
is 12' width x 10' length = 120 square feet divided by 9 = 13.33 yards.
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 here
and using my yardage chart. It is always wise to get a professional to
measure your home accurately before ordering carpet.
Take
a look at my 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. Room
Yardage Chart
When you take all this information into
consideration, then you take a good hard look at the logistics of your
lifestyle, needs, goals and budget to come up with a good estimate as to
what it will cost you to buy the right grade of carpet for you.
You might need to adjust a few things a
little bit to make it all work. Most people are surprised at how much a good
quality carpet costs. This means you might have to sacrifice longevity to
keep the carpet within your budget, or you may have to do half of the house
now and do the other half after you save a little more money. How
Much Does
Carpet Cost?
