Solve backwards

How many feet of wall will my rolls of cove base cover?

Commercial vinyl and rubber cove base comes in long rolls and goes on by the foot of wall, with doorways left out. Enter the rolls you have and the length of wall they base comes back at the calculator's 120 foot roll, about 36.5 m, with its five per cent for corner cuts and splices taken back off what you own.
  • 2 rollsThe example worked below
  • Vinyl/Rubber Cove Base Roll CalculatorEvery figure is its own

You have

How much cove base?

rolls

Worked by the Vinyl/Rubber Cove Base Roll Calculator at the settings below.

Saved amounts stay in this browser.

The settings it uses

Waste Allowance (%)
5
Standard Roll Length
120 ft

What it will do

Enough for 229 ft of wall base.

  1. One wall base. Enough for 229 ft of wall base.

  2. Or several. About 1 wall base of the size the Vinyl/Rubber Cove Base Roll Calculator opens on: 130 ft of wall base.

Check it forwards

Wall Perimeter (Minus Doorways)
229 ft
It asks for
2 rolls
You have
2 rolls

The Vinyl/Rubber Cove Base Roll Calculator asks for 2 rolls at that size, and 3 rolls one step larger.

Open this in the Vinyl/Rubber Cove Base Roll Calculator

If you had more, or less

Around your amount

Each worked by the Vinyl/Rubber Cove Base Roll Calculator at the same settings.

  1. Half

    1 roll

    114 ft of wall base

  2. Yours

    2 rolls

    229 ft of wall base

  3. Half as much again

    3 rolls

    343 ft of wall base

  4. Double

    4 rolls

    457 ft of wall base

Common amounts

What each amount of cove base covers

The sizes it is usually sold in, each worked by the Vinyl/Rubber Cove Base Roll Calculator at the settings above.

You haveIt coversAs one wall baseAverage wall bases
1 roll—114 ft of wall baseunder 1
2 rolls—229 ft of wall base1
3 rolls—343 ft of wall base1
5 rolls—571 ft of wall base2

A hundred and twenty feet a roll

Commercial resilient cove base is commonly sold in 120 foot (36.5 m) rolls, and the calculator opens there. Less its five per cent, one roll bases about 114 feet (34.8 m) of wall, and two about 229 feet (70 m). Five per cent suits a simple rectangular room; a layout with many inside and outside corners wants more. Measure the wall, subtract every doorway, and compare that length with the answer.

Every wall takes a whole piece

Dividing length by roll length assumes a roll can be spent to the last inch, and it cannot. Each wall takes one piece, and whatever is left when the remainder is shorter than the next wall is scrap. A 12 foot (3.7 m) square room with one 3 foot door has 45 feet of base, so a roll does about two and a half such rooms on paper — in practice two whole rooms and two walls of a third, with 6 feet left as scrap.

The adhesive stops the crew

The rolls are counted and nothing that fixes them is. Cove base adhesive is bought against length at its own spread rate — a US gallon (3.8 L) covers roughly a hundred metres, about 330 feet, of base through the right notched trowel, and much less over a coarse or wavy wall where more has to go on to make contact. Running out of adhesive, not base, is what stops the job, so order the two together.

How the answer is worked

Nothing here is a second formula. The Vinyl/Rubber Cove Base Roll Calculator runs forwards — a size in, a quantity out — and this page grows its own starting wall base in proportion until the quantity it asks for is what you have. Where it rounds up to whole containers, the answer is the largest size before the next one would be needed.

Where the calculator adds an allowance for cuts or breakage when you order, the same allowance comes off here, because it is the same calculator: a stack you already own finishes less than its face value. Where it adds none, neither does this page — the settings beside the answer say which.

Calculate how many rolls of resilient (vinyl/rubber) cove base are needed for a room's wall perimeter.

Work out what to buy instead

Solve backwards

Other things you might already have

Solve backwards

Start from what is already in the yard

Paint, sheets, rolls, bags and pieces, each read the other way by the calculator that orders it.

  • The calculator's own figures

    Nothing is estimated twice: the page runs the same calculator you would order with.

  • The largest size that fits

    Where a calculator rounds up to whole containers, the answer stops before the next one.

  • Both unit systems

    Gallons and litres, square feet and square metres, side by side.

Frequently asked questions

How much wall base does 2 rolls of cove base cover?
At the Vinyl/Rubber Cove Base Roll Calculator's own settings: Enough for 229 ft of wall base. That is about 1 wall base of the size the calculator opens on: 130 ft of wall base. Every figure follows the settings, which you can change in the calculator.
How long is a roll of cove base?
Commercial vinyl and rubber cove base is commonly sold in 120 foot (36.5 m) rolls, the calculator's default, but check your product's packaging: the roll count moves in direct proportion to the length on the roll, and a shorter roll leaves more scrap per wall.
How much cove base do I need for a room?
Measure the wall perimeter, subtract each doorway's width, and add five per cent for corners and splices. A 12 by 15 foot room with one 3 foot door has 51 feet of base, 53.6 with the allowance — under half a 120 foot roll. A 4 by 5 m room with a 0.9 m door needs about 18 m.
How much cove base adhesive per roll?
The calculator does not count adhesive, but its guidance is that a US gallon (3.8 L) covers roughly a hundred metres, about 330 feet, of base with the right notched trowel — nearly three 120 foot rolls — and much less over a rough or wavy wall. Buy it with the base.