How do I calculate baseboard?

Per wall, not by perimeter. A 12×14 room has 52ft of perimeter, suggesting 5 sticks of 12ft — but you need 6, because each 14ft wall takes two sticks and the offcuts fit nowhere else.

Do I subtract doorways from baseboard?

Yes — you don't run baseboard across an opening. But it reduces material more than it reduces stick count, since a wall interrupted by a door is still two runs each needing their own piece.

How do I join baseboard on a long wall?

Scarf it — cut both pieces at 45° so they overlap, glue, and land the joint over a stud. Two butted square ends will open into a dark line the first winter.

Baseboard Calculator – Sticks Per Wall

The Room

Room Shape

Room Size

ft ×ft

Wall Lengths (ft)

Door Openings

Door Width Each

The Baseboard

Stock Length

$ Per Foot — overwrite

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Sticks To Buy

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Perimeter

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Less Doorways

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Linear Feet Bought

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Offcut Waste

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Naive Count

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Cost

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Per Wall

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How We Calculated

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Baseboard Calculator Guide

Baseboard counted per wall, the same way crown molding has to be — because the total linear feet is not the number you can buy against.

Why Per Wall

A 12×14 room has 52ft of perimeter. Divide by 12ft stock and you get 5.
You need 6. A 14ft wall cannot be built from a 12ft stick plus a 2ft offcut without a visible joint, and that 2ft offcut fits no other wall.
Every wall is its own problem.

Doorways Come Off, Corners Don't

Subtract door openings — you don't run baseboard across them. That's the one legitimate deduction.

But subtracting them doesn't reduce the number of sticks as much as you'd hope, because a wall interrupted by a door is still two runs that each need their own piece. A 14ft wall with a door in the middle uses less material and often the same number of sticks.

Cope the Inside Corners

Same rule as crown molding, same reason. Two mitered pieces meeting at an inside corner will open up as the wood moves with humidity, and no room is exactly 90° anyway.

A coped joint — one piece cut square to the wall, the other cut to follow its profile — closes as the wood moves instead of gapping. Outside corners still get mitered, and those you glue.

The Wall Isn't Flat and the Floor Isn't Level

Baseboard is the piece that has to reconcile both. Long runs will show a gap at the top where the wall bows, or at the bottom where the floor dips.

The trade solution is caulk at the top and shoe molding at the bottom — not because anyone is cheating, but because those two members exist precisely to absorb the difference between real houses and drawings. Plan for shoe molding on any floor that isn't new.

Scarf the Joints You Can't Avoid

On a wall longer than your stock, you have no choice but to join. Don't butt two square ends together — that joint opens into a dark line the first winter.

Cut both pieces at 45° so they overlap, glue the joint, and land it over a stud. It stays closed as the wood moves and it's nearly invisible once painted.

Buy Extra

At least one stick beyond this. Coping goes wrong while you're learning it, profiles get discontinued, and a second trip mid-project is its own kind of expensive.

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