Linear Feet for Dummies, Again

Carpet is sold by the linear foot

We aren't really sure why, but the concept of "linear feet" seems to crop up with distressing regularity in the world of freelance dumbassery. Sure, the phrase might sound redundant, but with a little straightforward explanation, it becomes fairly easy to understand. The problem, as our staffers see it, is that the freelancers who write about it, like Kristen May of Hunker.com, don't understand it themselves. You can see May's confusion in the post, "What Is the Difference Between a Linear and a Square Foot?"

Let's get the answer out of the way right up front. Consider a sheet of plywood that is 4 feet wide and 8 feet long (for you communications majors, that's plywood's standard size). That comes out to 32 square feet of plywood. Now, consider a roll of carpet: you can't specify that you want a piece of carpet 12 feet long and nine feet wide, because the carpet only comes in rolls 10 feet wide. You can, however, specify that you want 12 linear feet of the carpet. Yes, you'll pay for 108 square feet, but them's the breaks.

May sort of nibbled about the edges of that explanation:

"When you're buying lumber for a project or material for a floor, you may see the price quoted based on linear feet or square feet. Linear feet indicates length and square feet is a measure of area, so the difference can be confusing. You usually see the price quoted in square feet for products like flooring and plywood, while trim and dimensioned [sic] lumber are usually sold by the linear foot. Carpeting, linoleum and other sheet flooring may be sold by the linear foot, but it's with the understanding that you multiply the length of the roll by the amount of linear feet you purchase to get the number of square feet you need."

OK, Kristen, listen up:

• Lumber is not sold by the linear foot, it's sold by the board foot or the running foot.
• No one quotes plywood prices in square feet, it's priced by the sheet.
• No, Kristen, you multiply the width of the roll by the number of linear feet...

May further demonstrates her fuzziness with linear feet when she says,

"Materials such as carpeting and fabrics may be sold either by the linear foot or the square foot. When sold by the square foot, divide the length of the roll into the total area to be covered to get the number of linear feet you need."

Unless May's definition of "length" is different from everyone else's, that's dead wrong. Whatever the case, even if she had properly said to divide the total area by the width of the roll, she would have been wrong: her solution does not allow for waste at the edges of the carpet. We are only too happy to point out that Kristen's ignorance is just the kind of freelance dumbassery that wins the Dumbass of the Day award.

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