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Designate “length” and “width. Measure length, then width. Measure interior spaces separately. Make smaller measurements for oddly shaped rooms. Measure twice. Skip the stairs.

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” Before you start measuring rooms, ensure that the measurements you mark down are consistent. Pick one side of your home to represent your length, and its perpendicular side to be its width. Once you do, stick to this throughout your home, even if the shapes of individual rooms tempt you to switch it up. For example: Hallways tend to be long and narrow, so it seems obvious to denote the longest measurement as its length and the shortest as its width. But if a second hallway meets another at a 90 degree angle, do the opposite to express your measurements consistently from one end of your home to the other. Once you decide on which side of your house is the length and which is the width, measure each room in that order. Measure the length first with a tape measure and mark that number down on your diagram. Then do the same with the room’s width. Measuring each room’s dimensions in the same order will ensure that your notes remain consistent as you move from room to room. Say you’re carpeting a bedroom and you want to include the closet. Anticipate the floor area in the closet to require a separate piece of carpeting for installation. Measure the length and width of the bedroom by itself, then repeat inside the closet. Expect perfectly square and rectangular rooms to be the easiest to measure, since you only need to take two measurements. However, other rooms may follow a different shape (or have permanent fixtures that take up floor space and create a new shape). In this case, break the room up into smaller areas and measure each individually.  For instance, if you have an L-shaped room, break it into two areas. Start with the length of one area, and then measure its width. Then do the same with the remaining floor space. Now say two sets of cabinets face each other from opposite walls in a square room. This transforms the floor area a T- or H-shape. Measure the length and width of the floor space between the cabinets. Repeat with the remaining areas. Avoid mistakes. Double-check your work by measuring each room a second time before moving on to the next. If you find that you made a goof the first time around, correct your diagram if you already recorded the incorrect measurement. Always use a pencil to mark your diagram so you can erase mistakes. This will make your corrections easier to read. This in turn will minimize the risk of reading the wrong information when you tally up your totals. Don’t worry about measuring your stairs, even if you plan on carpeting them. Expect the material needed for these to vary depending on a number of different factors. For now, just forget about them and worry about the rest of your house. Then, when you start fielding bids from installers, ask each for their own estimate regarding your stairs.