How to calculate a square meter of a board. Correct calculation of boards for the floor. Laying floorboards with your own hands How many floorboards are needed

All parameters must be specified in mm

X— Floor width.

Y- Floor length.

S1— Lag width.

S2— Thickness of the logs.

S3— Distance between lags.

O1— Width of floorboards.

O2— Thickness of floorboards.

O3— Width of the subfloor board.

O4- Thickness of the board.

R— Distance between boards.

Using an online calculator you can calculate:

• Volume of log materials;
• Calculation of floor joists: length, width and required quantity;
• Total floor area or square footage;
• Number of rows and volume of floor covering;
• Number of sheets of wood, laminate or parquet;
• Volume between joists for insulation;
• The amount of material for the subfloor.

Helpful information

Wooden flooring is made in three tiers, as shown in the figure above. At the bottom there are load-bearing logs on which rough boards will be laid, and on top there are finishing floor boards. Below we will describe the installation technology in detail.

DIY wooden floor

As a rule, this work is carried out after the end of the heating season. Since at this time, the boards will not absorb excess moisture. The weather should be dry and sunny. It is best to use unplaned boards for rough flooring. While for the final finishing layer, milled and dried boards with longitudinal grooves for ventilation are used. Boards with a curved edge for a groove connection. As a rule, each such board is pre-treated with a decorative and protective composition.

During the installation process, you must follow the requirements:

• All logs must have good stability;
• The logs are laid strictly horizontally (exception when the slope is provided for by the project);
• Ensure ventilation of the space under the floor;
• Wood moisture content should not be more than 12%.

Marking and preparing the floor surface

First of all, we mark out the room and designate the places that need to be planned in order to achieve a uniform level (taking into account the thickness of the seams and the height of the brick). To add incompressible soil, use fine crushed stone or sand with a layer thickness of up to 5 centimeters.

After this, compact the entire surface. In those places where the logs will be located, we fill in crushed stone and also compact it into the ground.

Installation of logs

As a log, you can use a wooden beam measuring 50x100 mm. According to your program results, we install the timber on an already compacted surface.

If you plan to increase this distance between the lags, then in this case you should use a larger section of the beam.

If the subfloor has a concrete floor or slabs, then we install the logs directly on the concrete. In this case, you can use a smaller cross-section of the beam, since the bending load is almost completely eliminated. The rough flooring will act as a retainer for the second tier, and therefore a section of 50x50 is sufficient.

The distance between the logs will depend on the thickness of the material being coated. For example, 60 centimeters for a milling board, 40 centimeters for covering OSB or plywood.

When the logs are installed, we move on to waterproofing the space underneath them using roofing felt or other modern material.

Rough layer

When the logs are laid, we begin to install the second level, namely “rough boards”. To do this, all end joints should be made directly in the middle of the joists. To fix the boards, we use wood screws of the required size. You can either press the rough boards against each other or nail them at short intervals. In our case, this interval is determined by the value R.

Nails should be driven towards each other at a slight angle for strong fixation.

If you are laying with milling boards, then it is not enough to press them together by hand. For this purpose, special stops and wedges or tightening devices are used.

To fix the finishing board we use nails or wood screws.

The caps of fasteners should not be higher than the surface of the board. To do this you need to go deeper by 2 millimeters. The recesses can be treated with a special putty before painting the floor.

If you use screws instead of nails, you will need to drill holes and subsequently countersink each recess.

During the installation process, a gap of 10-15 millimeters must be left between the wall and the end of the joist or the outer boards, which will subsequently be covered with a plinth. This gap will serve as a compensator during the process of thermal expansion or moisture swelling.

The flooring is ready, now it can be covered with stain or protective varnish.

Calculating the boards for the floor is an important point at the stage of renovation or construction of a house.

The board is the optimal material for a subfloor.

But before you buy it, it is important to make a careful calculation, otherwise it may happen that too many units will be purchased and a large amount of money will be spent. Those who think that if there is a shortage of coating there is always the opportunity to purchase the missing part of the material, you need to know that for a successful installation process they must be from the same batch. The most popular options for laying floors are the following types of wood: wooden beams, unedged, edged and planed boards. In each individual case, the required amount of lumber is calculated differently. This is due to the fact that each material has individual characteristics that must be taken into account during the calculation.

So, how can you make the correct calculation of the amount of lumber?

