Free carpet calculator for room square footage, carpet rolls to order, and linear feet at your roll width. Add waste for pattern match and seaming.
Typical roll: 12 ft wide × 75 ft long (900 sq ft) · 10% waste for bedrooms
Quick answer: carpet to order = length × width × (1 + waste%), then ÷ 9 for square yards. A 12 × 14 ft bedroom is 168 sq ft; with 10% waste that is 184.8 sq ft (20.53 sq yd), or about 15.4 linear feet of 12 ft wide carpet.
12×14 ft · 12 ft roll
15×20 ft · 12 ft roll
4×24 ft runner
Carpet is priced by the square foot or square yard but manufactured in wide rolls, usually 12 ft wide, with 13 ft 6 in and 15 ft widths also made. This calculator converts your room into an order area, then expresses it three ways: square yards for pricing, linear feet off the roll, and whole rolls.
The calculator's default bedroom is 12 × 14 ft with a 12 ft roll and 10% waste:
The linear-feet result is an area equivalent. In practice an installer cuts full-width pieces called drops, and every drop is as long as the room plus a few inches of trim. Take a 15 × 20 ft room. The calculator shows 27.5 lin ft of 12 ft goods. Running two drops across the 15 ft direction needs 2 × 15 = 30 lin ft (360 sq ft) and leaves one seam. On a 15 ft wide roll, a single 20 ft drop covers the room with no seam, but that is 300 sq ft of carpet with no room for trim. Use the calculator to budget, then ask your installer for a seam diagram before you order.
Order area includes 10% waste. Linear feet assume a 12 ft roll and are area equivalents, not a cut list.
| Room size | Floor area | Order area (+10%) | Square yards | Linear ft @ 12 ft |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 × 10 ft | 100 sq ft | 110 sq ft | 12.22 | 9.2 |
| 10 × 12 ft | 120 sq ft | 132 sq ft | 14.67 | 11.0 |
| 12 × 12 ft | 144 sq ft | 158.4 sq ft | 17.60 | 13.2 |
| 12 × 14 ft | 168 sq ft | 184.8 sq ft | 20.53 | 15.4 |
| 12 × 16 ft | 192 sq ft | 211.2 sq ft | 23.47 | 17.6 |
| 14 × 16 ft | 224 sq ft | 246.4 sq ft | 27.38 | 20.5 |
| 15 × 20 ft | 300 sq ft | 330 sq ft | 36.67 | 27.5 |
Multiply room length by width in feet, then add about 10% for waste and seams. A 12 × 14 ft bedroom is 168 sq ft, or 184.8 sq ft with 10% waste, which is 20.53 square yards.
A 12 × 12 ft room is 144 sq ft, which is exactly 16 square yards. With 10% waste the order is 158.4 sq ft, or 17.6 square yards.
Most broadloom carpet in the U.S. is made 12 ft wide, and some styles are also offered in 13 ft 6 in or 15 ft widths. Wider rolls can cover larger rooms without a seam, so check which widths your chosen style comes in.
About 10% is a common allowance for a plain carpet in a rectangular room. Rooms with angles, multiple seams, or a patterned carpet that must be matched often need 15% or more; your installer's seam diagram gives the exact figure.
Installers order whole drops cut to room length plus trim, so leftover strips along one side are paid for even if unused. A 15 × 20 ft room on a 12 ft roll needs about 30 lin ft of carpet, while pure area math says 27.5 lin ft.
How we built this calculator: results use the standard volume, area, and coverage formulas shown on this page, with typical U.S. material densities, bag yields, and waste factors that you can override. Written and checked by the YardsCalculator editorial team. Last reviewed: October 2026.
Last updated: May 27, 2026