Remember to measure into the door recesses - if you just measure wall to wall you'll be a bit short. Most carpet places will come and measure up for you if you ask though.
Yep. You need a tape measure, a pencil a ruler and a piece of paper.
1. Look carefully at the room and draw the floor shape on the paper. It does not have to be an accurate scale drawing, but it must look approximately like the real room shape.
2. Draw lines on the drawing to separate the room plan into even blocks: Sort of thing I mean is this:
That is supposed to be a room with a main area and an oblong recess. The dots are not a wall, they are how the diagram divides the room up into blocks, or boxes.
3. Now measure each block of the real room, and write the measurements of each side of each block on the diagram.
For example the main room area might be 8 metres by 5 metres and the smaller recess might be 4 metres by 1 metre.
4. The area of each box is obtained by multiplying together the length and breadth, so the main room area in the example would be 6*5 = 30, and the recess would be 4*1=4. Therefore the total floor area would be 34 square metres. The method works nicely for any room with any number of recesses, the trick is to draw the diagram and then think about how you will divide it on the diagram into blocks for measurement.
Two minor snags arise, if for example there is a curved bay window, and a curved front fireplace hearth. I'd draw each bit as though they were oblong, measure the oblong edges, multiply them togather and then knock off about a third to estimate the area of the actual part.
This is actually an interesting bit of geometry to do accurately, because in the case of the bay window the part of the area which is inside the curve is to be carpeted, and in the case of the fire hearth the part inside the curve is not to be carpeted. The calculation I suggest will do it mear as necessary.
Note here for you experts: if you are measuring for a proprietary floor covering (lino to oldies) if you dislike beading at the edges, you might instead have to remove a skirting board and replace it when the lino is laid so the measurement for lino is that bit bigger. Fun aint it?
Darn it the thing shows wronbg : the recess is supposed to stick out of the room at the right or left, not into it. Never mind, I hope it explains it OK.
John's method will quite accurately give you the floor space of the room, but perhaps more importantly is the fact that you don't buy carpets to the nearest square metre. Carpets come in rolls of standard widths and then which ever length you need (to the nearest yard or metre). You pay for the carpet cut off the roll, this includes wastage.
Measure your room from widest points and take the dimensions to a supplier and they will give you your options (e.g. a 5m x 4m room would be 5m cut off a 4m wide roll of carpet).
If the room is in an 'L' shape, then they take along a diagram and dimensions and they can figure out if it's possible to lay it in two sections with a joint, not ideal, especially if there's high traffic across the joint, but a good carpet fitter will hide it well. Also worth bearing in mind that you may be able to use the wastage from a large L shape room to floor a smaller room.
.......you don't buy carpets to the nearest square metre. Carpets come in rolls of standard widths and then which ever length you need (to the nearest yard or metre). You pay for the carpet cut off the roll, this includes wastage.......
What gets me is that as you rightly say carpets are measured off standard 4 or 5m rolls so you will end up with wastage.....BUT they quote in m2 or yd2!! So if you actually measure the m2 of your room to work out the cost for yourself you will actually be paying for a whole lot more.
AND.... when you measure for wooden flooring-the type that comes in boxes with so many planks to a box-even though the price is quoted in m2 or yd2 you will end up paying for an extra box even if you only need 1 plank from it!!!!
Some carpet has a "grain". It may look odd if carpets are running in different directions where they meet in a doorway. This could affect you if you are carpetting a hallway and a long room at 90 degrees to it.