Find out the size of square meters

1. To do this, the room is conventionally divided into a rectangle; if it does not have a strict rectangular shape, then it is divided into several rectangular parts, which are then measured. The measurements are designed to find out the area of ​​the room. The following formula will help you find it out: S = a×b, where S is the area, a is the width of the room, b is its length. The result will show you the required amount of square meters of coverage that needs to be laid on the floor.
2. If the room does not have a rectangular shape, the area is calculated for each rectangle separately, after which the resulting figures must be added. For example: S = (a1×b1) + (a2×b2) + (a3×b3), where S – final area, a1, a2, a3 – width of 1, 2, 3 rectangles, b1, b2, b3 – length of 1 , 2, 3 rectangles. You can use these calculations not only when the room is not rectangular, but also if you need to calculate the total amount of material in several rooms at once.

We calculate linear meters

In order to find out how many boards are enough to cover the floor, a ready-made rule will help you:

S = a×b = width of the wooden beam × linear meters.

Finding out the number of boards it will take to cover the floor is quite easy. To do this, you will need to use the following calculation: S = a×b×number of lumber.

Or with ready-made calculations:

Quantity=Sum of linear meters/b

A wooden house and bathhouse is the dream of many city residents. Each of those who had to build a log house from wood with their own hands knows very well the purpose of logs and beams.

These are the load-bearing structures of the building, so you need to select the material for them, as well as their quantity, very carefully. It is recommended to make floor joists from dry, first-class material treated with antiseptic and fire retardant compounds. The most common way to install them is by mounting them on beams cut into the walls during construction.

Calculations of floor joists are made taking into account the basic parameters; the joists must be 1.5-2 times higher than the height of the flooring, otherwise the nails will not be able to firmly hold the floor boards.

They are installed taking into account the fact that insulation material is usually placed between them. This can be expanded clay, polystyrene foam, but most often mineral wool is used, pressed into slabs 50-60 cm wide. Logs are mounted at the same distance from each other. A wooden floor is laid on them, which, if installed correctly, will last for several decades. Logs can be made of bars, beams, boards. They serve to redistribute loads from the floor, and also act as a fastener that combines all components and parts into a solid system.

Benefits of using lag

Floors on joists have a certain degree of functionality. In the space between them you can lay pipes, wires, and heat-insulating materials.

The bars are relatively inexpensive. Installation is available to everyone.

These floor supports can withstand a load of 5 tons per square meter.

When repairing a floor, it is often enough to repair the joist. There is no need to re-floor the floor.

The structure does not have much mass. The load on the floor is much less than with a cement screed.

A space filled with mineral wool will keep the house warm and protect it from excess noise.

The bars allow you to bring the floor plane to any height.

The structures laid in place do not require additional work. You can immediately lay the floor covering.

1. Disadvantages of flooring on joists:
2. The room loses several centimeters of height.

High labor intensity. It is necessary to carefully mark and align all structural elements.

Calculation of floor lags is carried out taking into account the main parameters. The floor joists should be 1.5-2 times higher than the height of the flooring, otherwise the nail will not be able to firmly hold the floor boards. If the thickness of the floorboard is 50 mm, then the height of the bars should be about 100 mm. If the subfloor is made of plywood or other sheet material having a thickness of 20 mm, the beams can be much lower, 30-40 mm.

The material for making wooden logs should be coniferous. The humidity of the workpieces should not exceed 20%. The cross-section of the bars is chosen to be rectangular. They can be cut from boards 50-60 mm thick. Place finished products across the light coming from the windows. The laying step is from 40 to 70 cm. Knowing the laying step and the dimensions of the room, it is not difficult to calculate the required number of elements. Before installation, all wooden elements are treated twice with an antiseptic composition. The antiseptic can be replaced with ordinary hot bitumen.

Figure 2. Adjusting sleeves. Used to level floors on joists.

In practice, very often the height of the logs is selected taking into account the thickness of the insulation layer. Mineral wool produced in slabs 50 mm thick is usually used as floor insulation. The floor joists should be the same height. If you decide to lay thermal insulation in a double layer, then the bars are needed with a height of 100 mm. The distance between them depends on the thickness of the subfloor material. The thinner the rough flooring, the more often logs are installed. With a plywood thickness of 12 mm, which can be used as a substrate for finishing flooring, the gap between the bars is 30 cm.

Most often, the subfloor is made from tongue-and-groove boards. The boards should be spruce, pine or fir. They are not suitable for finished floors, since the wood is very soft, even marks from thin heels remain on it. A laminate or other finishing coating must be laid on top. The thickness of the boards with a normal lag pitch of 50 cm is recommended to be at least 35 mm. In most cases, the calculation of the pitch of the bars is made taking into account the thickness of the floor material:

Figure 3. Fasteners. Used for fastening wooden structures.

