Linear Foot Calculator: Measure & Estimate Fast
Linear feet price the materials you buy by length: lumber, trim, pipe, cable, fencing and fabric. This calculator handles the whole job in five modes. Convert any unit to linear feet, add up separate runs with a waste allowance, work out how many stock pieces to buy, price a project from a per-foot rate, or compare two supplier quotes by their true cost per linear foot, even when one quote is in feet and the other is in meters.
Estimates are for general planning. Actual quantities, prices and labor costs vary by location, project and current market rates; confirm with your supplier or contractor before ordering.
Quick Answer
Three runs of 12 ft, 8 ft and 15 ft total 35 linear feet; with the standard 10% waste allowance the order figure is 38.5 linear feet. Need 100 ft of material in 12 ft stock pieces at the same waste and the Material Estimator says buy 10 pieces. Comparing quotes, $48.75 for 75 ft ($0.65 per foot) beats $37.50 for 50 ft ($0.75 per foot) by $0.10 per foot, a $20 saving on a 200 ft project. Starting from a room instead of measured runs? The Segments mode perimeter entry turns a 30 ft by 30 ft room (a 120 ft perimeter) with 6 ft of openings into 125.4 ft with the same 10% waste, $564.30 at $4.50 per foot.
Key takeaways
- A linear foot is length only: 12 inches in a straight line, with no width or thickness involved.
- Add waste before you count pieces or price the job, not after.
- Pieces to buy always rounds up: 110 ft required in 12 ft pieces means 10 pieces, never 9.17.
- Quotes only compare fairly per linear foot, after each length is converted to feet.
How to use the five modes
Each tab answers a different question, so start with the one that matches your job.
- Unit Conversion turns one measurement into linear feet and shows it in inches, yards, meters, centimeters and millimeters at the same time. Enter either a single value with its unit, or a feet-plus-inches pair such as 10 ft 6 in. The pair wins when both are filled in, because tape-measure readings usually arrive that way.
- Multiple Segments is for projects measured wall by wall or run by run. Give every run its own row (add rows as needed), pick one unit for all rows, set the waste percentage, and read the total with waste plus a per-segment table showing each run in feet and its share of the total. Or switch the Entry Style to Room Perimeter: enter a rectangular room’s length and width plus the total width of doorways and other openings, and the tool computes the perimeter, subtracts the openings, then runs the same waste total, with an optional price per foot for a material cost.
- Material Estimator converts a required length into a shopping list: total length needed, stock piece length and waste in, pieces to buy and leftover out. The material type dropdown only names the result; the arithmetic is identical for lumber, pipe or trim.
- Cost Calculator prices footage: total linear feet times the rate per foot, on footage already grossed up for waste. Optional labor per foot and an optional per-piece charge (pieces times price per piece) are added on top.
- Unit Price settles quote arguments. Each option's total cost is divided by its length in feet, so a meter-priced import quote and a foot-priced local quote meet on equal terms. Add delivery and cutting charges into the total cost first, or the comparison flatters the quote with the big delivery fee. If you only price one option, our cost per linear foot calculator covers the single-quote version of this job in more depth.
The formulas each mode runs
Every result is one of five short calculations, all built on the conversion factors 1 ft = 12 in and 1 m = 3.28084 ft.
- Conversion: linear feet = value times its unit factor (inches divide by 12, yards multiply by 3, meters multiply by 3.28084, miles multiply by 5,280). Results are rounded to 3 decimal places.
- Segments: total with waste = sum of segment lengths in feet times (1 + waste % / 100). Rounded to 2 decimal places. The perimeter entry replaces the sum with a net perimeter: perimeter = 2 times (length + width); net = perimeter minus openings; total with waste = net times (1 + waste % / 100); material cost = total with waste times price per foot, when a price is entered.
- Pieces to buy: round up(total with waste / stock piece length). The leftover shown is pieces bought times piece length, minus the total with waste.
- Project cost: footage with waste times material rate, plus footage with waste times labor rate, plus pieces times price per piece when those optional boxes are filled.
- Price per linear foot: total cost / total length in feet. With one option only, the tool also shows the rate per yard (rate times 3) and per meter (rate times 3.28084).
