Loading...
Herringbone and chevron patterns look stunning — but every plank meets the wall at 45°, so the offcut math is different from a straight lay. Here's the formula, a worked example, and a way to get the exact number for your own room in seconds.
Try it with your own room →Waste percentage compares what you have to order against what actually ends up on the floor:
Waste % = (Material Ordered − Net Floor Area) / Net Floor Area × 100
Net floor area is the area you're actually covering. Material ordered is the full tiles or planks you buy, offcuts included.
Herringbone loses more of that ordered material than a straight lay. Every course meets the room boundary at 45°, so almost every perimeter piece is a diagonal cut off a full plank — and unlike a straight or 1/3-offset lay, the two halves of that diagonal cut rarely become a matching pair you can reuse elsewhere. That's why contractors commonly plan for 15–20% extra material on herringbone/chevron jobs versus roughly 5–10% on a straight lay — a rule of thumb that ignores your room's actual shape.
Illustrative example only. Real waste depends on your room's corners, doorways and chosen plank size — that's exactly the number our layout engine computes for your actual floor plan instead of a rule of thumb.
Draw your room — or drop in a photo, a BIM/IFC file, or a 3D scan — pick Herringbone as the pattern, and Autolay's free calculator computes the exact material list and waste percentage for your floor before you order anything.
Open the free calculator →