Read a tin, pack or roll label before ordering

Identify the sales unit

The displayed price may be for an item, a pack, a square metre or a linear metre. Before comparing, check what you will actually receive. A flooring pack may contain several boards and cover a specific area. A roll has a width and length, but not all its offcuts will necessarily be usable.

Keep three separate figures: the quantity your project needs, the quantity in one sales unit and the number of units to buy. This makes the calculation clear and avoids confusing a theoretical area with an order you can actually place.

For paint: litres and coverage

Tin capacity tells you the amount of paint. Coverage rate tells you the area associated with a litre under the manufacturer’s stated conditions. Check whether the figures apply to one coat, and read how many coats are expected. Understand any large area claim on the packaging before using it in your calculation.

Two products may have the same tin size and different coverage rates. Calculate each product using its own data. Keep a separate line for primer too, as its coverage rate and required quantity may differ from the top coat.

For flooring: area per pack

The most direct input is the area covered by one pack. Divide your area including the reserve by this value, then round up to a whole pack. The number of boards is useful for the installation plan, but is not enough without their dimensions.

For example, a target of 13.2 m² and a box covering 1.44 m² give approximately 9.17 boxes. You must buy ten boxes if they are sold as whole boxes. You receive 14.4 m². The difference between 14.4 and 13.2 m² is a packaging surplus, separate from the allowance initially added.

For a roll: width, length and pattern

A roll’s total area is its width multiplied by its length. But each piece to cut must fit in both dimensions. This applies to furniture film, fabric and wallpaper strips. A narrow roll may require a seam, a joint or a different product.

For patterned material, also check the repeat and match type. A repeating wallpaper motif may increase the length of each strip. With fabric, pattern direction and usable width affect the layout. Do not use one area-based formula for all these situations.

Make a short comparison

For each option, record the product, sales unit, quantity covered, units required and price entered at the time of purchase. Then compare the total cost and resulting surplus. CHF and EUR amounts must remain separate unless an exchange rate has been supplied.

A photo of the label and a calculation sheet save you looking up the specifications later. Before confirming your basket, check once more that the product, capacity and variant match your calculation inputs. The chosen product’s specifications remain the reference for the order.

Check the variant

A product sheet may cover several widths, sizes or capacities within one range. Make sure the specifications you copy match the variant in your basket. The product name alone is not always enough to identify the pack size you chose.