How to Measure a Room for Mouldings

One of the most important steps in your mouldings journey is knowing how many lineal metres you will need of each product for budgeting and ordering purposes. If you don’t have a builder to help you, we have compiled some instructions to help you measure a room for skirting boards and architraves.

TOOLS YOU WILL REQUIRE

• Tape Measure
• Pencil & Pen
• Notebook
• Step Ladder
• Block of timber the same width of your architrave. E.g. 90mm wide

HOW TO MEASURE YOUR ROOM FOR SKIRTING BOARDS

To begin, you will need to decide what height your skirting boards will be. In this example, we have chosen 135mm.

Then, you will need to start from one corner of the room and work your way around. We have created a 3D room view so you can follow the measurements around the room.

Wall 1.

Step 1. Measure from the first internal corner to the edge of door opening. Write down this measurement.

Tip~ Do not measure to the point where your architrave will finish once installed, or where your architrave starts if you’re measuring a room with mouldings already installed. This allows for wastage.

Step 2. Measure from edge of one door opening to the edge of next door opening, and record in notebook.

Step 3. Measure from internal corner to edge of door opening, and record in notebook.

Wall 2.

Step 4. Measure between the two internal corners, and record in notebook.

Tip~ Add 20mm to your actual measurement along a wall with no door openings or architrave intersections. This will allow for wastage.

Wall 3.

Step 5. Measure between next two internal corners, and record in notebook.

Wall 4.

Step 6. Measure from the internal corner to the edge of door opening.

Step 7. Then measure from the next internal corner edge to the door opening

Step 8. Tally up all the lengths recorded from steps 2 to 7 above, then divide the figure by 5.4 to work out how much material you require for your skirting boards.

Tip ~ Add 10% to your total measurements for wastage on skirting boards.

As an example, our room would be:

Wall 1 is 2865mm
Wall 2 is 4555mm (4535 + 20mm wastage)
Wall 3 is 4490mm (4470mm + 20mm wastage)
Wall 4 is 3600mm
Total Measurement is (15510mm + 10% wastage) = 17,061
17.061m / 5.4m (rounded up) = Required to order 4 lengths of skirting

HOW TO MEASURE YOUR DOOR ARCHITRAVES

Step 1. Place your 90mm (or size of architrave you are using) wide block flush with the door frame and mark on the outside edge with your pencil. Do this for both sides and the top of the doorway.

Tip ~ If you line up the inside edge of 90mm wide block, with the inside edge of the frame opening, this allows wastage, for the overall length of architrave.

Step 2: Measure the overall length of top (head) architrave. This will be the distance between the 2 pencil marks on each side of the doorway.

Step 3: Measure the two sides (called ‘stiles’) of the doorway. This will be the distance from the floor to the top horizontal mark.

Step 4. Add up your 3 measurements then divide the figure by 5.4m to work out how many lengths of material you require.

Example:

Top Head is 955mm
Each Side stile is 2200mm (so multiply by 2)
Total Measurement is 5355mm
5.355m / 5.4m (rounded up) = Required to order 1 length of architrave for this door

HOW TO MEASURE YOUR WINDOW ARCHITRAVES

Step 1. Using a 90mm wide block (or a block the same width as your new architrave will be), mark from the edges of the window frame (outside edge of window reveal) to the outside edge of 90mm width of architrave.

Repeat this for both sides of the window and the top and bottom of the window.

Tip ~ If you line up the inside edge of 90mm wide block, with the outside edge of the window frame opening, this allows wastage.

Step 2. Measure the overall length of top (head) architrave and bottom (sill) architrave. Use the two pencil marks you made on each side of the window frame when using your architrave block.

Step 3. Measure the 2 sides (stiles) of the window from the top horizontal pencil mark at the head to the bottom horizontal pencil mark at the sill.

Tip ~ If your window is square you should have the same measurements for the two sides (stiles) and the head and sill measurements should also be the same. If not, remeasure to double check.

Step 4. Add the four measurements to get your total lineal metre material requirement, then divide by 5.4m to get your required number of lengths to order.

Tip ~ Add 15% to your total measurements for wastage on architraves.

If you want more information on measuring, ordering or installing your skirting boards or architraves, check our our DIY blog or contact our friendly team who will be more than happy to help.