How much baseboard or skirting board do you need? Estimate whole boards from your room perimeter, or enter individual cut blanks to plan how they fit into stock lengths. Include openings, cutting allowances, existing boards and material cost.
How to use the baseboard calculator
- Choose Quick room estimate for an initial shopping quantity, or Individual cut blanks when you have measured each piece.
- Select a length unit. In quick mode, enter room length and width or your measured total. Subtract excluded spans and add any extra runs only if they are not already included.
- For a cutting plan, enter one blank length and quantity per group. Choose the cutting allowance unit, then enter saw kerf, total end trim per board and any extra length needed on each blank.
- Enter the actual length of the boards you will buy. Add matching full boards you already have. In cutting mode, you can also request extra whole spare boards.
- Optionally enter a price per board, then select Calculate baseboards. Read the new purchase count and, in cutting mode, the board-by-board layout.
Use decimal numbers with a point or comma, without fractions or thousands separators. For one eighth of an inch, enter 0.125 in. Changing units converts related values. Currency selection does not change the price. Edit any input and calculate again. Load example uses the currently selected planning mode.
How to measure a room for skirting boards
For a simple rectangle, measure the room length and width along the walls. The perimeter is twice the length plus twice the width. For an irregular room, measure each run and add them together instead. Include the extra edges around alcoves, chimney breasts and projections wherever skirting will actually be installed.
Subtract the horizontal spans where no baseboard will be fitted, such as doorways or sections behind fixed units that will remain without trim. Measure the actual excluded span between the planned ends of the baseboard. Door casing can affect those endpoints. Ordinary windows above the baseboard usually do not remove a floor-level run.
If you have already measured only the finished runs, use their sum as the measured total and leave deductions and extra runs at zero. This avoids subtracting a doorway twice. Measure each room separately or add measured runs from several rooms when they all use the same product and stock length.
For cut blanks, measure every piece individually. The blank must contain the entire final piece, including any mitre long points and joint allowances. Inside corners may use a coped or scribed joint, while other connections need different details. The length between two wall points is not automatically the required blank length. Check your chosen profile and installation method before final cutting.
Baseboard quantity formula
Rectangular room perimeter = 2 × (room length + room width).
Net run length = perimeter − excluded spans + additional runs.
Planning length = net run length × (1 + allowance percentage ÷ 100).
Estimated full boards = round the planning length divided by the stock board length up to the next whole board. New boards to buy = the estimated full boards minus matching full boards already available, with a minimum of zero.
This is a quantity estimate based on total length. It cannot show whether a particular long piece fits or whether the offcuts can be used for the remaining pieces. Use the cutting mode to check an individual list.
How the cutting plan works
The planner first adds your optional extra length to each entered blank. It removes the total end trim from every stock board, sorts blanks from longest to shortest, and places each blank on the board where it leaves the smallest available remainder. If none fits, it starts another board.
It allows one saw kerf between neighbouring blanks. When an offcut remains at the end, the separating cut uses up to one more kerf from that remainder. A blank that exactly uses the available full length does not need an extra separating cut at that end. The offcut shown is what remains after this modeled cut loss and your end trim. End trim is a total reservation for both ends, including the cuts needed to prepare them.
The arrangement reuses space within each board, but this is a heuristic and may not find the fewest possible boards. It uses one stock length and one profile, without angled nesting. The rectangles in the diagram represent full blank envelopes, not finished mitred shapes. Their extra material must cover your actual joint details. Your installer may improve the sequence or require a different arrangement.
If a blank is longer than the usable stock, the calculator stops and identifies the group. Choose a longer board or decide where a suitable joint should go, then enter those segments with their own allowances. The tool never adds an unplanned join to make a result fit.
Example: a 4 m by 3 m room
A rectangular room measuring 4 m by 3 m has a 14 m perimeter. If 0.9 m will have no baseboard and no extra runs are needed, the net length is 13.1 m. With a chosen 10% allowance, the planning length is 14.41 m.
