How To Calculate Linoleum For Several Rooms Before Buying

2024 Author: Bailey Albertson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 12:53

How to calculate linoleum on the floor and save a lot of money on it

Hello dear readers and subscribers of our blog "Do it yourself with us".

Overhaul in the apartment continues and it is the turn to start new flooring. The fastest, cheapest and most practical option is to lay a new linoleum. Now we will consider how to calculate linoleum for buying it in several rooms.

How to calculate linoleum: tips

Before you put something, you have to have it. I described in detail earlier which linoleum to choose for my favorite home, but now I want to dwell on how to calculate linoleum.

To do this, we make measurements of the room in which the linoleum will be laid, measure the length and width. Moreover, this must be done in three places, both in length and in width: along the walls and in the middle of the room.

It often happens, especially in Soviet-built apartments, that the length of a room or its width along two opposite walls is different. And, sometimes it happens that it differs very much (up to 5-10 cm). And, well, if, when measuring in one place, you get to the long side, but if you get to the short side? It turns out that the purchased piece is not enough, and a gap is formed.

Therefore, be sure to take 6 measurements in the room and add another 3-5 cm to the largest size for trimming.

If there are niches in the room (for example, they are very often for a battery under the window), it is necessary to increase the length of the purchased piece to the depth of the niche, i.e. measure the length or width of the room from the far wall of the niche to the opposite wall of the room and add 3-5 cm to the edge.

When buying linoleum for an entire apartment, consisting of several rooms, when measuring the length of the desired piece, take into account the thickness of the wall between the rooms. Calculate the length so that a piece of linoleum of one room in the aisle overlaps a piece of the next room by 2-3 cm.

Let me explain this with an example. The picture below shows 2 rooms connected by a doorway.

The length of the first room is 3 meters, the second is 3.5 meters, the thickness of the wall (doorway 0.1 m (10 cm)).

It is necessary to buy for the first room 305 cm plus 3 cm overlap for a high-quality joint, total 308 cm (3.08 m) And for the second room, similarly, 355 cm plus 3 cm overlap, total 358 cm (3, 58 m.)

If you buy linoleum with a pattern that runs symmetrically along the room, and there is a desire for the pattern in two rooms to look like a single whole, you must add the length of the pattern step to the calculated width of one of the pieces. This will make it possible to align the pattern by sliding that wider piece to align the pattern.

If the pattern is symmetrically repeated both along the width and along the length of the strip (for example, the pattern of linoleum imitates parquet laid in symmetrical squares), it is necessary to add the length of the pattern step in the longitudinal direction to the length of the piece being purchased. Making a larger overlap with this piece - we also achieve the alignment of the pattern on the aisle (the place where the two pieces meet).

Having measured and recorded all the dimensions, you can calculate the area of linoleum required for one room, and by adding up the area of pieces of all rooms, find out the total area of linoleum required for the purchase.

But that's not all.

The thing is that linoleum is available in standard widths. Sometimes the width is 2; 2.5; 3; 3.5 and 4 meters. Therefore, if you have a room, for example, measuring 6 * 3.1 m. Buying 6 meters of linoleum with a standard width of 3.5 meters, the entire floor will be completely covered, but the remainder (0.4 * 6 = 2.4 square meters) will be very large. And this is with an average price of linoleum 415 rubles, an additional overpayment of 1000 rubles.

What can be done in this case?

You can compromise and lay linoleum not along the room, but put 2 pieces of a standard three-meter covering 3.1 meters long (3 * 3.1 m) across the room. In this case, of course, you will get a seam in the room, but using cold welding it will practically not be visible.

Benefits of buying linoleum in large stores

And one more little piece of advice when calculating linoleum: buy it in large stores with a wide range.

Firstly, such stores, most often, have all the standard widths of the presented collections. And when buying, for example, linoleum in a three-room apartment, you may need a width of both 2.5 meters in the corridor and 4 meters in the hall. And, accordingly, having a whole range of widths, you can more widely vary and fit the pieces to your size.

Secondly, with large sales volumes, such stores have more pieces of rolls, for which the store makes big discounts. It may turn out that having bought all the linoleum in a three-room apartment already at a discount due to the large area of purchase, there will be a piece in the corridor with a 70% discount.

How do you decide how to calculate linoleum when buying it and how much you need to buy ? Maybe you can advise some other ways to save money? I would be very happy to hear your advice, feedback and suggestions. Thanks!

In the near future I plan to write an article on how to calculate wallpaper on the walls and how to glue the wallpaper correctly.