Carpet waste isn't plank waste

The homeowner can't decide. Plank in the bedroom, or carpet. She asks you to price both.

The room's 14 feet by 20. 280 square feet.

Plank first. You lay a row, cut the last board to fit, and the piece you cut off starts the next row. Not much goes in the trash besides the cuts at the walls and around the closet. Plenty of installers add about ten percent for a straight lay and order whole cartons.

Say a carton covers 20 square feet. 280 plus ten percent is 308. That's 15.4 cartons, and nobody sells you four tenths of a box. You order 16, which is 320 square feet.

Now carpet. Carpet usually comes 12 feet wide, and it has a nap, so every piece has to lie the same way. You can't turn a leftover piece around to fill a gap.

Run it down the 20 foot length and you need two widths to cover 14 feet. Two pieces 20 feet long. That's 40 feet off a 12 foot roll, 480 square feet, for a 280 square foot room.

Run it across the 14 foot width instead and two widths cover the 20 feet. Two pieces 14 feet long. 28 feet off the roll, 336 square feet.

Same room. Plank needs 320. Carpet needs 336 or 480, depending on which way you lay it.

Plank gets an allowance. Carpet gets a layout.

Quote both at the same waste percentage and one of them is wrong. With plank you can add a percentage and round up to the carton. With carpet you have to draw it to know.

Yardstick lays out carpet by the roll and counts plank by the carton.