For 2.4 m stock boards, 14.41 ÷ 2.4 is about 6.0042. Rounded up, that is 7 boards, providing 16.8 m. With one matching full board already available, buy 6 new boards. At an illustrative EUR 12 per board, the new purchase costs EUR 72. This is an overall estimate, not a cut list for four unbroken walls.
Example: fit six cut blanks into three boards
Suppose your prepared blank list is two pieces of 1.5 m, two of 0.8 m and two of 0.5 m. Use 2.4 m stock, 10 mm of total end trim per board, a 3 mm saw kerf and no extra length per blank. Each board has 2.39 m available before separating cuts.
The plan puts a 1.5 m and a 0.8 m blank on each of the first two boards. Each pair uses 2.303 m including the cut between the blanks. Separating the remaining offcut consumes another 3 mm, leaving an 84 mm offcut on each board. The third board holds the two 0.5 m blanks and leaves a 1.384 m offcut after its cuts.
The plan uses 3 boards: 5.6 m of blanks, 30 mm of end trim, 18 mm of modeled saw loss and 1.552 m of offcuts. These sum to the 7.2 m supplied. One existing matching board reduces the new purchase to 2 boards, or EUR 24 at the illustrative EUR 12 price. The quick mode percentage is not added to this cutting example. Add a whole spare board if you want one.
How much extra baseboard should I buy?
There is no single allowance that suits every room. The initial 10% in quick mode is a starting input you can change. Corners, irregular walls, defects, mistakes, available lengths and whether you can reuse offcuts affect the order. A percentage alone cannot ensure that long uninterrupted pieces fit.
In cutting mode, use measured blank allowances and kerf, then add any whole spare boards you want. Do not add the same cutting or fitting allowance twice. A large total offcut length does not mean every leftover is useful for your next piece.
Can I calculate baseboards from square feet or square metres?
Floor area alone is not enough. A 4 m by 4 m room and a 2 m by 8 m room both have 16 m² of floor area, but their perimeters are 16 m and 20 m. Baseboards are bought by linear length or whole board, so you need wall runs or room length and width.
Should I subtract doors, cabinets and windows?
Subtract only the runs where no board will be installed. A cabinet may hide an existing baseboard, replace it, or have separate plinth trim. Choose according to your actual plan. Do not subtract the width of a window that sits above a continuous baseboard. In cutting mode, enter only the required blanks; door deductions from quick mode are ignored.
Can I use existing offcuts or mixed stock lengths?
The existing-board field accepts full boards of the same stock length and profile, usable under the same end-trim assumptions. Do not add several short offcuts together and call them one full board. This planner does not pack pieces into mixed stock lengths or enter separate offcut inventory.
If a suitable offcut definitely supplies one planned piece, set it aside and remove that piece from the new cutting list. Check its complete blank length and end condition first. Calculate different profiles, heights, finishes or stock lengths separately.
What does the cost include?
Cost is the number of new whole boards multiplied by your entered board price. Existing boards are not charged again. Cutting mode includes any extra spare boards in the planned total before deducting matching existing boards. The result excludes labour, fixings, adhesive, caulk, paint, delivery and taxes not included in your entered price.
If a shop sells only packs, check its pack quantity and round your final order to those packs yourself. If the price is per metre or foot, multiply it by the stock board length in the same unit before entering the price per board.
Check the product and installation method
Use the supplier's actual stock lengths and current fitting instructions. Intrim's room measuring guide gives an example of recording skirting runs and adding a purchasing allowance. Its measuring convention already includes some waste, so avoid applying those additions twice when entering your own net runs here. Intrim's skirting installation guide illustrates scribed joints and the measurement details they require.
Planning the rest of the room? Use our flooring calculator, paint calculator and sealant calculator. The generated project photo is illustrative and does not specify a product, joint detail or installation method.
