Flooring project planning is a multifaceted process. The foundation of that process is obtaining accurate measurements, so you know exactly how much flooring you need. Any flooring measurement mistakes can become a disaster when it’s time for installation.
In worst-case scenarios, measuring mistakes mean sacrificing a significant portion of your investment if the flooring can’t be returned, is now out of stock, or the mistake isn’t discovered until flooring installation is well underway.
Accurate flooring measurements are essential, so we highly recommend consulting with trusted flooring professionals before submitting your final measurements or materials order.
DIY Flooring Vs. Professional Measurements: Avoid Costly Flooring Mistakes
DIY flooring projects lead to some of the most common flooring regrets we hear about here at Creative Floors. And flooring measurement mistakes are among the most common errors made when customers shop at online flooring warehouses to save money. Unfortunately, by the time we hear their stories, homeowners are coming to us for Round 2 to get the job done right.
If you’re in the beginning stages of flooring project planning and still wondering, “How much flooring do I need?” then professional, in-house measurements are the best way to order the right amount without making any of these common mistakes.
1. Only Measuring Once Before Calculating Flooring Square Footage
The best contractors out there honor the age-old saying, “Measure twice, cut once.” They recognize that even the pros can make a small mistake here and there if they only measure something one time.
Homeowners attempting a DIY flooring project may not realize professional flooring contractors measure above the floor, wall-to-wall, so the flooring aligns with the wall and does not run out at the baseboard. The tape measure or laser may have moved from the original starting point, or a number might get transposed.
Measuring twice and verifying that the final numbers are identical is step one in avoiding flooring measurement mistakes.
2. Forgetting To Account For Hidden Spaces or Recessed Areas
Sometimes, customers forget to measure some or all of the recessed spaces in the home, such as the closets. That’s especially true for some of the more unusual closet spaces, like the small storage area under the stairway or a hallway linen closet.
If you forget one or two small closets, that may be okay if there’s enough accounted for in the waste allowance (more on that in #5). However, if you forget to account for all of the recessed or forgotten storage areas or closet spaces, you won’t have enough flooring to complete the job.
3. Not Knowing How to Account For Irregular Room Shapes
Avoiding common mistakes in flooring measurements would be easier if every room and space were square or rectangular. Alas, they are not.
There are many reasons a room may have an irregular shape, including custom architectural plans, an L-shaped layout, or rooms with atypical dimensions. Sometimes interior designs incorporate distinctive features, such as built-in corner cabinets or a bay window.
Any time a room has an irregular shape or a distinctive feature, the flooring measurements require extra care.
4. Not Adjusting Measurements For Particular Design Features
We mentioned bay windows or built-in cabinets and how they can create an irregularly shaped room. Other design features can also alter flooring measurements.
Older homes may have had more than one fireplace, or a chimney that protrudes into a room rather than recedes into a fireplace. Depending on when the home was built and how it’s been added to or remodeled since then, rooms may have other features that protrude into the flooring, which can also alter the final measurements.
5. Not Knowing How to Measure for Stairs & Landings
Measuring and installing flooring on staircases is definitely not an ideal DIY project. There are so many reasons why professional flooring installation matters, and stairs are certainly one of them. These calculations are tricky! They’re more involved than just measuring the square footage of the tread and riser dimensions. You also have to account for the landing measurements.
Getting accurate measurements for stairs and landings also depends on the stair design, the types of railing you have, and other trim details that may require extra or less material, depending on how the flooring needs to be cut and laid.
6. Failing to Understand How Flooring is Used For Transitions
Depending on factors like your home’s age, whether we need to build up the existing subfloor, or the materials you’ve selected from one room to the next, we may need to use extra material to ease transitions between rooms or from one flooring type to another.
This could require carrying one type of flooring farther into a room than you may have planned. The installers may need to use more of one subfloor type than another to avoid mismatched height levels between flooring types, which are unsightly and can become a tripping hazard. While all of these factors would be discussed with you ahead of time during your in-home flooring consultations, they are not typically considered by DIYers when taking their own flooring measurements.
7. Not Performing a Flooring Waste Calculation
Once all of the measurements are in, professional flooring contractors add anywhere from 5% to 10% more to their final order. These extra materials are used to solve a range of incidental material waste problems, including:
- To fix mistakes that may be made along the way. Top-notch installers don’t make many, but they are human, so extra material covers that.
- To honor particular patterns that are part of the final flooring design.
- To avoid pattern repeating in hardwood flooring, which can occur if you don’t have enough materials to offset planks when you get to the end of the room.
- To make future flooring repairs easier by having extra flooring materials on hand.
Many homeowners don’t always consider that their flooring selections are manufactured in batches over time. So, while the same name, color, or design may be available for years, the dye lots will be slightly different. Odds are a new section of “the same” flooring won’t match three, five, or ten years down the road. By having some extra waste material from the original order on hand, installers can provide a more seamless flooring repair.
There’s a Reason Homeowners Keep Coming Back to Creative Floors
Taking incorrect flooring measurements is just one of many flooring mistakes that can be made during flooring project planning if you skip working with the pros. Rather than experience unnecessary stress or installation hiccups, why not work with Creative Floors? Our experienced design team provides zero-stress, zero-obligation flooring consultations in our showrooms or via our free in-home appointments.
You can schedule an in-home flooring consultation online, during which we can take accurate on-site flooring measurements. Or you’re welcome to come by the Creative Floors showroom in Casselberry to ask questions and learn more about flooring options that suit your home, lifestyle, and goals.
You never have to worry about high-pressure sales tactics of any kind. There’s none of that here. After 25+ years of providing excellent customer service and the free flooring estimate Casselberry trusts, we have a loyal client base that feels like family. Our only goal is to ensure you have all of the information you need to make the right decisions – and get accurate flooring measurements – for your next project.
