Laminate & Vinyl Flooring Calculator (South Africa)

Work out the room's area first, length times width, then add waste for cuts and offcuts, typically 10% for a straight plank layout. Divide that by the coverage of one pack, then round up, since you can only buy whole packs. As a worked example, a 5m by 4m room, 20 m², in a straight layout at 2.22 m² a pack, needs about 10 packs once that 10% waste is added. The calculator above does this for your own rooms, and also works out the underlay, skirting and transition strips most bare tile-count calculators leave out entirely.

It varies by brand and product line, there's no single fixed number, roughly 1.8 to 2.5 m² per box for laminate and roughly 1.6 to 2.2 m² per box for SPC click vinyl are the common ranges. A box's coverage depends on the plank size and how many planks are packed per box, which is set by the manufacturer, not a standard across the industry, so always check the coverage printed on your own box rather than assuming a figure. The calculator above ships with a 2.22 m² default, editable to match your exact box.

It depends on your layout, not one flat number for every job. A straight plank layout, running in one direction square to the walls, typically needs about 10% extra for cuts and offcuts. A diagonal layout needs more, around 15%, since every edge plank is a cut rather than a whole plank. A herringbone layout needs the most, around 20%, because of the angled cuts at every wall and corner. A room with lots of corners, alcoves or obstacles to cut around should add a further 5% on top of whichever layout percentage applies. The calculator above applies the right percentage for your chosen layout automatically.

Yes, noticeably more, though it shows up most clearly once a room is big enough that rounding to whole packs doesn't hide it. Take an open-plan 48 m² room, roughly 8m by 6m: a straight layout needs about 24 packs, a diagonal layout needs about 25, and a herringbone layout needs about 26, all for the exact same floor. That difference is extra packs you pay for, which is why the calculator above builds the waste percentage into the pack count itself rather than leaving you to guess a buffer at the till.

Usually not a separate one. Most SPC (stone plastic composite) click-vinyl already ships with an attached IXPE or EVA foam backing built into the plank, so adding a separate underlay on top isn't needed, and can even affect the click-lock joint's stability or void the manufacturer's warranty. Only pad-free or commercial-grade vinyl, or a manufacturer that specifically says otherwise, needs a separate underlay. The calculator above defaults vinyl to no separate underlay for this reason, but you can switch it on if your product needs one. Click vinyl also floats directly over a concrete slab without any special prep beyond a clean, level, dry surface, unlike laminate it doesn't need a moisture-barrier underlay first since the plank itself is waterproof.

It depends on your subfloor. Laminate over a concrete slab needs a combination underlay, foam bonded to a plastic moisture membrane, since concrete carries residual moisture that plain foam won't block. Laminate over a dry timber or suspended subfloor can use plain foam underlay instead, which is cheaper. The calculator above sets the right default from your subfloor choice, and lets you override it either way.

Foam underlay is the cheapest option, roughly R30 to R50/m², fine over a dry timber subfloor. Combination underlay, with the added moisture membrane needed for a concrete slab, runs a little more, roughly R40 to R60/m². Whichever type you use, buy a bit more area than the bare room size, seams need an overlap and rolls can run short of their stated coverage in practice, the calculator above buys underlay with a 10% margin over the bare floor area for exactly this reason.

As a rule of thumb, leave a gap of at least your flooring's own thickness, with an 8mm minimum, around the whole perimeter, against skirting, door frames and any pipes, using spacers while you lay the floor. So an 8mm plank needs an 8mm gap, while a thicker 12mm plank needs a 12mm gap. This lets a floating floor expand and contract with temperature and humidity without buckling. The calculator above works this out from the plank thickness you enter, the default is 8mm for the widget's own 8mm default plank.

Yes, at every doorway or opening where the floor meets another room, another flooring type, or a different run direction, both to hide the expansion gap and to let each side move independently. Manufacturers such as SwissKrono also recommend an additional internal expansion joint, another transition strip laid partway across the floor, for any continuous run longer than roughly 8m in one direction, since a floating floor that long needs more room to move than the wall gaps alone provide. As a worked example, a long 12m by 4m open-plan room with one doorway needs 2 transition strips in total, the doorway strip plus an internal joint partway across the long run. The calculator above works this out from your own room dimensions and doorway count automatically.

South African skirting is commonly sold in 2.4m, 2.7m and 3.0m lengths, with 2.7m the most common, in MDF (Supawood) for the most economical result or solid timber for a premium finish. The board's height, commonly 90mm or 140mm, is a style choice rather than something the expansion gap dictates, either comfortably covers the small gap the floor needs to move. The calculator above lets you pick your length and works out how many lengths you need from your rooms' combined perimeter, minus your doorways, plus 10% for corner mitre cuts and offcuts.

Only if you're keeping your existing skirting boards in place. Scotia (also called quarter round) is a thinner, cheaper moulding that covers the expansion gap at the base of the wall without removing what's already there, roughly R44/m against roughly R32/m for MDF skirting itself, using the same 2.4m, 2.7m or 3.0m standard lengths. If you're replacing the skirting anyway, for example the room's being repainted or the old skirting's damaged, new skirting boards do the same job and look intentional rather than added on. The calculator above lets you switch between the two, it runs along the same wall perimeter either way so you never pay for both at once.

