📐 Linear Feet Calculator — Square Feet to Linear Feet

A linear foot is 12 inches of length in a straight line — width and thickness do not exist in the measurement. A 10-foot run of 3.25-inch flooring and a 10-foot run of 12-inch plank are both 10 linear feet. The abbreviation is lf, and the trade spelling 'lineal feet' means the same thing. Linear feet price things that are sold by length: boards, trim, molding, edge banding, fencing, and fabric.

Divide the square footage by the material width in feet. The formula: linear feet = square feet × 12 ÷ width in inches. For 200 sq ft of flooring in 3.25-inch boards: 200 × 12 ÷ 3.25 = 738 linear feet. Add a waste factor — 10% is standard — and you order about 812 lf. The calculator above runs the conversion both directions and applies waste automatically.

It depends entirely on board width. With 3.25-inch floor boards, 1300 sq ft is 4,800 lf (5,280 with 10% waste). With 5.5-inch deck boards it is 2,836 lf; with 12-inch planks exactly 1,300 lf. There is no single answer without the width — that is the whole reason the conversion exists as a calculator rather than a fixed number.

Two different answers, depending on what you mean. The wall perimeter of a 12×12 room is 48 linear feet — that is what you need for baseboard or trim. The floor is 144 square feet, which is 533 linear feet of 3.25-inch flooring boards (586 lf with waste). Trim orders use the perimeter; flooring orders use the area conversion.

Linear feet measure length only — 12 inches of run, width ignored. Square feet measure area — length × width. The same 100 sq ft floor consumes 1,600 lf of 0.75-inch edge banding but only 100 lf of 12-inch planks, because narrower material needs more runs to cover the same area. Square feet describe the surface; linear feet describe the material that covers it.

Exactly 12 inches. A linear foot is just a foot of length — the word 'linear' signals that width and thickness are being ignored, not that the unit is different. To convert inches to linear feet, divide by 12: a 96-inch-long countertop edge is 8 linear feet.

One linear yard is 3 linear feet (36 inches) of length. The unit dominates fabric, carpet, and some flooring bindings — carpet is commonly priced per linear yard off a standard 12-foot-wide roll. To convert linear feet to linear yards, divide by 3: 240 lf is 80 ly. Square yards are different again — they measure area, 9 sq ft each.

No — 'lineal' is an accepted variant spelling of the same measurement, common on lumber yards' invoices and in older trade catalogs. Both mean 12 inches of length with width ignored. If a quote says 400 lineal feet and another says 400 linear feet, they are quoting the identical amount.

Measure each wall run with a tape and add the runs together, then add 10% waste for miters and butt joints. For a 12×12 room: 48 lf of perimeter plus 10% means about 53 lf of trim. Pro tip: measure door and window casings individually and add them to the run list — casing is priced by lf too, and doors eat 6.5 lf each.

Almost always one of three reasons: the width used to convert was the nominal width, not the actual face width (a '5.5-inch' deck board with a rounded edge presents about 5.2 inches); the waste factor was skipped; or short-length bundles reduced usable runs. Convert with the actual face width, keep the 10% waste, and order by the bundle rounding-up rule rather than exact lf.