Board thickness (mm) – lag pitch (mm):

• 20 – 300;
• 24 – 400;
• 30 – 500;
• 35 – 600;
• 40 – 700;
• 45 – 800;
• 50 – 1000.

To make these parts, not only wood is used, but also reinforced concrete, various polymers and metals. Reinforced concrete products are highly durable. They can be used when building a house outside the city. Other materials can be used when repairing floors.

If the base of the floor is wooden beams, the logs can be installed by attaching them to the side using self-tapping screws (Fig. 1). The size of the fasteners should exceed the thickness of the bar by 2.5 times with a diameter of 6 mm. The positive aspect of this method is that when adjusting the height of individual joists, the use of additional adjusting pads is not required.

In construction, special wooden or plastic products are sometimes used that have holes into which small plastic adjusting bushings are inserted. They help quickly level the surface formed by the lags. Such products are installed very quickly and do not require the use of pads (Fig. 2).

Figure 4. Scheme of installing a floor on joists.

Before installation, wooden elements must be protected from various microorganisms and wood-boring pests by treating the material with a disinfectant and then with a water-repellent composition.

In rooms with low ceilings, it is better to use other floor installation methods. When performing the calculation, we must not forget that the bars reduce the size of the room in height by 10 cm or more.

Floorboards or sheets of subflooring should be attached to each joist.

The ends of structural elements should not touch the walls of the building. There should be a gap of at least 5 cm between them.

Instead of a certain section of a wooden beam, you can use boards connected in pairs to each other and reaching the size of the desired beam in diameter. Slightly larger sizes are not prohibited. The boards are installed on edge.

The logs can be attached to the concrete base with special galvanized metal corners, which are fixed to the base using dowels and self-tapping screws. Instead of corners, U-shaped devices are often used (Fig. 3).

If necessary, the bars from which the logs are made are joined to each other to achieve the required length. There must be a strong support under the joint. This support is often a brick pillar. Under its construction, you need to dig a hole about 10 cm deep. It is covered with sand and watered abundantly with water. The sand cushion is covered with a layer of polyethylene on top. A cement-sand mortar is placed on it and a column of red brick is laid out.

You can lay out the columns in rows and attach the logs to them (Fig. 4). The size of the columns is 25x25 cm. Calculating the number of bricks is not difficult.

The design of the floor on joists allows you to immediately install rough and finishing flooring.

Logs can be made from various materials. Most often, they are made from a wooden block or board. And there are a lot of materials for finishing. Their choice depends only on the preferences of the owners and the contents of their wallet. A paper plan of the rooms with exactly indicated dimensions will help you calculate the materials for making floor joists. It is better to do all calculations before starting the main installation work.

Before purchasing floorboards, you need to calculate how many cubes of lumber are needed to construct a certain structure. In this case, an accurate calculation can be made using a regular calculator, knowing the area of ​​​​the room and the thickness of the board. Such skills will be useful to you not only in order to calculate the volume of lumber for flooring, but also if you decide to build a house, because wood products are used to construct various structures.

Since the price of all lumber when sold is charged per cubic meter, it is important to be able to calculate the need for this particular unit of measurement. This way, not only the number of boards is calculated, but also other lumber, for example, timber, slats, etc. The thing is that products with the same cross-section may differ in length. Therefore, after determining the volume, you can understand how many floorboards there will be in one cube.

It is important to know: when purchasing boards made from valuable wood, products are sold individually. The thing is that the price of such coatings is too high, and when calculating in cubes there is a small error.

When calculating, it is better to use a regular calculator. This way you can get a more accurate result and take into account all the nuances of the future design of the house. Although, if you need to find out how many cubes of boards, for example, 50 mm thick, will be needed to construct a floor, you can also use an online calculator. He can perform such a simple calculation correctly. However, it is always a good idea to be able to count the amount of lumber by hand.

When building a house or laying a floor, the calculations are carried out in the same order:

1. First you need to calculate the total volume of lumber in cubes. Knowing the moisture content of the wood, you can determine the weight of the entire material. This will help you decide which product delivery method to choose.

Advice: when ordering a carrier, it is better to indicate an inflated weight (10-15% more). This way you won’t have problems with the load, because the wood moisture content stated by the manufacturer may be a little more or less.

1. Next, knowing the dimensions of the boards, you need to calculate the volume of one element. Then you can find out how many products will be in the cube. Multiplying this number by the number of cubes will give you the total number of floorboards for your floor design.

