Before we detail the steps needed for you to measure your area and order your hardwood floor let me assure you that at OnlyHardwoodFloors.com we are committed to making your online ordering safe and secure.  That is why we have verisign protecting all credit card transactions.  We show the verisign logo on the purchasing page.  When you see this logo you can be assured that all credit card transactions are secure.  For more information on the verisign logo and credit card protection go to www.verisign.com

When measuring square footage for your prefinished hardwood floor, it is best to measure from baseboard to baseboard or wall to wall if no baseboard is in place. Measure from longest point in both directions. Don’t worry about odd angles as you always want to round your measurements up to the next highest foot. For example if the room measures 11'6" by 13' 6" write down 12x14.  

The most common mistake made by customers is not ordering enough wood to finish the room. Measure your closets (don’t leave those out, you’ll regret it) and in the case of kitchens measure under all major appliances for hardwood installation or they will be locked into place by 3/4" flooring.

Before ordering your hardwood floor its important to read our "Installing Your Hardwood Floor" page. You will note that the grading system on hardwood floors allows up to 5% in grading variations. This means its necessary to allow for some defects which may need to be cut away.  If you are laying your floor on the diagonal or have a large project with many parallel lines its best to allow 10% waste.  Also think to the future, down the road you may need to do a repair on an area and will need flooring on hand to make the necessary repairs.  Manufacturers do make changes in milling and stock so you won't always be able to get the same flooring.

So you have your complete measurements and your ready to order.  You will note on the bottom of the description of the product the number of square feet included in the box is in red.  Take your completed square footage of the room with the added 5-10% for waste (and any and all closets) and divide that by the square footage listed on the products description (click on prefinished hardwood floors in stock, click on individual product and it will show description). An example would be an area measured with closets to be 593 square feet.  I will add on my 5-10% for waste and  future use if necessary and come up with a final 652.3.  If I will be ordering american cherry 3/4" by 2 1/4" I will need to divide 652.3 by 19.5 and come up with 33.45 which would be the number of boxes.  The manufacturer will not break up boxes so you will need to round up again and order 34 boxes. 

Finally, check your installation specifications again.  Make sure you have the necessary products to complete the project from nails to propper sub-flooring, if you have a professional installer and are short on material of any kind you are only wasting money.  Also, make sure you are following the guidelines for correct subflooring and propper installation. Incorrect installation can void the warranty.

As always, please call us at our toll free number or contact us by email with any questions you may have.