Flooring Box Chart: Boxes by Area and Coverage
Fourteen areas against five box coverages, because the only number that changes between two brands of the same plank is how much is in the box.
Flooring is priced per square foot and sold per box, and the box coverage is different for almost every product. A box of laminate might hold 18.5 square feet, a wide plank vinyl 24, an engineered hardwood 30. The coverage is printed on the end of the carton, and it is the only input this table needs besides the room.
Every column already includes a 10 percent waste allowance, which is the normal figure for a straight lay in a rectangular room.
Boxes by floor area and box coverage
| Area | 18.5 sq ft/box | 20 sq ft/box | 22.5 sq ft/box | 24 sq ft/box | 30 sq ft/box |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 100 sq ft | 6 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 4 |
| 150 sq ft | 9 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 |
| 200 sq ft | 12 | 11 | 10 | 10 | 8 |
| 250 sq ft | 15 | 14 | 13 | 12 | 10 |
| 300 sq ft | 18 | 17 | 15 | 14 | 11 |
| 400 sq ft | 24 | 22 | 20 | 19 | 15 |
| 500 sq ft | 30 | 28 | 25 | 23 | 19 |
| 600 sq ft | 36 | 33 | 30 | 28 | 22 |
| 750 sq ft | 45 | 42 | 37 | 35 | 28 |
| 900 sq ft | 54 | 50 | 44 | 42 | 33 |
| 1,000 sq ft | 60 | 55 | 49 | 46 | 37 |
| 1,200 sq ft | 72 | 66 | 59 | 55 | 44 |
| 1,500 sq ft | 90 | 83 | 74 | 69 | 55 |
| 2,000 sq ft | 119 | 110 | 98 | 92 | 74 |
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The flooring calculator takes your own measurements and returns the number for your job, plus the material list as a printable document. Every cell in the table above came out of that same calculator, run at build time.
Ten percent is the floor, not the ceiling
Ten percent covers the offcuts at the ends of rows in a plain rectangular room. Run the planks on a 45 degree diagonal and the waste goes to 15. Herringbone or chevron starts at 15 and can reach 20, because every piece is cut twice.
A room full of closets, a hallway that turns, or a floor that runs into several doorways all push it up, because each of those is another row that ends in a short piece nothing else uses.
Order the whole job in one dye lot
Boxes from different production runs can differ in shade and in gloss, and the difference is invisible in the store and obvious across a finished floor. Order the whole job at once, keep the lot number, and open boxes from several cartons at a time as you lay so any variation is spread rather than banded.
Keep one full unopened box after the job. A plank cracked by a dropped tool in three years is a ten minute repair with matching stock and a refinishing project without it.
Acclimation is part of the order
Most wood and many laminate products want to sit in the room, out of the box or loosely stacked, for two or three days before they go down. Skipping it is how a floor laid in January gets gaps in July.
The flooring calculator adds the underlayment and the transition strips as their own lines, which are the parts that hold a delivery up when nobody counted the doorways.
Questions people ask
How many boxes of flooring for a 300 square foot room?
About 18 boxes at 18.5 square feet a box, or 11 at 30 square feet a box, with 10 percent waste. Read across the 300 sq ft row above.
How much extra flooring should I buy?
Ten percent for a straight lay in a simple room, 15 percent for a diagonal or a cut up floor, and up to 20 for herringbone. The waste is in the cuts, so the more direction changes, the more you lose.
How many square feet is in a box of flooring?
It varies by product, usually between 15 and 30. It is printed on the carton and it is the only figure you need besides the room area, which is why this chart runs across five different coverages.
Do I subtract closets and cabinets?
Subtract the cabinet footprint if the floor is not going under it, though many installers run the floor into the toe kick anyway. Add closets, because they are floor too and they are commonly forgotten.