How to Measure Your Rooms for New Carpet

If you are in the market for new carpet, you are probably trying to figure out how much money it’s going to take. While many factors can change the price, the best place to start is to figure out how much carpet you need. Learn how to measure your rooms for new carpet.

Why Do You Need to Measure Your Rooms for New Carpet?

Carpet of any quality is an investment, so you want to make sure you receive an accurately sized product. When you are preparing to purchase your new carpet, we recommend asking a professional installer (preferably the one you’ll have installing your carpet) to measure your space to ensure you order the correct amount. To ensure that you’re not being overcharged, here are a few tips to help you roughly measure your space. This helps you set a budget beforehand.

How to Measure Your Carpet At Home

A reliable professional will come out to measure your space and provide you with 100% accurate recommendations. Keep in mind that this is only a guide to help you protect yourself and your budget when purchasing new carpet for your home or office.

1.    Measure the area of your rooms.

Measure both the length and width of each room, recording their numbers as you go. Repeat this process for every room you want to carpet. Then, multiply both of your measurements together for each room to get the square footage. The formula is LxW=SF (length x width = square footage).

2.    Follow the 20% rule.

In every room that is over 10 feet wide, you will need to budget 20% more carpet due to the fact that most carpet comes in 12’ wide rolls.  If your room is 10×10, you will need 100 square feet of carpet. Once you find the area of each room, multiply each room’s square footage by 1.2. This will provide you with the total amount of carpet needed for that room.

Keep in mind that you cannot just cut the end off a roll of carpet and slap it in sideways because it will not lay correctly. Instead, you will need to order 120 square feet of carpet and cut 2 feet of it away.

In rooms less than 5 feet wide, you may multiple the area by 1.1 to get the total needed for that room. In rooms over 12 feet wide, apply the 20% rule as well due to pattern matching and seam allowances.

Additionally, we recommend that you not discard this excess carpet. Instead, keep it in storage in case you need to hide stains or damage to your carpet down the road.

3.     Add your new totals up, and this will provide you with the amount of carpet you can expect to purchase.

This guide is simply to provide you with a tool to understand and approximate for estimating purposes. A professional installer will be able to understand your space and how the carpet will install in a much more concise manner. If you created your budget using this guide you should have no unpleasant surprises come measuring day. To find a professional installer in your area contact one of Bloomsburg Carpet’s Agents in a city near you now.

Have More Questions?

Bloomsburg Carpet is dedicated to weaving high-quality, beautiful, designer carpets for satisfied customers all over America. If you have any further questions regarding our variety of carpet styles, do not hesitate to call us today.