Carpet cutting efficiency

[0Floz0]

Hi,

Looking to get some fitters in to replace all the carpet upstairs. I'm trying to find a calculator to optimise the number of cuts but keep hitting pay walls. Does anyone have any tips on where to find such a calculator? Essentially some rooms aren't square so with the offcuts i'm wondering if I can do things like stairs and landing rather than buying extra and having lots of waste.

Thanks all

 

[opps]

Hi,

Looking to get some fitters in to replace all the carpet upstairs. I'm trying to find a calculator to optimise the number of cuts but keep hitting pay walls. Does anyone have any tips on where to find such a calculator? Essentially some rooms aren't square so with the offcuts i'm wondering if I can do things like stairs and landing rather than buying extra and having lots of waste.

Thanks all

Perhaps post the dimensions and a fitter might be able to help you.

With respect, I suspect that many fitters would not want to work for someone trying to do what you want to do. If they make a minor error, they may be culpable.

 

[conny]

Fitters will come and take their own measurements, (or carpet supplier will).
Tell them what your plans are and they will know the minimum they need to work with and leave a safe margin that they need for any alterations.
If they work off your measurements, they are not professionals.

 

[0Floz0]

Fitters will come and take their own measurements, (or carpet supplier will).
Tell them what your plans are and they will know the minimum they need to work with and leave a safe margin that they need for any alterations.
If they work off your measurements, they are not professionals.

Thought that might be the case. Was trying to get an idea on cost. But hoping the stairwell gaps will be plenty to cover the things such as stairs. May need a bit extra though.

 

[crazydaze]

So much to consider, if you have a floor plan we may be able to guide you.

Things to consider:

The width the carpet is available - most ranges will come 4m and 5m wide but WILL NOT colour match between mixed widths
Pile direction - all carpets have a pile direction, if you cross pile directions in different rooms, the carpets will look a different shade, if you seam carpets (cross Joins) even if it's from the same dye batch it will look a different shade. If you lay the carpet across the pile direction on stairs, the carpet will wear unevenly and shade badly.
I've yet to have a customer plan for a stair case in 30 years in the trade where the customer has planned a stair case correctly.
Allow around 10cm in length and width when planning the carpet to allow for out of true walls and/or manufacturing width tolerance and cutting length tolerance

LOADS more to consider, the above is a starting point.

Estate agent plans will be a guide only, and never have the sizes for Hall, Stairs, Landings on them, often it's hard to tell if the include/exclude cupboards and indeed it's impossible to be sure what is the width and what is the length measurement so always, ALWAYS check measure before ordering any product.

Most retailers will measure for free but won't make their plans or cutting plans available free of charge.

A carpet fitter that will be fitting the carpet would usually measure everything for you, after all, any mistakes etc will cost him time if he can't complete a job due to mis-measuring.

 

[cdbe]

I saved quite a bit of money doing this. I don't know whether it's typical but the local carpet shed made little attempt at economy - they just turned my measurements (3 beds, hsl) into big squares and rectangles. I did a bit of my own jiggery pokery and reduced the amount actually needed by nearly 1/3.
The only compromise was a 5 foot by 18" rectangular in a bedroom bay window had to run the wrong way (but it was barely noticeable).
I didn't even have enough leftover to make a door mat.

I made more savings (it was the time when you got headline cheap carpets, but free fitting if you bought their ridiculously overpriced (and obviously over measured) underlay) - I bought this elsewhere at a fraction of the price and paid a local guy to fit it.

 

[0Floz0]

So much to consider, if you have a floor plan we may be able to guide you.

Things to consider:

The width the carpet is available - most ranges will come 4m and 5m wide but WILL NOT colour match between mixed widths
Pile direction - all carpets have a pile direction, if you cross pile directions in different rooms, the carpets will look a different shade, if you seam carpets (cross Joins) even if it's from the same dye batch it will look a different shade. If you lay the carpet across the pile direction on stairs, the carpet will wear unevenly and shade badly.
I've yet to have a customer plan for a stair case in 30 years in the trade where the customer has planned a stair case correctly.
Allow around 10cm in length and width when planning the carpet to allow for out of true walls and/or manufacturing width tolerance and cutting length tolerance

LOADS more to consider, the above is a starting point.

Estate agent plans will be a guide only, and never have the sizes for Hall, Stairs, Landings on them, often it's hard to tell if the include/exclude cupboards and indeed it's impossible to be sure what is the width and what is the length measurement so always, ALWAYS check measure before ordering any product.

Most retailers will measure for free but won't make their plans or cutting plans available free of charge.

A carpet fitter that will be fitting the carpet would usually measure everything for you, after all, any mistakes etc will cost him time if he can't complete a job due to mis-measuring.

