What is cut-in wastage for flooring?

Why do we include cut in wastage on a flooring installation quote? This is an essential component for when we are calculating how much material we need to install. If you’ve got 100m² of floor or actual space that you want flooring installed therein, we need to actually allow for extra material. And industry standard for normal planked floor is roughly around about 10%.

You can reduce this if it’s a bigger area or if it’s a smaller area. Unfortunately you will have to include 10% or maybe a little bit more if you’re installing a technical like chevron or herringbone. We’ll have to increase this cutting in wastage to between 15 and 20%, depending on the complexity of the pattern. This is an essential component for every quote.

But please remember the installation component is based on the actual square meters you install and mustn’t charge you for the inflated volume of square meters. So your actual square meter plus your cutting wastage. They can’t charge you for that extra 10%. They can only charge you to install the actual squares, taking this extra 10% into account. If you do happen to have a few planks or boxes left over at the end of your project. Don’t worry, this is great attic stock which you can save. And if you do happen to need to do any repairs at a later date, you have spare material of the same die batch of the same production date which is going to make the repair beautiful and seamless. It’s a lot harder to now in weeks, months or years to come, to try and find a couple of spare planks which can cause a much bigger headache.

So in conclusion, when you’re trying to work out how many square meters you need for your project, measure the area length times breadth of the entire area where you want a new floor, and add 10% if it’s a normal installation, planked floor. That is how you’re going to get to an accurate number of the material you need for your project.