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Unit: Planning and costing

LMFFL3001A: Plan and cost flooring technology work

Section 3: Estimating quantities


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Audio for slide 1 (mp3 |6|KB)

If you're laying carpet or vinyl on a flight of stairs, you'll need to include the stair measurements in your proportional drawing.

This drawing shows a typical 'box step' staircase. The important dimensions for a flooring installer are:

  • height of the riser

  • depth of the tread

  • width of the tread.
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Audio for slide 2 (mp3 |6|KB)
Here are the steps involved in measuring up a flight of stairs.

  1. Check the widths of the bottom, middle and top treads. If they're all the same, you can assume that all stairs are the same width.

  2. Measure tread and riser on one step and add them together.

  3. Count the number of steps in the flight. Multiply the number by the measurement you've derived from Step 2. This will give you the total length of carpet or vinyl needed for the staircase.


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Audio for slide 3 (mp3 |6|KB)

Example

Let's say the drawing above shows part of a staircase made up of 12 steps. The calculations are shown below.

Tread + riser = 270 + 180 = 450 mm

12 steps        = 12 x 450 = 5400 mm total lengt

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Learning activity

Audio 4 (mp3 |6|KB)

Find a suitable flight of stairs that you can measure up. Note that there are many different designs, so try to pick a simple flight for this exercise.

Measure the important components and calculate the total length of covering required for the stairs. Also note the width of the treads.

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