Tips on Measuring for Carpeting

 Laying a carpet is rarely a homeowner-friendly project. The tools and materials are not the problem -- they can be rented or bought. But if you are inexperienced, a professional will almost certainly install carpeting more tightly, with less visible seams, and in a small fraction of the time it would take you. Carpet installers sometimes get better prices on carpeting and padding than you can get, so doing it yourself likely won't save much money, either.                                             

 To determine a floor's square footage, multiply length times width, rounding off inches to the nearest foot. For irregularly shaped floors, divide them into individual sections, calculate the square feet in each one, and then add them together. Take the square footage and divide that by 9. that’s your square yardage. Easy!

 For stairs, measure the width of the stairway and round off inches to the nearest foot. Multiply the number of steps in the stairway with the first width measurment. This will help you determine how many yards are needed to cover the full width of the stairs and all treads and risers.

 The surest way to figure how much carpeting you need is to take a scale drawing of all the rooms to a dealer, who can determine the most efficient way to lay the carpeting.

A few tips: Carpeting is usually sold by the square yardl. Most carpeting comes in rolls of 12, or 15 feet wide. When figuring carpet for oddly shaped floors or multiple rooms, the goal is to end up with as few seams as possible. (With some types of carpeting, seams are close to invisible; with other types, seams can be unsightly.) Many carpets have a pile that faces a certain direction; when joining two pieces together with a seam, it is important they both have the pile facing in the same direction. Seams should be placed in low-traffic areas whenever possible.

Tips on Measuring for Ceramic Tile

Before you begin, measure the length and width of the tiling area. You will also need to know the size of the tiles you are using for the project.

 To estimate how many tiles your project requires, you first determine the total square feet of the tiling area. For countertops, walls, or floors, enter the length and width of the area—rounded to the nearest foot. Countertops and backsplashes require a wide variety of trim pieces that must be individually selected.

Carpet

 A carpet is any loom-woven, felted textile or grass floor covering. The term was also used for table and wall coverings, as carpets were not commonly used on the floor in European interiors until the 18th century. The hand-knotted pile carpet probably originated in Central Asia between the 3rd and 2nd millennium BC. Carpet-making was introduced to Spain in 10th century by the Moors. The Crusades brought Turkish Carpets to all of Europe, where they were primarily hung on walls or used on tables. Only with the opening of trade routes in the 17th century were significant numbers of Persian Rugs introduced to Western Europe.

 Some use the words carpet and rug interchangeably. Historically, however, some have distinguished between carpet and rug based on size (the former being larger) or use (carpets on floors, rugs on beds or on the hearth). For the sake of clarity, some textile scholars also differentiate between carpets and carpeting. In this usage, the latter are wall-to-wall and are often woven or tufted as "roll goods", most often in 12 foot widths but sometimes in up to 15 foot widths. In the real estate and home improvement industries a distinction is made between carpet (or carpeting) and rug. The former indicates a covering that is affixed to a floor and the latter a floor covering that is loose-laid, most often for decorative purposes.