Square footage calculator
Add up as many rooms, walls or roof sections as the job has, add the waste you know you will need, and get the number you actually order against.
Almost every material estimate starts with the same arithmetic and almost every one of them gets done on a phone calculator with the tape measure still in the other hand. Add three rooms, forget one, order short, and the job stops for a supply run that costs more than the material did.
Put each section in as a length and a width. The areas add up as you go, the waste factor gets applied on top, and if you know your price per square foot the material cost comes out at the bottom. Cuts, offcuts and the piece that goes in the dumpster are what the waste factor is for, so set it from what your trade actually loses rather than from hope.
It measures, it does not remember. A quote that carries these numbers, gets approved, becomes a job and ends up on an invoice is the part that saves the week, and that is the product rather than this page.
Questions about square footage
Measuring is simple. Ordering is where it costs you.
What waste factor should I use?
It depends on the material and the shape of the job. A simple rectangular floor wastes little. A roof with valleys and dormers, or a floor with a pattern to match, wastes a lot more. Use what your own jobs have taught you.
Does it do roof pitch?
No. Put in the actual surface you are covering. If you are working from a footprint, multiply by your pitch factor first, then enter that.
Can I use metres instead?
The arithmetic does not care. Put in metres and the total is square metres, and the price per unit follows the same rule.
Can I turn this into a quote?
Copy the number into the quote generator on this site, or price it from a saved price list in Foldrule so the material and the labor come out together.
Free tools you can use right now
- Quote generatorLine items, tax, a deposit line, and a clean page you can print or save as a PDF.
- Markup and margin calculatorTurn cost into price, and see the margin you actually kept. They are not the same number.
- Hourly rate calculatorWhat you have to charge an hour to cover your pay, your overhead and some profit.
Measured once, priced once, billed once.
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