Guide · Materials
Flooring waste percentage, and when to round up to packs
Waste is the gap between the floor you measure and the floor you have to buy. Get it too low and the installer runs short on site. Get it too high and you lose the job on price. Here is how to choose the figure and apply it in the right order.
What waste actually covers
A floating floor is laid in rows, and nearly every row ends in a cut. Some offcuts start the next row, many do not. On top of the cutting you have to allow for:
- cuts around door jambs, robe returns, pillars and angled walls;
- boards with damaged tongues or chipped corners that cannot be used;
- stagger rules, which stop the installer from reusing short offcuts close to the previous joint;
- a little stock so the installer is not stopped by one short row at the end of a job.
None of that shows on the plan. That is why a takeoff always ends with more floor than the rooms add up to.
Typical waste figures
There is no single right number, and the board size, the house shape and the installer all change it. As a starting point, many hard floor contractors work in these ranges:
| Job | Typical allowance | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Open plan house, straight lay | 5% | Long, simple runs with few cuts |
| Many small rooms, halls and robes | 7% to 10% | More end cuts and short pieces |
| Angled walls, bay windows, curves | 10% or more | Shaped cuts produce offcuts that cannot be reused |
| Herringbone, chevron or diagonal lay | Well above a straight lay | Every board meets the wall at an angle; follow the manufacturer's guidance |
The best figure is your own. If your installers keep coming back with more than a pack left over, your waste is generous. If they are ringing for stock, it is too tight. Track it for a dozen jobs and set the figure from what you see.
Apply waste to the total, then round up once
The order matters. The method that matches what you will actually order is:
- Add up every room, plus doorway, cabinet and recess allowances.
- Add the stair product, with its own extra allowance (see below).
- Add the waste percentage to that total.
- Divide by the pack size and round up to a whole pack.
- Add a spare pack if that is your practice.
- Price the area of the packs you will buy.
Rounding each room to packs separately and then adding them up over-orders on every job, because every room carries its own part pack. Rounding once, on the total, keeps the order honest.
The hybrid flooring calculator runs these steps for you: enter the rooms and it rounds once, on the total.
A worked example
Example only
The areas, pack size and rate below are made up to show the arithmetic.
A house measures 71.24 m² of hybrid, including all allowances, with no stairs. The selected range comes in packs of 2.21 m². Here is how the waste figure changes the order:
| Waste | Area with waste | Packs | Area bought | At $72 / m² |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5% | 74.80 m² | 34 | 75.14 m² | $5,410.08 |
| 7% | 76.23 m² | 35 | 77.35 m² | $5,569.20 |
| 10% | 78.36 m² | 36 | 79.56 m² | $5,728.32 |
| 5% plus a spare pack | 74.80 m² | 35 | 77.35 m² | $5,569.20 |
Each step up in waste adds one pack here, about $159 on this job. That is the trade-off in plain numbers: a tighter figure wins on price, and a looser one protects the job on site. Notice also that 5% plus a spare pack lands on the same order as 7%. Pick whichever way of expressing it is clearer to your team, but do not do both by accident.
Board size and room shape change the figure
Two houses with the same area can need different waste. Long, wide planks leave longer offcuts at the end of each row, which can often start the next row in a big open room but not in a narrow hall or a robe. A plan with many small rooms, short passages and robes therefore wastes more than one large open plan space, even with the same board.
Direction matters too. Boards are usually laid along the longest dimension or towards the main light, and running a hall the other way to suit the living area can add cuts. When you set a single waste figure for your business, base it on the houses you quote most. Keep a higher figure for the plans that clearly do not fit it, such as a house with many angled walls, and write that on the quote so the builder can see why.
Stairs need their own allowance
Stairs waste far more product than flat floor, because each tread, riser and nosing is cut from a full board and the offcuts rarely fit the next step. A common approach is to add a large extra allowance to the stair product only, for example 50%, and add the result to the floor total before the normal waste is applied.
For example, 14 steps measured at 7.0 m² of stair product become 10.5 m² with a 50% stair allowance. That 10.5 m² joins the floor total, and the normal 5% waste then applies to everything. The stairs guide explains how to measure the 7.0 m² in the first place.
Should you add a spare pack?
Some contractors add one spare pack to every hard floor quote so that nobody runs out on the last row. Others leave it to the waste percentage. Arguments for a spare pack:
- a second delivery for one pack costs more in time than the pack itself;
- a later batch of the same colour can differ slightly in shade;
- a pack left with the homeowner is useful for repairs.
The argument against is price. On a competitive builder tender, one pack can be the difference. Whichever you choose, make it a rule rather than a decision on every quote.
Carpet is different
Carpet is not bought in packs. It comes off a roll of fixed width, and the waste depends on how each room's width fits the roll. The carpet lineal metres guide covers that calculation.
Outside Australia
In the US and Canada, hard flooring is usually sold by the carton with coverage in square feet. The arithmetic is the same: total the area, add waste, divide by the carton coverage and round up. A 2.21 m² pack is about 23.8 sq ft (1 m² is 10.764 sq ft). In the UK and Ireland, packs are generally sold by the square metre, as in Australia.
How Squaro handles waste
In Squaro you set your waste percentage, pack size, stair allowance and whether to add a spare pack once, in your rules. Every quote then follows the same order described above: total area, stair allowance, waste, rounding up to whole packs, then your rate. Each quote line shows the area, the packs and the area bought, so the estimator can see exactly how the figure was reached. See flooring quoting software for the full list of rules.
Related reading
- How to quote flooring from builder plansThe full method, from the builder's pack to a priced quote, with a worked hybrid example.
- How to measure stairs for hybrid flooringTreads, risers, nosing, landing steps and box steps, with a worked pricing example.
- Carpet lineal metres and roll width, explainedWorking out carpet off a 3.66 m or 4 m roll, choosing the cut direction, and pricing what you buy.
- Flooring quoting software that prices the way you doPricing builder plans with your own rules and rates, and checking every line before it is sent.
- Hybrid flooring calculator: how many packs do I need?A pack calculator with waste, stairs and a spare pack, and the method behind it.
Quote your next plan set with Squaro
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