I've got a floor plan from when I purchased. The ground floor is laminate and won't be doing the bathroom. In the second floor bedroom that top right part on the picture is now an en suite so imagine there being a wall from the corner of the doorway along into the window (which i've shrunk down to a single window).

The landing measures 2.2m x 3m if you ignore the stair well. Both stair cases will be carpet.

The second floor max measurements now there is an ensuite are 4.67m x 4.25m.

 

[0Floz0]

I saved quite a bit of money doing this. I don't know whether it's typical but the local carpet shed made little attempt at economy - they just turned my measurements (3 beds, hsl) into big squares and rectangles. I did a bit of my own jiggery pokery and reduced the amount actually needed by nearly 1/3.
The only compromise was a 5 foot by 18" rectangular in a bedroom bay window had to run the wrong way (but it was barely noticeable).
I didn't even have enough leftover to make a door mat.

I made more savings (it was the time when you got headline cheap carpets, but free fitting if you bought their ridiculously overpriced (and obviously over measured) underlay) - I bought this elsewhere at a fraction of the price and paid a local guy to fit it.

Yeah I noticed underlay seemed to be quite over measured on the online calculators. Appreciate your input.

 

[crazydaze]

Yeah I noticed underlay seemed to be quite over measured on the online calculators. Appreciate your input.

as a rule, the trade will estimate underlay at the same m2 as carpet required to account for cutting wastage, same as gripper and also fitting will be charged pre m2 for the carpet that the fitter has to handle, not the net m2 of the floor space.

Your floor plan, are you looking to measure St, Land, 3 Beds, Second Stairs and Top Bedroom?

Your brief landing size, does it allow for the drop over the riser?

 

[0Floz0]

as a rule, the trade will estimate underlay at the same m2 as carpet required to account for cutting wastage, same as gripper and also fitting will be charged pre m2 for the carpet that the fitter has to handle, not the net m2 of the floor space.

Your floor plan, are you looking to measure St, Land, 3 Beds, Second Stairs and Top Bedroom?

Your brief landing size, does it allow for the drop over the riser?

Fair, I didn't think wastage was as much of an issue in underlay.

Yeah, correct on the floor plan.

The landing size factors that in yeah. The landing on the top floor is about 1.2m long including drop to the first step.

 

[crazydaze]

Fair, I didn't think wastage was as much of an issue in underlay.

Yeah, correct on the floor plan.

The landing size factors that in yeah. The landing on the top floor is about 1.2m long including drop to the first step.

I'll have a look at it a bit later for you, as you can see, there are no sizes for the landing or any of the stairs and you have a lot of winders looking at the floor plan.

As far as stairs go, whilst it's not unusual, it's also not a straight stair case. is the bottom step of the main staircase a bullnose step with one or two curved outside return edges of does the bottom step finish straight between the newel post and stringer?

 

[0Floz0]

I'll have a look at it a bit later for you, as you can see, there are no sizes for the landing or any of the stairs and you have a lot of winders looking at the floor plan.

As far as stairs go, whilst it's not unusual, it's also not a straight stair case. is the bottom step of the main staircase a bullnose step with one or two curved outside return edges of does the bottom step finish straight between the newel post and stringer?

Thanks. Sorry I put the measurement for the landing in an earlier post. Its 2.2m x 3m and the mini landing for the second floor is 1.2m x 0.86cm.

It finishes roughly straight. It doesn't come out much apart from the very bottom step for the bull nose. Which measures about 1m wide factoring in the wrap under the bull nose.

Please don't put too much effort on my part. Only looking for rough estimate so I've got a yardstick versus when I get people out to quote.

Thank you

 

[crazydaze]

Thanks. Sorry I put the measurement for the landing in an earlier post. Its 2.2m x 3m and the mini landing for the second floor is 1.2m x 0.86cm.

It finishes roughly straight. It doesn't come out much apart from the very bottom step for the bull nose. Which measures about 1m wide factoring in the wrap under the bull nose.

Please don't put too much effort on my part. Only looking for rough estimate so I've got a yardstick versus when I get people out to quote.

Thank you

I'd say looking at the sizes, you maybe looking at around 80m2 carpet.

 

[0Floz0]

I'd say looking at the sizes, you maybe looking at around 80m2 carpet.

Interesting. I worked it out to be about 65 including the stairs. I wonder where we are different in the calcs. I added 10 cm onto each length from my laser measurer for cuts.

 

[crazydaze]

Interesting. I worked it out to be about 65 including the stairs. I wonder where we are different in the calcs. I added 10 cm onto each length from my laser measurer for cuts.

View attachment 320587

That is the net floor area, not the amount of materials you need to order.

As per my previous post, you have not taken into account the widths that carpeting is supplied in, the fact that differing widths will not colour match, pile direction, wastage allowance per cut and you probably have not measured the stairs and riser drops correctly or planned any of this out on plotting paper.