Square Footage Question

Q: How do you figure out how much square footage of flooring you need to cover a room? My room measures 15.4 x 11. Which I was told was a little over 165 sq ft. How much flooring will I need to order? I’m using Pergo Acculade tiles 16″.
I’ve already ordered 9 cartons and want to be sure that that will be enough.
Thank you
Liz
A: For flooring you will multiply the length and width of the room, then add 10%. So you should need roughly 186sf or as close as you can get to this number by cartons. 9 cartons should put you just over 180 sf, which should be enough, but let me explain why you add the 10%.
When you are installing flooring, you will have to do some cutting and you will have some waste. Typically when you add 10% to the exact square footage of your room (which is about 169sf in this case), you should have enough to ensure that you can cover all of your cuts and waste. Typically flooring manufacturers will have up to 5% of their product as unusable, which is the accepted standard in flooring. The extra 5% of our 10% account for cuts assuming you have maximum unusable product, but rarely is this the case.
Take your time, measure twice before you cut once and you should be fine.