In order not to spend extra money during repairs, you should calculate the required amount of material. How to calculate the amount of laminate on the floor, you will learn by reading this article.
The choice of flooring is an important point in the renovation process in the apartment. For bathrooms and the kitchen, ceramic tiles are usually laid, but for other rooms there are much more coating options. It can be linoleum, tile, carpet, parquet or laminate.
Advantages of laminate over other floor coverings
Linoleum is an inexpensive material, but it is subject to rapid abrasion of the pattern. Laying ceramic tiles in a large room is a long and painstaking process, moreover, this material is not cheap. Carpet will give the room comfort and warmth, it is pleasant to walk on it. It is easy to install, but during operation it quickly becomes dirty, and it is not easy to clean such a coating. Parquet is also considered an expensive material, and after installation it needs to be treated with a special varnish coating.
The best optionflooring in the room is a laminate, because it has a number of important advantages:
- durability;
- low cost;
- easy installation;
- Easy and quick repair in case of damage to part of the coating.
How to save money?
During renovations, most homeowners try to save money. One way to save money this way is to buy materials in the required quantity. Let's figure out how to calculate the amount of laminate needed for laying indoors. It is possible to perform such a calculation in two ways: on your own or using an online calculator.
Buying material to make a room feel at home is an extremely costly business. Here you can not save on the quality of purchased building materials. One option for significant money savings is to calculate the amount of laminate by area. It is necessary to accurately calculate how many packages of this decorative coating will be needed to decorate your room. Let's find out how to correctly and accurately calculate this building material using both of the above methods.
Preparing the room for laying flooring
Before installing the laminate, free the room from interior items and heavy furniture. After that, you should clean the floor of debris, level the surface with a level. Remember that the amount of laminate you need should be calculated before going to the store, otherwise the building material may not be enough or,on the contrary, it will be too much.
Why do you need to make calculations?
Many people who are faced with construction for the first time think that they do not need information on how to correctly calculate the amount of laminate. All materials for this are quite affordable, they can be bought at the nearest hardware store. This approach is erroneous. If you do not buy additional material, the floors will not be completely covered, you will have to spend precious time purchasing additional boxes. The store may run out of material, you will have to wait for the next delivery.
In the reverse situation, when the calculation of the required amount of laminate on the calculator turned out to be incorrect, extra money will be spent. It is not always possible to return the purchased product back to the store and get the money back. However, it would be nice if a few lamellas remain, because in the event of a spot repair, they will be needed. The damaged area after replacement will again look like you have laid it recently. A solid supply of laminate may not be needed at all.
Installing the cover yourself
First you need to determine the type, color, class and size of the laminate. Only after this knowledge, you can proceed to the direct calculation of the amount of finishing material. Such data is necessary, since each manufacturer of laminate flooring independently chooses the dimensions of the board. Even the same company can produce different sizes of coverage in different collections. The quantity may also change.boards in the package. Neglect of such data can lead to serious errors in the calculations.
If your room has non-standard shapes, then first of all you need to measure all the walls and draw a diagram. Only after calculating the area and all non-standard angles can the calculation be made. Do not forget that you should purchase material for laying the floor with a margin, since it is easy to damage it during installation. During transportation, the boards may also become unusable.
Factors influencing coverage consumption
To understand how to calculate the amount of laminate correctly, you should take into account some factors that greatly affect the consumption of material during the installation process. Here are the main ones:
- The area of the premises where the laying of building materials is planned.
- The shape of the room. In the event that the room where the repair is being carried out has a rectangular shape, the laminate will be consumed in a minimal amount. If the room is designed with a complex floor shape, then the worker will have to sweat, cutting out the desired figure from the laminate board. In this case, there will be a lot of unnecessary scraps of wood covering.
- The size of the material is also of great importance when deciding how to calculate the amount of laminate on the floor of the room. For maximum savings, choose small panels. Remember that the longer the material, the more waste there will be. Try to pick upsuch a length of the laminate, which, when assembled, will be equal to the length of the room.
- Savings also depend on the chosen laying method. Orientation in this matter will tell you how to calculate the amount of laminate per room. The easiest and most economical option is to lay this building material in a straight line along the wall. The amount of residues in this case is no more than 10%. Some people like to lay laminate flooring diagonally. When using this method, approximately 15% of the remains of the lamellas will remain. At the same time, the calculations do not take into account the consumption of material in case of unsuccessful sawing and accidental damage.
Let's consider how to correctly calculate the amount of laminate before buying for finishing a room, taking into account the above factors that affect consumption.
Using a calculator in calculations
The easiest way is to use a special calculator. It can be found using a search engine. Working with a virtual computer is very simple, just enter your values in the free boxes.
Before downloading such a calculator, you need to know the following parameters:
- total area of the room where it is planned to lay building materials;
- laminate board size;
- number of slats in each pack;
- laying method (along the wall or at an angle).
After entering these data, the calculator will automatically calculate the amount of laminate to be purchased.
Independentsettlement
In order to learn how to calculate the amount of laminate per room with a calculator, you should calculate the same parameters that are listed in the article above. For clarity, we give an example of manual calculation:
- given a room measuring 4.5 x 3.3 meters;
- the size of one board is 1295 x 195 mm;
- number of laminate in a pack - 10 pieces;
- The installation method was chosen at a 45 degree angle.
So, how to calculate the amount of laminate. The calculator will help us with this:
- First you need to calculate the area of the room. Multiply the length of the walls: 4.5 x 3.3=14.85 m2.
- Given the consumption of 15%, we get 17.08 m2. This is the area that the laminate should cover.
Usually, the manufacturer indicates the coverage area on the pack, but just in case, let's make a calculation: 10 pieces in a pack are multiplied by the area of one board (1, 295 x 0, 195) and we get 2, 52 m2. Now you should calculate the number of packs of laminate to be purchased: 14.85 / 2.52=5.8. Now it becomes clear that you need to buy 6 packs of laminate.
Summing up
When planning repairs in an apartment or your own house on your own, without resorting to the help of specialists, you will have to set aside a lot of money for the purchase of various building materials. To keep costs to a minimum, pay close attention to your calculations. If after laying there are extra pieces or whole laminate boards, do not throw them away. Perhaps theyuseful during the operation of the premises. Laminate is afraid of strong mechanical impacts, but it can be quickly repaired if there are remaining pieces of this coating in stock.
Now you know the answer to the question of how to calculate the amount of laminate per room using a calculator and yourself using your knowledge of mathematics.