How much extra flooring should I order?

It depends on the material. Around eight per cent for planks, ten to twelve for tile, fifteen for carpet from a roll, and twenty for herringbone or diagonal laying.

How do I measure a room for flooring?

Measure the longest length and the widest width, because the material has to reach the far corners. Split odd shapes into rectangles and add them up.

Why does carpet waste more than tile?

Because it comes in a fixed roll width. A room slightly wider than the roll means a whole second strip and a large offcut that cannot be used elsewhere.

What flooring is best for Dubai?

Porcelain tile and SPC vinyl handle the heat, humidity and dust best. Laminate is fine away from water, and solid wood is the hardest to keep stable here.

Do I need an expansion gap?

For any floating floor, yes. Vinyl, laminate and engineered wood all move with temperature and humidity. Without a gap around the edge the floor lifts in the middle.

Should I take off the area under wardrobes?

Only if the floor genuinely does not run underneath. Many fitters lay the whole floor, which costs more now and is much simpler if the wardrobes ever change.

Flooring Area Calculator

What you measured in

Room 1 length

Room 1 width

Room 2 length

Room 2 width

Room 3 length

Room 3 width

What you are laying

Area to take off

Built in wardrobes, a kitchen island, anything the floor does not run under.

Your answer

Order this much

38.1 m2

That is 409.9 square feet, including 12 per cent wastage.

Floor area: 34 m2
Room 1: 20 m2
Room 2: 14 m2
Room 3: 0 m2
Added for wastage: 4.1 m2

Order everything at once and from the same batch. Colour varies between production runs, and on a floor that shows.

Flooring Area Calculator for Dubai and the UAE

This tool works out how much flooring to order. You add up your rooms and pick the material, and it applies the wastage that material actually needs.

Wastage is not one number. Tile, vinyl plank, wood and carpet all waste differently, because they are cut and laid in different ways.

The answer comes in square metres and square feet, since property here is quoted in feet and materials are sold in metres.

Why each material wastes differently

The same room can need very different amounts of overage depending on what goes down.

Tiles
Cut at every edge, and the offcuts are usually too small to use. Around ten to twelve per cent for a straight lay, more for large format or diagonal.
Vinyl and laminate planks
Waste less, because the offcut from the end of one row often starts the next. Around eight per cent is enough in a simple room.
Wood
Similar to planks, plus a few boards rejected for knots or damage. Around ten per cent.
Carpet from a roll
The worst for waste, because the roll comes in a fixed width and a room that is slightly wider than the roll means a large offcut. Fifteen per cent and sometimes more.
Herringbone or diagonal
Every perimeter piece is an angled cut. Twenty per cent is realistic and it can be more in a complicated room.

Measuring properly

Errors here are expensive, because flooring is bought by the square metre and it is not cheap.

Measure at the widest point
Rooms are rarely perfectly square. Take the longest length and the widest width, because the material has to reach.
Split odd shapes into rectangles
An L shaped room is two rectangles. Work each out and add them together.
Include doorways
The floor usually continues into the door reveal, and that little strip still needs material.
Do not forget the direction
Planks and wood have a direction. A room measured one way and laid the other can waste noticeably more.
Measure every room separately
Do not add rooms together and treat them as one big rectangle. Each room is cut and finished on its own.

What flooring suits a UAE home

Heat, dust and humidity all matter here in ways they do not elsewhere.

Porcelain tile
The default for a reason. It handles heat and moisture, it does not fade, and dust wipes off it. It is also cool underfoot, which is welcome here.
Vinyl and SPC
Waterproof, quiet and warm. SPC in particular is dimensionally stable, which matters where a room goes from air conditioned to hot.
Laminate
Looks good and is cheaper, but the core swells if water gets into a joint. Keep it out of bathrooms and kitchens.
Engineered wood
More stable than solid wood in this climate, but it still moves with humidity and needs an expansion gap at every edge.
Solid wood
The hardest to keep happy here. Big humidity swings between an air conditioned room and an open door cause real movement.
Carpet
Warm and quiet, and a dust trap in this environment. Fine in bedrooms, poor anywhere that opens to outside.

The expansion gap nobody leaves

Every floating floor, meaning vinyl planks, laminate and most engineered wood, needs a gap around the edge of the room.

The reason is movement. These materials expand and contract with temperature and humidity, and in the UAE the swing between an air conditioned room and the same room with the door open on a summer day is large.

If there is no gap, the floor has nowhere to go. It pushes against the walls, and since it cannot go sideways it goes up. That is what a floor lifting in the middle of a room actually is.

The gap is covered by the skirting, so nobody ever sees it. Which is exactly why it gets left out, and why the problem appears months later when everybody has forgotten.

The same applies at doorways between rooms and where a floor runs a long distance. Large areas need an intermediate movement joint too.

When ordering, remember the gap is around the perimeter, so it does not change the material quantity. It changes whether the floor survives.

What to check before ordering

Order everything at once. Colour and shade vary between production batches, and mixing two batches on one floor is visible in daylight.

Check the batch number on every box or roll before the fitter starts, not after.

Ask what is included in the quoted area. Some suppliers quote the finished area and expect you to add wastage yourself. Others include it.

Keep the offcuts and at least a box of spare. Ranges change, and in three years the exact product may not exist.

And confirm the underlay or the levelling separately. It is a real cost and it is often quoted apart from the flooring itself.

Questions people ask

How much extra flooring should I order?: It depends on the material. Around eight per cent for planks, ten to twelve for tile, fifteen for carpet from a roll, and twenty for herringbone or diagonal laying.
How do I measure a room for flooring?: Measure the longest length and the widest width, because the material has to reach the far corners. Split odd shapes into rectangles and add them up.
Why does carpet waste more than tile?: Because it comes in a fixed roll width. A room slightly wider than the roll means a whole second strip and a large offcut that cannot be used elsewhere.
What flooring is best for Dubai?: Porcelain tile and SPC vinyl handle the heat, humidity and dust best. Laminate is fine away from water, and solid wood is the hardest to keep stable here.
Do I need an expansion gap?: For any floating floor, yes. Vinyl, laminate and engineered wood all move with temperature and humidity. Without a gap around the edge the floor lifts in the middle.
Should I take off the area under wardrobes?: Only if the floor genuinely does not run underneath. Many fitters lay the whole floor, which costs more now and is much simpler if the wardrobes ever change.

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