How much laminate or LVP flooring do I need?

Find your room's area, add a waste percentage (10% is standard for a straight-lay laminate install), then divide by your box's actual coverage and round up. A 300 sq ft room at 10% waste needs 330 sq ft — at a 20 sq ft box, that's 17 boxes, but the exact count depends on your specific carton's coverage. Use the calculator above with your own numbers.

Why isn't box coverage a fixed number on this calculator?

Because it genuinely isn't fixed in the real world. Pergo's own product lineup spans 17.18 to 22.17 sq ft per carton depending on style, and other manufacturers land elsewhere — Mohawk's RevWood Elderwood covers 16.93 sq ft. Pergo's own installation guidance tells you to check the carton or ask a representative rather than assume a number, which is exactly what the editable field here is for.

Does hardwood use the same waste percentage as laminate?

No. Pergo's guidance uses 10% for laminate and lists 15% for hardwood, which they attribute to NWFA guidelines rather than a figure Pergo derived themselves. If you're installing hardwood, use 15% instead of this calculator's laminate-oriented 10% default.

What's the difference between cut waste and defect culling?

Cut waste is material lost trimming full-length planks to fit against a wall or around an obstacle. Defect culling is setting aside a plank with a visible flaw — a grain mismatch, a damaged edge, a finish defect — during installation, which happens regardless of how the room is laid out. They're different causes of loss, and this calculator's single waste percentage is meant to function as a buffer for both.

Should I buy extra boxes beyond the calculated amount?

A little extra is worth keeping past the waste factor, especially for a large or oddly shaped room, or if the product is likely to be discontinued — a held-back box matches a future repair far better than a replacement bought years later from a different production run. Round up to a full extra box rather than order to the exact calculated count.

Flooring Calculator

Laminate and luxury vinyl plank are bought by area and boxed by the carton, not sold by weight or volume — this calculator works like the drywall and paint calculators on this site: no depth, no density, just square footage and a box count. Enter your room's dimensions or a total area you already have, set a waste percentage to cover both cutting and defect culling, and — this is the part manufacturers themselves tell you to check by hand — enter your actual carton's coverage rather than trust a guessed default. Coverage varies by manufacturer and even by style within one manufacturer's lineup, so the editable box-coverage field here is the main event, not an afterthought. The result rounds up to a whole box, since a partial box still has to be bought.

Your room

LengthWidthUnit

Waste (%)10% is Pergo's straight-lay laminate figure and the default here. Diagonal and herringbone layouts cut more material and run higher. An irregular room — lots of closets, jogs, or built-ins — runs higher too, since every extra corner is another cut. Pergo also lists 15% for hardwood, which they attribute to NWFA guidelines; increase to that if you're installing hardwood rather than laminate or LVP.

Box coverage (sq ft)

Carton coverage isn't standardized — read your actual box before ordering.

Enter your room's dimensions above to see results.

How it's calculated

The calculator resolves your area from either room dimensions (length × width) or a direct entry, then adds a waste percentage on top — covering both cut waste around walls and obstacles, and pieces held back for visible defects during installation. That waste-adjusted square footage is divided by your box's coverage and rounded up to a whole box, since a partial box still has to be bought. Box coverage is a number you set yourself, not a fixed constant, because it varies by manufacturer and even by style within one manufacturer's lineup — check the coverage printed on your actual carton before ordering, per Pergo's own instructions.

Worked example

A 300 sq ft room at the 10% laminate default: waste-adjusted area = 300 × 1.10 = 330 sq ft. At the calculator's default 20 sq ft per box, that's 330 ÷ 20 = 16.5 — rounded up to 17 boxes. But carton coverage isn't standardized: at Pergo's own 19.63 sq ft carton, the same 330 sq ft still needs 17 boxes (330 ÷ 19.63 = 16.81). At their smaller 17.18 sq ft carton, though, it needs 20 boxes (330 ÷ 17.18 = 19.21) — three more boxes from picking the wrong coverage number on the same room. Always read your actual carton before ordering.

Box coverage and waste guidance

Box coverage varies by product, and that variation is bigger than most calculators let on. Pergo's own lineup spans 17.18 to 22.17 square feet per carton depending on style — that's one manufacturer. Others land elsewhere in that range entirely; Mohawk's RevWood Elderwood, for example, covers 16.93 square feet per carton. Pergo's own Project Checklist tells installers to check the carton itself, or ask a Pergo representative, rather than assume a figure — this calculator treats that instruction as the point of the box-coverage field, not a footnote. It's editable, defaults to a round 20 square feet only as a starting point, and ships with quick-pick presets from real cartons so correcting it to your actual product is one tap.

