Baseboard calculator: how much baseboard do I need?
The perimeter minus the door openings, split wall by wall into whole boards, with the offcut, the inside corners, the end caps and the joints.
Baseboard calculator
Each wall is cut from whole boards; an offcut moves on to the next wall when it is long enough.
the gap between the door casings, where no baseboard runs
the length the baseboard is sold in
You need
Enter the length and width of a room.
Baseboard needed by room size
Rectangular rooms with one door of 36 in, in boards of 8 ft:
| Room | Baseboard | Boards of 8 ft | Offcut |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 × 10 ft | 37 ft | 5 | 3 ft |
| 12 × 10 ft | 41 ft | 6 | 7 ft |
| 14 × 12 ft | 49 ft | 8 | 15 ft |
| 16 × 13 ft | 55 ft | 8 | 9 ft |
| 18 × 14 ft | 61 ft | 9 | 11 ft |
| 20 × 16 ft | 69 ft | 9 | 3 ft |
Computed wall by wall with the calculator above. No spare board included.
Worked example: a 16 × 13 ft room with one door
- Perimeter 2 × (16 ft + 13 ft) = 58 ft, minus one door opening of 36 in: 55 ft of baseboard.
- 55 ft ÷ 8 ft = 6.9, but cut wall by wall the walls take 8 boards (64 ft): the pieces left over from the long walls are too short for the next wall.
- 9 ft of that is offcut.
- 4 inside corners, 2 end caps at the door and 3 joints where a wall is longer than one board.
- Add one spare board for a miscut.
Laying the floor first? The laminate flooring calculator works out the packs, and the guide how to install baseboards covers the expansion gap, the corners and the fixing.
Frequently asked questions
- How much baseboard do I need for a 12 × 10 ft room?
- About 41 linear feet with one 36 in door: the perimeter of 44 ft minus the 3 ft opening. In 8 ft boards that is 6 boards (48 ft), with 7 ft of offcut and 3 joints. Add one spare board for a miscut.
- How do I calculate baseboard?
- Add up the length of every wall, 2 × (length + width) in a rectangular room, and take off the width of each door opening, because no baseboard runs across a threshold. Then go wall by wall: a wall longer than one board needs a joint, and an offcut only counts if another wall can use it. The calculator does this cut by cut, with a 5 mm (3/16 in) saw cut between two pieces from one board.
- How many baseboards should I buy?
- Not simply the linear feet divided by the board length. The 16 × 13 ft room with one door needs 55 ft, which is 6.9 boards of 8 ft, but the walls take 8 boards, because the pieces left over from the long walls are too short for the next wall. Split wall by wall, then round up, and keep one spare board.
- Do I need corner pieces, end caps and connectors?
- That depends on the baseboard. Wood baseboard is cut at an angle in the corners and needs no extra parts; plastic and many pre-painted systems use inside corners, outside corners, end caps and connectors. A rectangular room has 4 inside corners, each door opening gives 2 ends, and each joint between two boards takes one connector. Outside corners, around a pillar or a wall that juts out, come on top.
- Do longer boards mean less waste?
- Fewer boards, not always less offcut. The 16 × 13 ft room with one door takes 8 boards of 8 ft with 9 ft of offcut, or 5 boards of 12 ft with 5 ft of offcut, 3 joints either way. The most offcut is left where a wall is just over one board long.
Read the baseboard off your floor plan
Upload your floor plan and the free planner works out the exact packs and waste before you order.
create a layout planFigures computed with the calculator on this page: rectangular rooms, doors in the middle of a wall, a 5 mm (3/16 in) saw cut.