Ordering luxury vinyl plank
Here the flooring calculator starts on vinyl plank, laid diagonally. Switch the layout to straight for a standard installation. Enter each room and the carton’s coverage in square feet (or m²), and the order comes back as full cartons, allowance included.
Vinyl plank makers publish their waste figures in their installation guides. LifeProof’s instructions and Daltile’s ProSeries rigid core guide use the same words: add 10% to the square footage for standard installations “to account for cuts”, and 15% for diagonal installations. The calculator switches between the two when you change the layout, and you can type your own figure over either.
Straight vs diagonal
Below the FAQ, a comparison lists six common room sizes in both layouts. On a 280 sq ft room, the difference between 10% and 15% is 14 sq ft, often one extra box. If you’re undecided about the layout, compare both before you order. For a whole floor, add each room, hallway and closet as its own area: the boxes are worked out on the total, so part boxes from one room count towards the next.
Price
Enter what the shop charges a carton or a square foot. Because you can’t buy part of a carton, the total includes the planks left over in the final one.
Vinyl plank to order, straight vs diagonal
Floor area plus 10% for a standard installation or 15% for diagonal, and the boxes at 20 sq ft per box.
| Room | Floor | Straight, +10% | Diagonal, +15% |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 × 10 ft | 100 sq ft | 110 sq ft · 6 boxes | 115 sq ft · 6 boxes |
| 12 × 12 ft | 144 sq ft | 158.4 sq ft · 8 boxes | 165.6 sq ft · 9 boxes |
| 12 × 15 ft | 180 sq ft | 198 sq ft · 10 boxes | 207 sq ft · 11 boxes |
| 14 × 20 ft | 280 sq ft | 308 sq ft · 16 boxes | 322 sq ft · 17 boxes |
| 16 × 20 ft | 320 sq ft | 352 sq ft · 18 boxes | 368 sq ft · 19 boxes |
| 20 × 25 ft | 500 sq ft | 550 sq ft · 28 boxes | 575 sq ft · 29 boxes |
Sources, checked September 2026: LifeProof, Vinyl Plank Installation Instructions; Daltile, ProSeries rigid core installation guide; Armstrong Flooring, Estimating.