Measuring for New Carpet

Measuring Rooms

Measure the length and width of the room (do not stop at the wall go all the way through the doorway).  Remember, carpet only comes in 12 or 15 foot rolls (15 foot is only on selected types), so if your room is 14 by 20 you will need to account for a seam (joining of two pieces of carpet) at the 12 foot mark.  After all the rooms are measured you can see how much extra carpet you may have and in most cases use the extra from one room to fill the extra space in another.  For instance, you have decided to replace the carpet in both your living room and dining room with the same carpet.  Your living room is 14 by 20 and your dining room is 9 by 20 so you need a total of 41 feet (this is not a typo I will explain the math).  You use that 3 feet left from the dining room to fill in the 2 feet needed in the living room.  Remember, when a professional measures your home he will add 6 inches to every room to account for uneven walls and cutting of the carpet this is the added foot above.  Here is the catch, the carpet has to roll out in the same direction when it is touching.

Stairs

Measuring for stairs is not much different from measuring other rooms in your house.  First measure the width of your stair.  Next measure the length from the back of one stair to the back of the next stair, bend your tape measure over the stair and down to the bottom, usual size is about 1’6”.  Finally count how many stairs you have.  Stairs do not need to be done in one piece of carpet.  So if your stairs are 3’0 wide by 1’6” long and you have 12 steps you will need a 4 foot 9 inch roll of carpet (because the carpet will come in a 12 foot roll).  Because most carpet is not ordered solely for stairs your salesman will use any available scraps from the other rooms being done to finish your stairs and save you money.

Please keep in mind that our professionals will come out and measure your home at no charge to you.  Feel free to ask questions because A R Kramers goal is to have educated and happy customers.