Guide · Takeoff
Robes, recesses and kitchen kickboards in a flooring takeoff
The big rooms on a plan are easy. The square metres that go missing are in the small places: robes measured to the shelf, fridge spaces left out, and cabinets deducted at their full depth. Each one is small. Together they decide whether the installer runs short.
Why generous beats tight
The reasoning many flooring estimators give is simple: if you quote a little more floor than you need, you sell a few more metres and lose nothing if some comes back. If you run short, there is a second delivery, a crew waiting, possibly a shade mismatch between batches, and a builder asking why. Every rule in this guide leans towards making sure the floor is there.
Robes: floor to the door line
Built-in robes on a builder plan are usually shown with a robe depth, often marked with a figure such as RB 600 or RB 510, and a shaded shelf or hanging rail inside. The floor in a robe runs from the back wall to the line of the sliding doors. So the robe floor is:
Robe depth (the RB figure) × robe length
Not the shaded shelf. The shelf is narrower than the robe and sits above the floor.
The shelf mistake is common because the shaded area is the most visible thing inside the robe on the drawing. It always produces a short measure.
Example only
Three robes in hard floor rooms, measured both ways. Sizes are made up.
| Robe | Length × robe depth | To the door line | Shelf only (450 deep) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Robe 1 | 2.4 × 0.60 | 1.44 m² | 1.08 m² |
| Robe 2 | 1.8 × 0.60 | 1.08 m² | 0.81 m² |
| Robe 3 | 1.8 × 0.51 | 0.92 m² | 0.81 m² |
| Total | 3.44 m² | 2.70 m² |
Measuring to the shelf loses 0.74 m² across three robes, which is a third of a pack on a typical hybrid range. On a two storey house with five or six robes the shortfall can be well over a square metre.
Walk-in robes are different: measure them as rooms, wall to wall. Some contractors floor robes to the back wall instead of the door line for certain builders; whichever you do, apply it the same way on every job for that builder.
Robe doors also raise the question of trims. If the robe tracks go in before the floor, each robe door needs a trim either side. See the trims and transitions guide.
Recesses: fridge, dishwasher and bar fridge
The spaces left in the joinery for a fridge, a dishwasher and a bar fridge are floored. Appliances are usually installed after the floor, and the homeowner will expect the floor to run under them. On the plan these show as gaps in the cabinet run, often labelled FR, DW or BAR FR, and the joinery drawings give their widths.
Two common mistakes:
- deducting the whole cabinet run, gaps included, so the recesses are lost;
- leaving out a bar fridge recess in a butler's pantry or family room, because it is shown only on the joinery elevation.
Kitchen cabinets and the kickboard recess
Kitchen base cabinets stand on legs behind a kickboard, and the kickboard sits back from the face of the cabinet. In many kitchens that recess is somewhere around 8 to 10 cm. A floating floor laid after the cabinets runs into that recess, up to the kickboard.
So when you take cabinets out of the kitchen area, take them out 10 cm less deep than the plan shows. The same rule applies to laundry benches, study benches and island benches. Two equivalent ways to apply it:
- Deduct the cabinets at their plan depth minus 0.1 m, multiplied by the length of each run.
- Measure the clear floor in front of the cabinets and add a 0.1 m strip along each run.
Both give the same answer. Pick one and use it every time.
A worked kitchen
Example only
The kitchen, cabinet sizes and recess depth are made up to show the method. Check the joinery drawings for the real kickboard recess.
A kitchen measures 4.8 m by 3.6 m wall to wall, or 17.28 m². Along the back wall is a 4.8 m run of 600 mm deep cabinets, which includes a 0.9 m fridge space and a 0.6 m dishwasher space. There is a 1.8 m return of 600 mm cabinets, and an island bench 2.4 m by 0.9 m with a kickboard recess on all four sides.
| Item | Plan footprint | Deduct |
|---|---|---|
| Back run cabinets: 4.8 m less fridge and dishwasher spaces = 3.3 m | 1.98 m² | 3.3 × 0.5 = 1.65 m² |
| Return: 1.8 m | 1.08 m² | 1.8 × 0.5 = 0.90 m² |
| Island: recess on all sides | 2.16 m² | 2.2 × 0.7 = 1.54 m² |
| Total deducted | 5.22 m² | 4.09 m² |
The kitchen floor is 17.28 − 4.09 = 13.19 m². Deducting the full plan footprint would have given 12.06 m², which is 1.13 m² short, about half a pack of floor in one room. And because the fridge and dishwasher spaces were taken out of the run, both are floored.
What to look for on the joinery drawings
The floor plan shows cabinets as outlines, but the joinery or cabinetry drawings show what actually sits on the floor. Before you finalise a kitchen or laundry, check:
- the depth of the kickboard recess, if it is drawn or noted;
- which spaces in each run are open appliance spaces rather than cabinets;
- whether an island has a kickboard on every side, or a seating overhang with end panels to the floor;
- whether tall pantry or fridge surround cabinets stand on the floor or on a plinth.
If the joinery drawings are not in the pack, your standard recess rule is a sensible default. Note it on the quote so any difference on site is easy to explain.
Other small spaces that go missing
- Passages and nooks joining floored rooms, which the selections rarely name.
- Linen and broom cupboards opening off a hall.
- Under-stair storage, when it opens off a floored room.
- The floor under each doorway, usually a 10 cm strip across the opening.
How Squaro handles them
Squaro lists each robe as its own space, floored to the sliding door line from the robe depth on the plan when you have that rule on, or to the back wall when you do not. Cabinet runs and recesses are read as separate items with their lengths, widths and the room they stand in, and your under-cabinet allowance is applied to each run. Each item shows the sheet it was read from, so you can see, and change, every adjustment before the quote goes out. The flooring takeoff software page has the full list of what it reads.
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.
- Flooring trims and transitions at doorwaysFinding every opening that needs a trim, and pricing trims per item or per metre.
- The flooring quote checklist: what to check before you sendDocuments, scope, measurements, materials, trims, extras and wording, checked in a few minutes.
- Flooring takeoff software that reads the builder's plansHow Squaro reads plans and selections and measures every space from the printed dimensions.
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