How to Choose Carpet Roll Sizes & Save Big

In a perfect world, you would measure the dimensions of your room and buy carpet matching those dimensions. Unfortunately, the carpet world isn’t perfect.

Carpet is produced in large rolls that come in fixed widths. Possibilities for roll widths are 12 feet, 15 feet, and 13 feet 6 inches, in order of availability. Unlike the width, the length can be any number; carpet is rolled out and cut at the desired length.

The problem with fixed width carpet rollsis it leads to waste (but this creates an opportunity for you to save–see below).

To illustrate this point, let’s pretend we want to carpet a room that is 10’ by 8’, and the carpet we want is only available in 12ft rolls.

• The total square footage of the room is 80 square feet (10*8=80).
• We’ll want to order carpet to be 8’ in length (the 12ft. width will more than cover the 10ft. dimension of the room).
• This comes out to be 96 sq.ft. (12*8=96) with 16 sq.ft. of waste (96-80).

Take a moment to write down this example if you need to—it’ll help you understand the concept.

For the math geeks (details on why you usually have to buy more carpet than you need due to roll sizes)

Some people have asked me, “In the example above, you need 80 square feet of carpet, so you could take 80 (the square feet needed) and divide it by 12 (the fixed length of the roll) to get 6.8 feet. If you cut the carpet at a length of 6.8 square feet, you’d have exactly enough carpet and no waste.”

This is true but it would make your room look like a disaster. The installer would have to cut the carpet in a bunch of patches, giving your room a bunch of noticeable seams. Not to mention the amount of extra time that would take the installer, would likely negate any savings on the carpet.

I want no seams. Can I pull it off?

If your room’s length OR width (doesn’t have to be both) is less than 12 feet, you won’t have any seams.

If your room’s length OR width is 12 to 15 feet, it’s possible to have no seams but will take a little more work. Remember, carpet rolls also come in 15 feet. Ask your installer or retailer if this is an option. If no seams is very important to you, you might be better off what carpets come in 15 foot rolls before you pick the carpet.

If your room is over 15 feet, you’re out of luck on no seams. But good news: a good installer can make it difficult to determine whether you have seams or not.

How to choose carpet roll sizes & save $1,000 (an extreme example of how roll size can make a difference in what you pay)

So now you understand why carpet installers have to order more carpet than square footage of your home. Typically to get the job done right, carpet installers require that you order 10-20% more square feet than what the carpeted rooms measure. This means you are paying 10-20% more than what you would pay in a “perfect world” scenario.

The bad news is there’s never a “perfect world” scenario. The good news is, although you can’t remove all of the waste, you can eliminate a good portion of it. You do this by strategizing what roll size to choose. Let me give you an easy example:

I’ll use the name Tim. Tim has an average sized home (2300 square feet) and needs 1800 square feet of it carpeted. All rooms are 15 feet wide and their lengths vary. He’s chosen a nylon Berber carpet. The carpet costs $3 per square footfor a grand total of$5400 before the 20% istacked on.The extra 20%required adds$1080 (5400*20%=1080) to the total.

When Tim is about to check out, he realizes that the retailer is using a 12-foot roll. Lucky for Tim, he used to be a carpet installer, and he knows to ask if the carpet comes in a 15-foot role. The salesman checks with his manager and says that it is possible to order from the 15-foot roll.

Tim’s excited because he knows, not only will he not have to worry about seams in his carpet, but he also just saved $1080 with one simple question.

Not every story is as perfect as Tim’s

We tried to make Tim’s story an average one, but some things had to be exaggerated to get the point across. You will always have to have some amount of carpet “waste” for a few reasons.

The first is that it’s very unlikely that all of your rooms are exactly the same width and all perfect rectangles.

The second is the installer will require a little extra “waste” to cover for any minor mistakes in measuring or installation.

The third reason is all 3 roll sizes are not always available. You will usually have 12’ and 15’ options but 13’6” is less common. With all of these reasons in mind, you still expect to save a good percentage of money by choosing the roll width wisely.

Confused? A good installer can help

Now, you’ve seen how important roll size is to your carpet purchase.

But can you determine what roll size you need?

If you’re flooring project is as easy as Tim’s (the example above), there’s no question you’ll be able to pick the correct roll size.

But many cases aren’t so simple.

You may have a room with less straight-forward dimensions such as 22’ by 29’. Or your room is 12 feet wide but has an irregular cutout or slanted wall toward the end.

The good news is that a carpet installer (a good one at least) should be able to figure this out for you. Good carpet installers will diagram how the carpet can be installed with any available roll size to save you money and avoid showing carpet seams.

How do you find a good installer? I’ve got an article on what to look for in installers, but you can also get alsoclick here to get free quotes from pre-qualified installers in your area.

Captain’s tips on what you should do now:

Figuring out carpet roll sizes is a step only a small percentage of carpet shoppers take. Which tells me you’re a saavy shopper. Here a few things you should consider doing next:

1. Find a pre-qualified installer in your zip code byclicking here
2. Or check out these tips on finding a good installer
3. Check out our carpet buying guide to get a complete list of 14 things you should do before buying carpet

Any questions on carpet roll sizes? Feel free to leave a comment below.