Laminate flooring is becoming increasingly popular and the question we at Flooring Mania are asked time and time again is, how do we measure for laminate and wood flooring. We hope you find this article as a useful guide.

Let us start at the beginning. The first thing you need to do is to find out how much laminate flooring you will need, to do this you will need to measure the width of you room (at the widest points) and then measure the length at the longest point. Right down these two measurements down and then multiply them together, this will give you the area of your room in m2. Once you have got this you will need to add 10% for wastage.

For Example.

Width 5 metres x Length 4 metres = 20 sqms + 10% = 22sqms.
So you will need 22sqms of laminate flooring or wood flooring

You now need to find out how many packs you require. It the laminate flooring you have chosen comes in pack size of lets say 1.243sqms then you have to divide your room size by that number.

Example : 22sqms divided by 1.243 =  17.69 packs.

Round this figure up to the next pack, this means you will require 18 packs.

You will also need to do the above when you require underlay for your laminate flooring.

What Else Do You Need?

If you are laying the laminate flooring over a concrete sub-floor, then you will need to purchase a damp proof membrane (DPM). Most manufactures now have underlay that includes a built in DPM. This is worth purchasing as it saves time and money.

For doorways you will need one of the following transition profiles.

End Cap :  This is used in doorways that meet carpet, ceramic or stone tiles.It can also be used to finish of the flooring against things like a sliding glass door.

Reducer : You use this when there is a difference in height between the laminate flooring and the floor covering you are meeting up with. Like linoleum or vinyl.

T Moulding : This is needed in doorways where laminate meets laminate, or for anytime a hard surface is within 1/8 inch. Of being the same height   as the laminate, you still can use a T Moulding.

With laminate flooring you have to leave an expansion gap of around 10mm anywhere the flooring meets a wall. There are two ways of hiding this expansion gap.

One way is to replace your skirting boards, we at Flooring Mania have skirtings that will match your flooring, this of course adds more cost and time to your project.

The second choice is the most common and is a cheaper and quicker way to hide the expansion gap, with scotia/ beading. This fits up against the skirting boards and covers the expansion gap. All brands offer beading that matches your laminate flooring.

To measure for this you need to measure all around the perimeter of you room where you are going to need beading. You will again need to add 10% for wastage. Once you have this figure you will need to divide it by the length of the beading, most beading comes in lengths of 2.4 meters.

You will also need to purchase a fitting kit. This usually comprises of a tapping block, pull bar and spacers.
We at Flooring Mania hope this information was helpful for you. If you require any assistants with you laminate or wood flooring we are only free phone call away, please don not hesitate to contact us.