Boxes of vinyl plank or tile, or linear feet of sheet vinyl, for one or more rooms, with waste, underlayment, and cost.
| Room | Size | Area | Boxes (share) |
|---|
| Option | Buy | Material area | Seams |
|---|
This vinyl flooring calculator handles both ways vinyl is sold. For luxury vinyl plank (LVP) and vinyl tile (LVT), it converts the rooms into square feet, adds the waste factor, and returns the number of planks and the number of boxes to buy from the plank size and box coverage, which the presets fill in for common sizes (6 x 36, 7 x 48, 9 x 60 planks; 12 x 24 and 18 x 18 tiles). For sheet vinyl, it works like a flooring installer with a 6 or 12 ft roll: each room is laid both ways and the orientation with the least roll length wins, so you get linear feet, seams, and the square feet and square yards that represents. Underlayment rolls, an attached-pad option, and prices per box, per square foot, or per linear foot round it out. It is for homeowners pricing a kitchen, bath, basement, or whole-floor vinyl project.
Room area = length x width, summed over all rooms, then x (1 + waste%): 10 percent for a straight layout, 15 percent for diagonal or herringbone. Planks: plank face = width x length / 144 sq ft; planks = ceiling(area with waste / plank face); boxes = ceiling(area with waste / box coverage), where box coverage is the square footage printed on the carton (for example ten 7 x 48 in planks = 23.3 sq ft). Sheet: for each room, strips = ceiling(room width / roll width) running the room length, or ceiling(room length / roll width) running the width; the smaller total of linear feet is used, seams = strips - 1, and waste is applied to the total linear feet. Sheet square feet = linear feet x roll width; square yards = square feet / 9. Underlayment is one 100 sq ft roll per 100 sq ft of raw room area unless the product has an attached pad. Metric mode converts meters to feet internally and reports square meters.
A 12 x 14 ft room is 168 sq ft; with 10 percent waste you need 184.8 sq ft. Using a common 7 x 48 in plank sold ten to a box (23.3 sq ft per box), that is 7.9 boxes, so buy 8. In planks, 184.8 sq ft / 2.33 sq ft per plank is 80 planks. Box coverage differs by product, from about 18 to 30 sq ft, so enter the figure on the carton you are actually buying.
Sheet vinyl has the fewest seams and is the most water-resistant choice for a bathroom or laundry room, but a 12 ft roll is heavy and hard to fit in a room with many jogs, and a mistake ruins a large piece. Plank and tile vinyl are forgiving to install, easy to repair one piece at a time, and handle irregular rooms with little waste, but have hundreds of seams; the waterproof core versions (SPC and WPC) tolerate spills well, while cheaper glue-down planks do not. This page prices both from the same rooms so you can compare.
Rigid-core (SPC and WPC) planks usually come with a pad attached and should not have a second underlayment, which can make the joints flex and fail. Thinner glue-down planks do not use underlayment; the subfloor itself must be smooth. Floating planks without an attached pad need a thin (1 to 1.5 mm) vinyl-rated underlayment for sound and to bridge small subfloor flaws. Over concrete, a 6 mil vapor barrier is a good idea under any floating vinyl. Tick 'attached pad' to drop the underlayment rolls from the list.
Ten percent is the usual figure for planks or tiles laid parallel to the walls in a simple room, covering end cuts and a few damaged pieces plus spares for repairs. Use 15 percent for diagonal or herringbone patterns and for rooms with many closets, angles, or islands. Sheet vinyl waste comes from how the room fits the roll width, which the calculator works out for both orientations; the waste percentage is then added on top for trimming and pattern matching.
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