How Much Baseboard Do I Need? Linear Feet, Pieces and Waste

Add up the wall lengths, subtract door openings, add 10% for waste, then divide by the board length and round up. A 14 ft × 16 ft room with two 3 ft doors is 54 linear feet, or 59.4 with waste: four 16 ft pieces.

How do you calculate how much baseboard you need?

net run (ft) = sum of wall lengths − door and opening widths
order length (ft) = net run × (1 + waste)
pieces = ceil( order length ÷ piece length )

1. Measure every wall where baseboard will go, corner to corner. For a rectangular room the sum is the perimeter, 2 × (length + width).
2. Subtract each doorway or wide opening. Baseboard stops at the door casing, so there is none across the opening. Each doorway interrupts the baseboard on both sides of its wall, so count it in each room it opens into.
3. Add a waste allowance. A 10% allowance is the usual recommendation for a typical room, with 15% or more for rooms with many corners. That is a convention, not a standard. Multiply by 1.10, do not add 10 to the footage.
4. Divide by the length of the pieces you will buy and round up to whole pieces.

Worked example: a 14 ft × 16 ft room with two 3 ft doors

• Perimeter: 2 × (14 + 16) = 60 ft
• Minus two doorways: 60 − (2 × 3) = 54 linear feet
• With 10% waste: 54 × 1.10 = 59.4 linear feet
• 8 ft pieces: 59.4 ÷ 8 = 7.43, so 8 pieces (64 ft)
• 12 ft pieces: 59.4 ÷ 12 = 4.95, so 5 pieces (60 ft)
• 16 ft pieces: 59.4 ÷ 16 = 3.71, so 4 pieces (64 ft)

Check it wall by wall. Say the walls are 16 ft with no door, 14 ft with a door (11 ft of baseboard), 16 ft with a door (13 ft of baseboard) and 14 ft with no door. The runs are 16 + 11 + 13 + 14 = 54 ft. A door splits its wall into two segments, say 4 + 7 ft and 5 + 8 ft. Packed into 16 ft pieces, the segments (16, 4 + 7, 5 + 8 and 14) fit four pieces with 64 − 54 = 10 ft left over, and that leftover is your real-world waste for kerf and miter cuts. For another baseboard example and the square-feet-to-linear-feet formula, see how to calculate linear feet.

Worked example: a whole floor

Do the same arithmetic room by room, then add the net runs and apply the waste allowance once. Here is a small floor with a living room, two bedrooms and a hall.

• With 10% waste: 156 × 1.10 = 171.6 linear feet
• 8 ft pieces: 171.6 ÷ 8 = 21.45, so 22 pieces
• 12 ft pieces: 171.6 ÷ 12 = 14.3, so 15 pieces
• 16 ft pieces: 171.6 ÷ 16 = 10.73, so 11 pieces

Rounding once at the end gives 11 pieces of 16 ft. Rounding each room separately (4 + 3 + 3 + 2) gives 12. The pooled number is a lower bound, because it assumes offcuts from one room can be used in another. In the linear feet calculator, add the room runs yourself and enter the 156 ft in Pieces from a length. A closet interior is not counted here; add its walls if you are trimming it. The longest wall in a room limits what you can do with short pieces, so check the longest run against the piece length before you buy.

How many pieces of baseboard by perimeter?

The table starts from the net run, which is the perimeter after you subtract doors and openings, and applies a 10% allowance. Pieces are rounded up to whole pieces.

For a net run in between, multiply by 1.10 and divide by the piece length. If your rooms have many corners, use 1.15 instead of 1.10.

Which stock length should you buy?

Common US stock lengths run 8, 10, 12, 14 and 16 ft, though what a store carries depends on the profile and material, so check what is on the shelf. Longer pieces mean fewer joints and less handling at the cost of being harder to carry and cut. Match the length to your longest walls: a 12 ft wall is a natural fit for a 12 ft piece. In the 14 ft × 16 ft example, 16 ft pieces and 8 ft pieces both buy 64 ft, but the 16 ft pieces give you four joint-free runs. Mixing lengths, such as one 16 ft piece and a few 8 ft pieces, can also cut down leftovers. The linear feet calculator offers 8, 10, 12 and 16 ft, and a custom length for anything else, such as 14 ft.

What about corners and joints?

• Inside corners. Coping one piece to fit the profile of the other typically produces the best result; the other piece runs square into the corner.
• Outside corners. Mitered joints are the standard approach. Add a few inches to the measurement for each miter cut.
• Long walls. If one piece is not long enough, join two with a scarf joint. Place the joint away from high-visibility areas, such as the center of a wall or near eye level, and cut it carefully so it stays inconspicuous.
• Waste. Corner cuts, scarf joints and mistakes are what the 10% allowance covers. A room with many outside corners, bump-outs or stairs deserves 15% or more.

This guide counts material only. Installation method, fasteners and finishing depend on your trim and walls, so follow the manufacturer’s instructions.

Assumptions and common errors

• Buying to the exact footage. Every cut has a kerf, and every miter leaves an offcut. Use the allowance.
• Forgetting to subtract openings. Doorways have no baseboard; so do wide cased openings and sliding or bi-fold closet doors, unless your trim runs across them.
• Subtracting the rough opening. Use the width where the baseboard actually stops, usually the clear finished opening.
• Adding 10 instead of multiplying by 1.10. Ten percent of 54 ft is 5.4 ft, not 10 ft.
• Rounding room by room. Round once at the end, then check your longest runs.
• Assuming pooled pieces always fit. The pooled count is a lower bound; short offcuts cannot cover long walls.
• Counting height. Baseboard height changes the price, not the linear footage.

Questions people ask