How many boards do I need for my floor?

For a rough figure, divide the floor area by the area of one board and add a waste allowance. For an exact count, lay the room out: the planner counts the boards used and compares them with the fewest possible.

What does fewest possible mean?

The total length of all the pieces in the layout divided by one board length, rounded up. No way of cutting those pieces from whole boards can use fewer.

Is fewest boards the same as least waste?

Not quite. A different direction or pattern changes the pieces themselves. The fewest possible is for the layout on screen, while the Less waste goal looks for the layout that wastes least overall.

Is it shown on the free preview?

No. The board count and the fewest possible come with the full plan: a one-time unlock for the room, or Pro for every room.

How many boards do you really need? See the fewest possible

A flooring estimate tells you how many boards to buy, but not whether a better cutting plan would need fewer. With a 10% allowance you never know how much is real waste and how much is padding.

Floor Optimizer counts the boards in the plan and the fewest that the same pieces could ever be cut from: the total length of every piece, divided by the board length, rounded up. When the plan matches it, no way of cutting could use fewer boards for that layout.

Count your boards

Free to try. No account needed to start.

In short: Floor Optimizer is a flooring layout planner that shows the fewest boards my floor could be cut from and how close my plan gets. It lays every board in your real room and gives you the waste, the packs to buy and a board-by-board cut list.

How it works in Floor Optimizer

Draw the room and enter your boards

Room shape, board size and pattern decide which pieces the floor needs.

Run the layout

Every board is placed and the pieces are packed onto as few boards as the joint rules allow.

Read Boards used

In the full plan, Boards used says "fewest possible" when the plan reaches the minimum, or shows the minimum when it does not.

What it handles

A real limit

The minimum is plain arithmetic on the pieces in the layout, so it is a hard limit rather than an estimate.

Why a plan can be above it

Joint rules, minimum piece lengths and the saw blade can stop two pieces sharing a board. The gap shows what those rules cost.

Waste against the leanest floor

With the Balanced look goal, the waste figure also shows how far it is above the lowest waste found for your room.

Whole packs to buy

The boards used are rounded up to whole packs, and the boards left over are shown.

What is Floor Optimizer?

Floor Optimizer is an online flooring layout planner for DIYers and flooring fitters. You draw your room or whole floor plan to your measurements, enter the boards you plan to buy and pick a laying pattern, and it places every board in your actual room shape. From that layout it works out the waste, the exact packs to buy and a board-by-board cut list, so the floor is planned before anything is bought or cut. It runs in the browser on a computer, tablet or phone.

What it is: A browser-based flooring layout planner, cut list generator and pack calculator in one.
Who it is for: Homeowners laying their own floor, and flooring fitters quoting and planning jobs.
Materials: Laminate, vinyl plank (LVT), engineered and solid wood, and other boards or tiles laid in rows or patterns.
Rooms: Any shape: rectangles, L-shapes, angled walls, bays, curves and obstacles, typed to the millimetre or 1/16 inch. A whole floor plan can be split into rooms by walls, joined by doorways.
Patterns: Straight lay, running bond, random stagger, strip plank, herringbone, chevron, basketweave and windmill.
What you get: The full layout, waste percentage, exact pack count and cost, a board-by-board cut list, and a printable PDF install pack (the full plan comes with an unlock or Pro).
Price: Free to try without an account, with the layout preview and a sample of the cut list. A one-time payment unlocks the full plan for a room; Floor Optimizer Pro is a monthly subscription for every room.

Frequently asked questions

How many boards do I need for my floor?: For a rough figure, divide the floor area by the area of one board and add a waste allowance. For an exact count, lay the room out: the planner counts the boards used and compares them with the fewest possible.
What does fewest possible mean?: The total length of all the pieces in the layout divided by one board length, rounded up. No way of cutting those pieces from whole boards can use fewer.
Is fewest boards the same as least waste?: Not quite. A different direction or pattern changes the pieces themselves. The fewest possible is for the layout on screen, while the Less waste goal looks for the layout that wastes least overall.
Is it shown on the free preview?: No. The board count and the fewest possible come with the full plan: a one-time unlock for the room, or Pro for every room.