Waste is the other number worth understanding rather than accepting blind. 10% is Pergo's figure for a straight-lay laminate installation, and it's the default here. A diagonal or herringbone layout cuts more material at more angles and runs higher. An irregular room — closets, jogs, built-ins, anything beyond a clean rectangle — runs higher too, since every extra corner is another cut. Pergo lists 15% for hardwood, attributing that figure to NWFA guidelines; if you're installing hardwood rather than laminate or LVP, that's the number to use instead of the laminate default.

Cut waste and defect culling are two different things the same percentage has to cover. Cutting a full-length plank down to fit against a wall is waste from the layout. Setting aside a plank with a visible grain flaw, a damaged edge, or a finish defect during installation is a separate kind of loss — it's not caused by cutting at all, it's a normal part of working through a box of manufactured material. This calculator's single waste percentage is meant to function as a buffer for both, which is part of why it's worth erring generous rather than ordering to the bare calculated number.

Common mistakes

Ordering to the bare calculated square footage with no waste factor. Cut waste around walls and obstacles is real, and installers routinely hold back pieces with visible defects — neither is captured by the raw area number.
Trusting the default box-coverage figure instead of reading the actual carton. Pergo's own cartons range from 17.18 to 22.17 sq ft depending on style; guessing instead of checking can mean ordering several boxes short or long.
Using the straight-lay 10% waste default for a diagonal or herringbone layout, which cuts more material at more angles and runs a genuinely higher waste percentage.
Assuming laminate and hardwood share a waste factor. Pergo's own guidance uses 10% for laminate and a separate, higher figure (15%, which Pergo attributes to NWFA) for hardwood.
Finishing one box before opening the next instead of working from several at once. Shade and finish can vary slightly between production runs, which is part of why installers blend from multiple boxes as they go rather than installing box by box.

Where the coverage figures come from

Carton coverage is not standardized, and the manufacturer's own instruction is to read your carton rather than assume — Pergo's Project Checklist says so directly, and tells readers to ask a Pergo representative if the carton itself doesn't state it. Pergo alone ships cartons at 17.18, 19.63, 19.76, and 22.17 sq ft depending on style; a single manufacturer's own lineup already spans that range. It varies across manufacturers too — Mohawk's RevWood Elderwood, for instance, covers 16.93 sq ft per carton. The box-coverage field on this calculator is editable for exactly that reason: it's the feature, not a caveat. NWFA is cited here for the calculation method and as the standards body manufacturers defer to for installation practice — Pergo's 15% hardwood waste figure is attributed to NWFA guidelines by Pergo, not independently confirmed against NWFA's own published document, and is stated that way throughout this page rather than as a direct NWFA figure.

FAQ

How much laminate or LVP flooring do I need?: Find your room's area, add a waste percentage (10% is standard for a straight-lay laminate install), then divide by your box's actual coverage and round up. A 300 sq ft room at 10% waste needs 330 sq ft — at a 20 sq ft box, that's 17 boxes, but the exact count depends on your specific carton's coverage. Use the calculator above with your own numbers.
Why isn't box coverage a fixed number on this calculator?: Because it genuinely isn't fixed in the real world. Pergo's own product lineup spans 17.18 to 22.17 sq ft per carton depending on style, and other manufacturers land elsewhere — Mohawk's RevWood Elderwood covers 16.93 sq ft. Pergo's own installation guidance tells you to check the carton or ask a representative rather than assume a number, which is exactly what the editable field here is for.
How much waste should I plan for?: 10% is Pergo's figure for a straight-lay laminate or LVP installation, and it's the default here. Diagonal and herringbone layouts cut more material and run higher. An irregular room with a lot of closets, jogs, or built-ins runs higher too — every extra corner is another cut.
Does hardwood use the same waste percentage as laminate?: No. Pergo's guidance uses 10% for laminate and lists 15% for hardwood, which they attribute to NWFA guidelines rather than a figure Pergo derived themselves. If you're installing hardwood, use 15% instead of this calculator's laminate-oriented 10% default.
What's the difference between cut waste and defect culling?: Cut waste is material lost trimming full-length planks to fit against a wall or around an obstacle. Defect culling is setting aside a plank with a visible flaw — a grain mismatch, a damaged edge, a finish defect — during installation, which happens regardless of how the room is laid out. They're different causes of loss, and this calculator's single waste percentage is meant to function as a buffer for both.
Should I buy extra boxes beyond the calculated amount?: A little extra is worth keeping past the waste factor, especially for a large or oddly shaped room, or if the product is likely to be discontinued — a held-back box matches a future repair far better than a replacement bought years later from a different production run. Round up to a full extra box rather than order to the exact calculated count.