How to Figure Carpet Installation & Pads

Draw floor plans of the rooms to be carpeted, detailing the positioning of doorways and odd recesses. Measure each wall and recess with a steel measuring tape. Transfer the figures to the floor plan.

Break the floor plan into square, oblong and triangular blocks with dotted lines on your sketch. Bay windows should be treated as squares, the width being the deepest point of the semi-circle.

Use a calculator to multiply length times width for the area of the square or oblong sections, and half the length times width for triangular sections. Jot each figure down in the appropriate spot on the sketch.

Calculate the wastage if the room is wider or narrower than the width of the roll of carpeting. For example, if the room is 13 feet wide, a 15-foot wide roll will have to be cut. Consequently, a 2-foot width will be wasted.

Add up your square footage and divide this figure by nine to convert the amount to square yards. Add in your calculated roll wastage, and add another 10 percent to the total. For the pad estimate, add 5 percent to the net square footage. Show your detailed sketch to the carpet vendor to confirm your calculations.

Multiply the price per square yard of the carpeting times the total square yards of carpeting to get a price estimate of the carpeting. Multiply the price per square yard of the padding times the total square yards of padding to get a price estimate of the padding. Add the two estimates together to get a total price estimate.