How much waste should I allow for vinyl plank flooring?

A 10% waste allowance is required for planks. At the very least, you can expect to lose 20% of the material when installing sheet floors.

What is waste factor in flooring?

Toxic Factors:This is the additional laminate flooring you’ll need to compensate for the waste generated during the installation process. The standard waste factor recommendation is 5%.

How much extra laminate should I buy?

Laminate flooring should cover at least 5% to 15% of a room’s floor area as a general rule of thumb. It’s recommended that you buy at least 10.5-11.5 square feet of laminate flooring for a 10-square-foot room.

Laminate flooring is a great way and somewhat inexpensive way to update your home. Get rid of that dirty allergen filled carpet and opt for the latest trends in a super durable hard surface floor! The best part of adding laminate flooring to your home is that it's easy enough to do yourself, saving yourself even more.

Although the thought of measuring a room for new flooring can seem a little daunting at first, it's really all just simple math. The key is to think of your room in terms of rectangles.

For a simple rectangular room, you would just measure the length of the room by the width. For example, if a room is 10' long by 10' wide, 10' x 10' is 100 square feet. Obviously not all rooms are going to measure out to a perfect foot, so it's important to round up to the nearest half foot. For example, if the length measures out to be 10'3", round up to 10-1/2'.

For rooms that are a little bit more complex --- maybe there's a closet or a hallway --- you just need to break these areas down into their own rectangles and then add all the areas together.

(For clarification, see the diagram below)

Waste Factors

Something not to be forgotten when figuring out how much laminate flooring to order is the waste factor. This is the extra amount of laminate flooring you should order in order to cover cutting and fitting waste. The standard recommendation for a waste factor is 5%. If there are a lot of smaller spaces in your flooring renovation or unusual cutting angles (i.e. closets, crawl spaces, hallways, kitchen islands), you may want to bump up your waste factor to about 8%. If you plan on installing on an angle (diagonally), you should increase the waste factor to about 15%.

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Overall Rating: 4.8 stars - 24 reviews

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Nice job. I always hold back a box of laminate for future repairs. No way years from now you can find a match.

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How much waste do I add to LVP?

A general rule of thumb is to add 10% to your square footage measurement to allow for cuts and waste. This will accommodate waste during an installation due to extra cuts you may need including staggered cuts, improper cuts or mistakes, and damage.

How much waste should you add to flooring?

Typically you can expect a waste factor of 5-7% for square rooms, 10% for rectangular rooms and 15% for rooms with multiple angles. Always round up to the nearest decimal point and add this waste factor to your initial square footage.

How much waste should I allow for laminate flooring?

Exactly How Much Extra Should I Order? When you place your laminate order, allow an additional 5-15% of your initial flooring measurement to account for waste.

How much tolerance do I need for vinyl plank flooring?

If you're installing vinyl planks on top of a concrete floor, the standard tolerance required is for the floor to be level to 3/16” within a 10' radius. It also can't have a dip of ⅛” within 2'. Level means that a floor doesn't slope in any direction. From one end of the room to the other, there is no pitch.