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Carpet Laying And Estimating Website

Every carpet layer should be able to understand and make scale drawings. Even if a layer's work is nearly all in rooms or areas of utmost simplicity and regularity, sooner or later he will encounter a complicated job that demands a scale drawing.

Fig. 5.1. Scale drawing of layout of typical residence from which accurate carpet measurements and cuttings can be made.

What Scale to Use. The scale of a drawing is usually expressed in relation to the foot, e.g., "1/4 in. equals 1 ft," which is a very popular scale since it is easy to make with an ordinary ruler, large enough to be legible, and small enough to accommodate a 40-ft length on an ordinary sheet of 81 x 11 in. paper. In drawing to this scale with a ruler, the only danger of error is getting mixed up in counting the quarter-inch marks; a simple rule to follow is to check frequently by multiplying the length of your drawn line by 4. That is, if the line you are checking is 5 in. long on the drawing, then it represents (5 x 4) or 20 feet (not inches, of course!)

Fig. 5.2. Actual sketches made by an experienced carpet-laying contractor for estimating and planning residential installation.

If the line is 51 in. long, then it represents 22 ft, and so on. To show a very large room on 81 x 11 -in. paper you may have to use the smaller scale of J in. equals 1 ft, which you can also make with an ordinary ruler. With this scale, of course, you multiply by 8 instead of 4 to get the actual feet—i.e., 5 in. on the drawing represents 40 ft, and 51 in. represents 44 ft.