Square Yards Calculator

What the square yards calculator does

Carpet, sod, and some fabrics are sold by the square yard, so it is the unit you order them in. This works it out. You give it a length and a width, and it returns the area in square yards, with a total cost if you add a price per yard.

It is the unit that matters at the flooring counter and the turf supplier. Below is how it works and why the conversion catches people out.

How to use it

1. Enter the length and width, each with its own unit, mixed however your measurements come.
2. Add a cost per yard if you want a total.
3. Press Calculate for the area, or Reset to clear it.

How the area is worked out

Area is length times width, once both are in yards:

Square yards = length × width

The calculator converts each measurement to yards first, whatever unit you entered it in, then multiplies the two. Add a price per yard and it multiplies the area by that for the total cost.

Why it is 9, not 3

The catch with square yards is the conversion from square feet, which feels like it should be 3 and is actually 9. A yard is three feet, so a square yard is a square three feet on each side, which is three times three, or 9 square feet. So to turn square feet into square yards, you divide by 9.

This trips people up at the flooring store, where a room measured in feet has to be ordered in yards. A 180 square foot room is not 60 square yards but 20, because of that division by 9. Measuring straight into the calculator avoids the slip, since it does the conversion for you.

A worked example: a room of carpet

Say you are carpeting a room 15 feet long and 12 feet wide.

In square feet that is 15 × 12 = 180. Dividing by 9 gives 20 square yards, which is what you would order the carpet by. A price per yard then totals the job.

So the room is 180 square feet but only 20 square yards, which is the kind of gap the division by 9 explains.

Where square yards is used

Square yards is the traditional unit for soft, rolled goods. Carpet is the big one, still quoted and sold by the square yard in many places, and sod or turf is often priced the same way. Some fabrics and tarpaulins follow suit, anything that comes off a roll a few feet wide.

So when you are buying those, the yard is the figure on the price tag, and this turns a room measured in feet into the unit you order in. For the same area in feet, the square footage calculator works in that unit, and they differ by the factor of 9.

Questions people ask

How do I calculate square yards?

Multiply length by width, with both in yards. Or measure in feet, multiply, and divide by 9. A 15 by 12 foot room is 20 square yards.

How many square feet are in a square yard?

Nine, because a yard is three feet and three times three is nine.

How do I convert square feet to square yards?

Divide by 9. So a 180 square foot room is 20 square yards.

Why is carpet sold by the square yard?

It is the traditional unit for rolled goods like carpet and sod. The calculator turns a room measured in feet into yards for ordering.

References

A quick note on the numbers. The area is plain geometry, length times width, and the division by 9 comes straight from a yard being three feet, so a square yard is three squared square feet. The unit conversions follow the US National Institute of Standards and Technology guide.

1. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Special Publication 811, Guide for the Use of the International System of Units (SI). https://www.nist.gov/pml/special-publication-811