Measuring carpet can be tricky business before installation, and there are several methods used to measure carpet. Because of different carpet roll widths (most carpet comes in rolls of 12 feet), different room shapes and carpet with pattern matches. In fact if you had three people measure your floor you would come up with three totally different measurements. You need to protect yourself from extra labor and material costs. I will show you the easy way to find out approximately the amount of carpet you'll need for your project.

You'll need to start out by drawing a diagram for the floor area you are going to measure for carpet. Measure the rooms in feet and always round up to the nearest foot. For example if you had a square room with a measurement of 12' 7" X 14' 8" you would simply round this up to 13 x 15 feet.

Multiply your length and width measurements to determine how many square feet of carpet you'll need for the room. For this area the measurement would be 195 square feet. Enter this calculation onto your diagram, including the length, width and total square feet. If you are measuring a room for carpet that is irregular in shape you'll need to divide it into measurable areas and them add them up when done.

There are more difficult areas to measure for carpet such as stairs, landings and halls. Stairs can be measured by calculating the measurements of the first stair and multiplying it by the number of stairs to be carpeted. When finished with all your measurements be sure to add 10% to cover waste. Record all your measurements on your diagram and then add the total square feet of carpet needed for each room to give you the amount of carpet you'll need for your project. Next, simply divide the total square feet by nine to covert it into square yards.

Waste can occur when using certain patterns. As an example a carpet with large complex patterns have to be seamed properly from room to room. Keep this in mind if you plan on purchasing a carpet with a elaborate pattern.

In a nutshell, that's pretty much what you'll need to how in measuring carpet. I believe it's always a good idea to measure your carpet before you have a estimator come to your home. Keep in mind, as I said above, that two people will come up with different measurements. But at least now you will have a good idea of how much you need and you will be able to question the estimator with some authority if the two carpet measurements are greatly different.