Know exactly where to start laying your floor, before you cut a single board.
Draw your room, pick your flooring, and see how many packs you actually need and where each board gets cut. You get a full cut list to follow board by board, whether it’s laminate, vinyl or wood.
Works right in your browser, on your phone or at your desk.
Three steps from empty room to finished plan
No CAD skills or spreadsheets, and no guessing when you get to the checkout.
Draw your room
Sketch your floor to scale, with the doorways, alcoves and anything you have to work around, like a kitchen island or a pillar. Angled walls, L-shapes and several rooms at once are all fine, and it handles the transitions between them.
Pick your flooring
Enter your board size and pack quantity, then choose the look: the laying pattern, whether that's a straight lay, herringbone or chevron, which way the boards run, and how tight you want the waste.
Get your cut plan
See the optimised layout, the exact number of packs to buy, and a board-by-board cut list you can take straight to the saw.
Set the constraints, watch the layout change
The optimiser lays boards the way you tell it to, not just wherever they fit. Change a few settings below and watch the plan react.
Edge pieces stay above the minimum width, so you don't get thin, fragile slivers at the walls.
That’s four settings on one fixed room. The real designer plans your actual floor, to the millimetre: every shape, obstacle and cut rule you see below.
A flooring optimizer built for real floors, not perfect rectangles
Real rooms are full of awkward corners and obstacles. The planner works with them down to the millimetre.
Any room, any shape
L-shapes, bays, angled walls, or several rooms at once. Everything is drawn to your measurements and filled board by board, and the flooring carries through the doorways between rooms.
Every classic pattern
See every classic pattern laid out for real: running bond, herringbone, chevron, basketweave, windmill, or a looser random stagger. Whatever you pick, the layout, cut list and pack count all match it.
Know exactly what to buy
You get the exact pack count with the waste kept low, so you don’t over-order and you don’t run out halfway through the job.
Cut around obstacles
Kitchen islands, hearths, pillars, doorways. The boards work around them without the pattern falling apart.
No skinny strips, no ugly joints
It keeps the last row a decent width, staggers the joints, and puts the cut edges where a fitter would, so the finished floor doesn’t look amateur.
Laminate, vinyl or wood
Works with your own board sizes and pack counts, tongue-and-groove profiles, even the width of your saw blade.
A cut list you can follow
Board-by-board steps in order: take them to the saw, and export the whole plan.
Laying your own floor?
Buy the right amount the first time and skip the mistakes most people make on their first floor. You can see how the boards fall before you commit, so you don’t end up with a half-finished room and a Saturday trip back to the shop.
- Know precisely how many packs to buy
- Avoid tiny slivers along the walls
- Cut with a plan instead of guessing
Fitting floors for a living?
Quote quicker, order tighter, and give your crew a cut list they can work straight from. The waste you save on each job adds up over a year.
- Price jobs in minutes with accurate quantities
- Cut material waste on every install
- Give the crew a clear, ordered cut list
Start free. Upgrade when you're hooked.
Try the full designer for free. Your first project's full results are on us.
Free
Perfect for a one-off room.
- The full floor designer
- 1 project with full results & cut list
- Layout preview for every design
- No credit card to start
Floor Optimizer Pro
For anyone with more than one floor to lay.
- Unlimited projects & optimisations
- Full interactive layouts & cut lists
- Save and revisit every project
- Export your results
Cancel anytime. 14-day refund on your first payment. See our refund policy.
Questions, answered
How do I work out how many packs of flooring to buy?+
Measure the room in square metres, add a bit extra for waste (around 5% to 8% for a straight lay, 15% to 20% for herringbone), then divide by the coverage printed on the pack. Our free flooring calculator does that for laminate, vinyl and wood in one go. The designer takes it further and lays out every board, so the pack count comes from the real cuts rather than a flat percentage.
Where do I start laying laminate flooring?+
Usually the longest straight wall, with the boards running towards the main window, though the right answer depends on the room. The designer shows you how the boards fall from any wall you start against, so you can check the last row won't end in a thin sliver before you commit to it.
Do I need to create an account to try it?+
No. You can open the designer, draw your room and pick your flooring without signing up. You only sign in when you want to unlock the full interactive layout and cut list.
Do I need a credit card to sign up?+
No. Signing in and claiming your free project takes no card at all. You only enter payment details if you decide to upgrade to Floor Optimizer Pro.
What does "free" include?+
You get the full designer and one project with complete results (the layout, the pack count and the cut list) at no cost. After that, Floor Optimizer Pro unlocks unlimited projects.
Will it work for odd-shaped rooms and transitions between rooms?+
Yes. You can draw L-shapes, bays, angled walls and multiple rooms at once, plan the transition between rooms and through doorways, and cut around obstacles like islands, pillars and hearths.
Which laying patterns can I use?+
Straight lay, running bond with any stagger, a natural random stagger, strip plank, herringbone (single, double or triple), chevron (the Hungarian point), basketweave and windmill. Each pattern has its own settings, like the chevron point angle or boards per block, and the cut list accounts for every mitre and module.
Is it just a laminate layout planner?+
No. It started as a laminate layout planner and that is still the most common use, but the planner works from the board dimensions you enter, so vinyl plank, engineered wood, solid wood and other rigid boards laid in rows all plan the same way. Tile-format boards work too if they lay in staggered rows.
How accurate is the cut list?+
The optimiser plans to the millimetre from the measurements you enter, so the plan is only as accurate as your room measurements. Always measure on site and double-check before cutting, because the cut list is a plan, not a substitute for measuring twice.
Can I cancel my subscription?+
Anytime, from your settings. You keep Pro access until the end of your billing period. See our refund and cancellation policy for details.
Planning a floor? Start with the answers
Straightforward guides on where to start, measuring up, choosing a pattern and keeping waste down. No signup needed.
Laminate flooring in a kitchen: what works, what fails and where the floor should stop
Laminate works in a kitchen if you buy a water resistant board, seal the wet edges and stop the floor at the plinth line rather than under the units. The pros, cons and layout calls.
Running one floor through your doorways: we measured what it actually costs
Measured across 30 multi-room floors: one continuous floor uses no more material than breaking at every doorway, 0.6 points less at straight lay, and saves a threshold bar per door on top.
Does your stagger pattern change flooring waste? We laid 250 rooms five ways
Measured: fixed ½, ⅓ and random staggers all land within 0.2 points of each other. The method that costs real money is starting every row with the previous row's offcut, at 4 points more.
Wide plank vs narrow plank flooring: which should you choose?
How plank width changes the look, waste and price of a laminate, vinyl or wood floor. Measured: wide planks cost 2 to 4 waste points in small rooms and almost nothing in large ones.
Your floor, planned before you buy a single pack.
Draw your room and you'll have an optimised flooring layout in a few minutes. It's free to try, and we don't ask for an account or a card.
Design your floor free