Both cover an expansion gap where the floor ends, but at different kinds of edge. A transition (T-bar) strip joins two same-height floor surfaces across a doorway, so foot traffic crosses both sides. An end profile, also called a reducer, finishes an edge that isn't a through-doorway, for example where the new floor meets a different flooring at an uneven height, terminates at a sliding door track, or butts up against a fixed fitting like a kitchen island. South African end profiles typically run R100 to R300 each depending on material and finish. Most rooms need zero of these, they only apply if your room has an edge like the ones described above, which is exactly why the calculator above defaults the count to zero and leaves it up to you to add.

Yes, on every step. Stair nosing is a trim with a rounded, often non-slip edge that caps the exposed front edge of each tread, both for safety, so the flooring edge doesn't chip or lift underfoot, and to hide the expansion gap at the riser. A standard aluminium stair nosing length in South Africa is 2.5m, priced around R229 a length. Each tread needs its own continuous cut, an offcut shorter than your tread width can't finish the next step, so a 2.5m length only yields as many whole treads as fit side by side, for a typical 0.9m tread that's two per length with a stranded offcut, not simply the total length divided down. The calculator above works this out from your step count and tread width so you don't come up short at the till. This assumes a straight flight of standard-width treads, get a professional assessment for winders, spiral stairs, or non-standard tread sizes.

As a July 2026 reference point using this tool's own defaults, that 5m by 4m room above, in a mid-range laminate at a straight layout, comes to roughly R7 322 in materials alone, flooring packs, underlay, skirting and transition strips, rounded up to what you'd actually buy at the till rather than a raw square-metre figure. That's before labour if you're hiring an installer, see the next question. The calculator above gives you this total from your own room sizes and prices.

Labour only typically runs R100 to R250/m² for either laminate or vinyl click systems, based on 2026 South African market rates. A full supply-and-fit quote, the installer's own materials included, runs roughly R280 to R930/m² for laminate, or roughly R500 to R800/m² for vinyl, which tends to sit in a narrower, higher band since SPC and LVT products themselves cost more than budget laminate. For that same 20 m² example room, labour only comes to roughly R2 000 to R5 000 either way, while supply and fit runs roughly R5 600 to R18 600 for laminate or roughly R10 000 to R16 000 for vinyl. An uneven subfloor needing levelling, a tricky layout, or a lot of doorways and cuts all push a quote toward the top of these ranges, always get a few written quotes rather than relying on one average figure.

It depends on the specific products you're comparing, but as a rule budget laminate is usually the cheaper material, roughly R150 to R600/m² against roughly R300 to R800/m² or more for SPC click vinyl. Vinyl tends to win back some of that gap by needing no separate underlay in most cases, while laminate almost always needs one. Vinyl is also fully waterproof and better suited to a bathroom, kitchen or scullery, where a laminate core can swell if it gets wet, which matters more than the sticker price in a wet area. The calculator above lets you price out both for your own rooms and compare the full shopping list, not just the flooring itself.

SPC (stone plastic composite) click vinyl is genuinely waterproof all the way through, the plank itself is a stone-plastic composite core, not wood fibre, so standing water doesn't make it swell or delaminate even if it's left too long. Laminate, even a product marketed as "water-resistant", has a wood-fibre (MDF/HDF) core under its wear layer, which resists everyday spills if wiped up reasonably quickly but will still swell and delaminate given enough standing water or ongoing damp, it's water-resistant, not waterproof. That's the practical reason vinyl suits a bathroom, laundry or kitchen better than laminate, not just the pattern printed on the surface.

Both are among the more forgiving DIY flooring options, since both use a floating click-lock system rather than glue or nails in most cases, no trade skill like tiling's adhesive and grout work is required. A simple, rectangular room with a level, dry subfloor is a reasonable first DIY flooring project for either material. An uneven or damp subfloor needing levelling or a moisture-barrier underlay first, a lot of doorway transitions, or a diagonal or herringbone layout are all less forgiving of a first attempt. Weigh the labour saving shown in the calculator above against your own comfort level and the tools you'd need to hire or buy.

Add each room or area as its own row in the calculator above, an L-shaped room is usually easiest to enter as two rectangles that together cover the same floor. Every room you add is summed into one net area, one perimeter for skirting, and one long-run check for transition joints, so you get one shopping list and one total cost for the whole job rather than adding up several separate calculations by hand.

Yes. It's brand-neutral, you enter your own pack coverage, price per m² and every other buying detail, so it works whether you're buying Kronotex or Balterio laminate, Leno or another SPC click vinyl range, a hardware chain's own line, or an imported product from anywhere else. Pack coverage in particular varies quite a bit by brand, roughly 1.8 to 2.5 m² a pack for laminate and 1.6 to 2.2 m² for SPC click vinyl, so always check your own box label rather than assuming the calculator's default matches exactly.