However, such a simple calculation is applicable for edged elements, because they are processed on all sides and when they are stacked, there are practically no gaps left. To calculate how many cubes of unedged boards are needed for a floor, you will have to use a correction factor, because due to the untreated sides of the product, too many gaps will remain when stacked.

Calculation example

Let’s assume that in your house you want to cover a room with dimensions of 5x6 m with a 50 mm thick floorboard. We calculate the volume of lumber and the number of products in the following sequence:

• Find the area of ​​the room: 6x5=30 m².
• Since we decided to use a board with a thickness of 50 mm or 0.05 m, the lag step can be 1 meter.
• Knowing the thickness of the element and the area of ​​the room, we obtain the volume of lumber: 30 m² x 0.05 m = 1.5 m³.
• Now using a calculator, you can calculate how many floorboards you will need. To do this, knowing the dimensions of the floorboard, we calculate its volume: 2m x 0.05 m x 0.13 m = 0.013 m³. Now we divide the total volume of lumber by the resulting number for an element with a thickness of 50 mm: 1.5: 0.013 = 115 boards.

Thus, using a regular calculator, you can calculate the need for other lumber for building a house: paneling, timber, slats.

Calculating the boards for the floor, at first glance, is not a problem. Multiplying the length of the room by its width and dividing by the width of the board is the fastest answer you will hear.

With all the variety of modern coatings, natural wood floors are still in great demand.

What type of wood should I choose?

1. Coniferous trees are often chosen for flooring: pine, fir, spruce. They are suitable for rooms with light loads.
2. Alder or aspen are recommended for use in premises where increased household safety is required. Such rooms are considered to be children's rooms and bedrooms. Alder and aspen are considered medicinal species.
3. The strongest and most durable oak floor. Expensive, but has a dense structure.
4. Siberian larch competes with oak. It is just as hard and does not rot thanks to the resins. Suitable for all floors, even wet baths. It costs three times more than pine.
5. Beech, birch and alder can also be used for baths.
6. Only in non-residential premises can poplar and linden be used, and smereka is not suitable at all - it is too soft.

Pine will last at least 50 years, and oak - more than 100.

Floors are laid according to special rules. In the direction of movement in those rooms where people have to walk a lot: in vestibules and corridors, hallways of public premises. For bedrooms and living rooms, a different method is chosen. The floors are installed, focusing on the light from the window, in its direction.

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Basic board parameters

Typically, boards 20-40 mm thick are used. There is an opinion that floors made from thicker boards are stronger. It must be taken into account that the properties of such a natural material as wood depend on the degree of drying. An insufficiently dried thick board may, when drying naturally, tear out the screw with which it is secured. Therefore, it is more practical to use material with a thickness of 20-25 mm.

You might be interested in: How to lay floor tiles correctly?

The width of the floorboard ranges from 100 to 200 mm. Considering the previous remark, it is better to opt for 100 mm.

At sawmills there are boards 6 in length; 4.5; 4.3 m. If you plan to lay it with an offset, then the length can not be taken into account. With this method, the labor intensity of the work will be higher due to the larger number of joints, but there will be less scraps left. If you are laying boards without offset, you should choose the length of the board according to the length or width of the room. Of course, the board must be tongue-and-groove.

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Which type of wood to choose?

The choice of wood type depends on the financial capabilities of the developer and on what it will be covered with: paint or varnish.

The varnish emphasizes the structure of the wood and shows the natural beauty of the material. Premium quality boards are made without knots and have a special cut for them.

But first-grade boards are not much inferior to them. When cutting, live knots are provided in them.

There are many dark knots on the surface of second-grade boards. It is better to paint such floors. For technical and utility rooms, you can use not always even and cheaper third-grade boards.

The calculation of the board is made in square meters, pieces or cubic meters. For example, you need to calculate how much wood material is required for a room of 5x4 m. We calculate the area using the classic formula, multiplying the length by the width:

5x4 m = 20 square meters.

Having chosen a board 0.1 m wide and 4 m long, we calculate:

20:4:0.1 m = 50 pcs.

If the thickness is 25 mm, you get:

20x0.025 m = 0.5 cubic meters m.

Answer: you need 20 sq. m or 50 boards 0.1 m wide, 4 m long, 0.025 m thick, which corresponds to 0.5 cubic meters of wood. This number of boards is enough to complete the task.

Natural wood floors are not cheap. But if we take into account the impact on health, there is still no alternative to them.