Roll cut optimiser

Stop paying for carpet you throw in the skip

PlanIt's roll cut optimiser plans every room, stair and landing across the roll together — so offcuts from one room cover the next. Order less, quote sharper, keep the margin.

Start free trial — no card Try the waste calculator

Free trial, no card. From £19 per user a month with unlimited quotes. See pricing.

Why waste happens on every quote

Carpet and vinyl come off the roll in fixed widths — usually 4m or 5m in the UK. Quote each room on its own and every room leaves its own offcut. Across a whole house, that adds up fast.

Room-by-room quoting

Measure lounge, add 10%. Measure bedroom, add 10%. Each room carries its own allowance, and none of the offcuts get reused. It's the industry habit — and it's expensive.

Stairs make it worse

Stairs, winders and landings are irregular pieces. Planned by hand, they usually get their own generous length of roll — even when they'd fit neatly beside a room cut.

Margin quietly leaks

Over-ordering means either the customer pays more than they need to — and you lose the job to a sharper quote — or you absorb it and lose the margin. Both cost you.

How the optimiser works

PlanIt treats the whole job as one cutting plan, the way an experienced estimator would with a pencil, graph paper and an hour to spare — done in seconds.

1

Enter the job

Add rooms, stairs and landings with their dimensions. Pick the roll width — 4m or 5m — and the product. There's an Add Stairs shortcut for the fiddly bits.

2

The optimiser nests the cuts

A 2D cutting algorithm places every piece on the roll, keeping pile direction consistent and seams where you'd want them. You see the plan drawn out, not just a number.

3

Quote with confidence

The exact linear metres go straight into your quote with your pricing and margin. Print or email a professional PDF the customer can say yes to on the spot.

Quick waste check: what's room-by-room quoting costing you?

Enter a job below. We'll compare a traditional room-by-room order against a nested cutting plan estimate. It's an illustration — the full optimiser in PlanIt plans the actual cuts.

Your result

Add your rooms and hit calculate.

Estimates assume consistent pile direction and standard trimming allowances. Actual savings depend on the job — the in-app optimiser produces the real cutting plan.

Built for the trade, not the takeoff office

Most estimating software is aimed at commercial contractors scaling architects' drawings. PlanIt is built around how flooring shops and fitters actually work.

Rooms, not blueprints

Measurements come from a tape in a customer's hallway, not a PDF plan. Enter them the way you wrote them down.

Real UK roll widths

4m and 5m broadloom, cut lengths, roll ends. The optimiser thinks in the stock you actually sell.

Quote to job in one flow

Estimating, quoting, and a pipeline that tracks every job from enquiry to fitted — in one place, with your branding on every document.

Frequently asked questions

How does a roll cut optimiser reduce carpet waste?
Carpet and vinyl come in fixed roll widths — usually 4m or 5m in the UK. When rooms are planned one at a time, the offcut from each room is wasted. The optimiser plans every room, stair and landing across the roll together, nesting the cuts so offcuts from one piece cover another. On multi-room jobs this routinely reduces the total length you need to order.
Does the optimiser handle stairs and landings?
Yes. Stairs, winders and landings are added as pieces with their own dimensions, and the optimiser places them within the cutting plan alongside your rooms. There's a dedicated Add Stairs shortcut to speed this up. See our trade guide to measuring stairs and landings for carpet.
Does it respect pile direction and seam placement?
Yes. Pieces keep a consistent pile direction down the roll, and you stay in control of where seams fall — the optimiser proposes a plan and you can adjust it before the quote goes out.
What does PlanIt Estimating cost?
From £19 per user per month excluding VAT, with unlimited quotes, rooms and optimiser runs on every plan. You start on a free Professional trial with no card — it ends at 14 days or your third completed quote, whichever comes first. Three-month minimum after that, then monthly rolling, cancel in the app. See the full pricing.
Who is PlanIt Estimating built for?
Independent flooring retailers, carpet shops and fitters in the UK. It's not commercial takeoff software for measuring architects' drawings — it's built around how flooring businesses actually quote: rooms, stairs, rolls, waste and margin.

See your first cutting plan today

Full access to estimating, the roll cut optimiser, quoting and CRM on a free trial — no card taken. From £19 per user a month after that, with unlimited quotes.

Start free trial