One honest rounding note: the metric factors are the standard rounded values (a centimeter is 0.0328084 ft here). At household lengths the difference from the exact NIST factor never reaches the displayed decimals; at one mile it amounts to about 0.05 mm on the millimeter readout.
Worked examples for all five modes
Every figure below was produced by the calculator above with the pre-filled values, so you can reproduce each one exactly.
| Mode | Inputs | Headline result | Detail worth knowing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unit Conversion | 100 inches | 8.333 ft | Also 2.778 yd, 2.54 m, 254 cm, 2,540 mm |
| Multiple Segments | 12 ft, 8 ft, 15 ft, 10% waste | 38.5 ft with waste | Net 35 ft, waste adds 3.5 ft, equals 12.83 yd |
| Multiple Segments (perimeter entry) | Room 14 ft by 12 ft, 6 ft openings, 10% waste, $4.50/ft | 50.6 ft with waste | Perimeter 52 ft, net 46 ft, material cost $227.70, equals 16.87 yd |
| Material Estimator | 100 ft needed, 12 ft pieces, 10% waste | 10 pieces | 110 ft required, 120 ft bought, 10 ft leftover |
| Cost Calculator | 200 LF at $4.50/LF, 10% waste | $990.00 | Adding $2.00/LF labor and 25 pieces at $8.99 lifts the total to $1,654.75 |
| Unit Price | A: $37.50 for 50 ft; B: $48.75 for 75 ft | B wins, $0.65 vs $0.75 per foot | A $0.10 per foot gap is $20 over a 200 ft order |
The segments example, split by share of the net total:
Linear foot vs lineal foot, square foot and board foot
Three different measurements get confused at the lumber counter, and one spelling causes extra trouble.
Lineal foot is the same thing as linear foot. Both name a straight-line length of 12 inches; lineal is simply the older trade spelling, and suppliers use the two interchangeably. The perimeter estimator that used to live on the separate lineal foot calculator page now sits inside this calculator: switch Multiple Segments to the Room Perimeter entry style, enter a room's length and width, and the tool works out the perimeter, subtracts gates and doorways, adds waste and prices the run at your rate per foot. A fence run you have already measured as one total goes in as a single segment instead. Either way, this page now covers both starting points: a perimeter or a room on one side, and lengths to convert, total, turn into pieces or price on the other.
A square foot is area, length times width, 144 square inches. Flooring and paint are sold by area; trim, pipe and cable by length. To move from an area to a length you must know the material width: linear feet = square feet / width in feet, so 200 square feet of 6 inch boards (0.5 ft wide) is 400 linear feet.
A board foot is volume, 144 cubic inches of wood (a 1 ft by 1 ft by 1 in slab). Hardwood is commonly priced per board foot while dimensional lumber and trim are priced per linear foot, which is why the two rates on an invoice are never directly comparable. The cost per board foot calculator handles the volume side, and the board calculator works out board counts from dimensions.
Measuring mistakes that change the total
Most wrong orders come from the tape work, not the arithmetic.
- Measuring once around a room. Corners are rarely square. Measure each wall separately and let the Segments mode add them; a single perimeter loop hides the wall that is 3 inches short.
- Forgetting waste is multiplicative. Waste applies to the whole total, then the piece count rounds up. On the worked example the two steps together turn 100 ft of need into 120 ft of purchase. Skipping either step underbuys.
- Mixing units inside one total. A 10 ft run plus a 90 inch run is 17.5 ft, not 100 of anything. Convert first (the Conversion mode exists for exactly this), then add.
- Comparing shelf prices per piece. A $9 board that is 8 ft long costs $1.13 per foot; a $10 board that is 12 ft long costs $0.83 per foot. The cheaper board is the expensive one. The Unit Price mode exists because shelf prices hide this.
- Trusting the leftover number as reusable stock. The Material Estimator's leftover is a single arithmetic remainder. In practice it arrives as several short offcuts, which may not join into one usable piece.
What competing calculators miss
Most rival tools each do one slice of this job and stop.
