What this calculator does
Square yards are the usual unit for carpet, turf and some landscaping in the US, while the measurements taken on site are often in feet. Since there are 9 square feet in a square yard rather than 3, converting the area is a different operation from converting the lengths, and dividing by 3 instead of 9 is a common and expensive slip.
This calculator takes length and width in whichever unit you measured, works out the area, and reports it in square yards alongside square feet and square metres so any quote can be checked against any of them.
The formula
Convert both measurements to metres, multiply them for the area in square metres, then divide by 0.83612736 for square yards or by 0.09290304 for square feet. Those factors follow from a yard being exactly 0.9144 metres and a foot exactly 0.3048 metres.
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Square yard | The area of a square one yard on each side, equal to exactly 9 square feet or about 0.836 square metres. |
| Square foot | The area of a square one foot on each side. Nine of them make a square yard. |
The inputs explained
| Field | What to enter |
|---|---|
| Length | The length of the area, in the unit selected below. |
| Width | The width of the area, in the same unit as the length. |
| Measurements are in | The unit both measurements are in. Mixing feet and metres between the two fields gives a meaningless area. |
When to use it
Ordering carpet
Carpet is frequently priced per square yard while rooms are measured in feet, so the area has to be converted before a price can be worked out.
Buying turf or topsoil
Landscaping suppliers quote in square yards or square metres depending on the country, and the same measured area needs to be presented in whichever unit the supplier uses.
Checking a quote
Recalculating the area from your own measurements is a quick way to confirm that a quoted figure was worked out from the same room you measured.
Worked examples
Every figure in the tables below is produced by this page’s own calculator at build time, so the numbers and the tool always agree. Select any row to load that scenario.
How many square yards is a room 9 feet wide?
A 9 foot width with the length varied.
| Length | Area | Square feet |
|---|---|---|
| 10 ft | 10.00 yd² | 90.00 ft² |
| 12 ft | 12.00 yd² | 108.00 ft² |
| 15 ft | 15.00 yd² | 135.00 ft² |
| 20 ft | 20.00 yd² | 180.00 ft² |
Questions
Why 9 square feet in a square yard and not 3?
A yard is 3 feet long, but area is two dimensional, so both sides get multiplied by 3. Three feet by three feet is 9 square feet, which is why the area factor is the square of the length factor.
Is a square yard the same as a yard of fabric?
No. Fabric sold by the yard is a length off a roll of fixed width, so a yard of 60 inch fabric is 1.67 square yards. The unit sounds the same but describes a different quantity.
Should I add extra for wastage?
Yes, for anything cut to fit. This calculator returns the measured area only; an allowance for offcuts and pattern matching is added on top, and for carpet or turf it is usually significant.
What if the space is not rectangular?
Split it into rectangles, calculate each one separately and add the results. An L-shaped room is two rectangles, and measuring it as one overall rectangle overstates the area considerably.
For metric areas, see the square metre calculator. For land in larger units, see the hectares to acres converter.