- Converters that only convert. Plenty of tools turn inches into feet and end there. They never total separate runs, never add waste, and never tell you how many pieces to buy, which is the number you actually order.
- No cross-unit quote comparison. Single-quote cost tools divide one price by one length in one unit. When a supplier quotes in meters, which happens often with imported flooring and fabric, you are back to hand conversion before any comparison can start. The Unit Price mode here converts each quote to feet first.
- Area-to-length answers with no warning. Some lumber tools convert square feet to linear feet using a board width but quietly assume offcuts are reusable, so their board count is a floor, not an order. This tool rounds the piece count up after waste and states the leftover plainly.
- A printed formula that the tool does not follow. At least one chart-style rival tells readers that total linear feet equals length times width times quantity, which computes an area-like product, not a length. Every formula on this page is the exact code path the calculator runs, verified against the tool itself.
Frequently asked questions
A linear foot is a straight-line length of 12 inches. It counts length only, not width or thickness, which is why lumber, trim, pipe, cable and fencing are priced by it: a 10 ft board is 10 linear feet whatever its width.
Yes. Lineal foot and linear foot are two names for the exact same measurement, a straight line one foot long. Lineal is the older trade spelling; suppliers, invoices and this tool all treat them as identical.
Divide the inches by 12. For example, 100 inches divided by 12 is 8.333 linear feet. The Unit Conversion mode does this for inches, yards, centimeters, meters, millimeters and miles, and shows the length in all six units at once.
In Unit Conversion mode, a feet-plus-inches entry takes priority. If either the Feet Component or Inches Component box holds a number above zero, the tool converts that pair and ignores the single Measurement Value. Clear both boxes to go back to the single value.
Ten percent is the standard planning allowance for straight runs with normal cutting. Use about 5% for long straight pulls such as fence wire, and 15% for rooms with many corners, angles or patterned cuts. The waste percentage is applied to the measured total before pieces or costs are worked out.
It adds the waste percentage to your total length, divides by the stock piece length, and rounds up to the next whole piece. Needing 100 ft with 10% waste in 12 ft pieces means 110 ft required, so 10 pieces, which supply 120 ft and leave 10 ft over.
Use the Unit Price mode. Enter each quote's total cost and length in its own unit; the tool converts both lengths to feet, divides cost by feet, and compares the two rates per linear foot. A quote of $37.50 for 50 ft is $0.75 per foot, while $48.75 for 75 ft is $0.65 per foot, so the second quote is cheaper by $0.10 per foot.
The rates tie, and the tool still labels Option B as the better deal with a saving of $0.00 per foot. Read a $0.00 saving as an exact tie: choose on delivery, quality or returns instead of price.
Not directly, because area needs the material width as a bridge. Divide the square footage by the material width in feet first: 200 square feet covered by 6 inch (0.5 ft) boards needs 200 divided by 0.5, which is 400 linear feet. Then use that figure in the Material Estimator or Cost mode.
Use the Room Perimeter entry style in Multiple Segments mode. Enter the room length and width and the tool computes the perimeter as 2 times (length + width), subtracts the total width of doorways, gates and other openings, then applies your waste percentage and, if you enter a price per foot, a material cost. A 30 ft by 30 ft room with 6 ft of openings at 10% waste needs 125.4 ft, which is $564.30 at $4.50 per foot. If you already measured the full run as one length, enter it as a single segment instead.
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References
- National Institute of Standards and Technology. U.S. Survey Foot: Putting the Best Foot Forward (1 foot = 0.3048 meter exactly). Accessed October 22, 2026.
- National Institute of Standards and Technology, Thompson, A. and Taylor, B. N. Special Publication 811: Guide for the Use of the International System of Units (SI), Appendix B Conversion Factors. Accessed October 22, 2026.
- Bureau International des Poids et Mesures. The International System of Units (SI Brochure, 9th edition). Accessed October 22, 2026.
- National Institute of Standards and Technology. Handbook 44: Specifications, Tolerances, and Other Technical Requirements for Weighing and Measuring Devices. Accessed October 22, 2026.
- Western Wood Products Association. Dimensional Lumber: Grades and Sizes. Accessed October 22, 2026.