Carpet Planning Wiki

Carpet planning is the technical step between a customer's floorplan and the documents a factory, installer, and sales team can act on. A planner reads the project geometry, chooses the correct company template, assigns carpet IDs, lays out broadloom rolls or modular tile fields, shows seams and pile direction, calculates the required material, and keeps the downstream paperwork synchronized.

The finished planning package is not just a drawing. It is an audit chain that links a seaming plan, a take-off report, an order detail, and often a quote.

Actors

The planner sits in the middle. If the planner changes a seam, a carpet ID, a loom width, an attic-stock quantity, or a revision number, the effect can travel into the factory order, customer quote, and installation plan.

Artifact flow

This flow appears throughout the wiki. In the SP00015398 example, the same SP00015398-01-PR10 identifier appears in the seaming DWG, take-off report, order detail, and quote. That shared project and revision token is the easiest way to verify that the package belongs together.

A colourbook and design data feed into both the seaming plan and the quote (product description and colour count).

Product families

Key quantities

The most important planning habit is reconciliation. The take-off should summarize the seaming plan. The order detail should expand the take-off into producible cuts. The quote should price the same IDs, quantities, units, and attic-stock choices.

This chapter describes the document chain a planner follows when turning a customer's floorplan into production and commercial documents. It is based on the canonical SP00015398 example set — "Jen Singapore Tanglin corridor", project SP00015398-01-PR10 — a corridor/stair project.

1 · Floorplan intake

The process begins with a customer floorplan, usually a DWG or PDF. The planner's first job is to understand the areas to be carpeted, separate spaces by carpet ID, and confirm the unit system. The SP00015398 example output includes floor areas for FLOOR16, FLOOR17, FLOOR18, and STAIR FL 17. At this stage the planner should identify the likely brand, region, and measurement convention.

2 · Template setup

The planner opens or copies the appropriate AutoCAD template before drafting. The template provides company-standard drawing setup: title blocks, layers, annotations, and expected working units. It is the control point that keeps the seaming diagram, quantities, and exported paperwork consistent across planners — not just a blank canvas.

3 · Seaming plan

The seaming plan is the AutoCAD deliverable that translates the customer's layout into manufacturable carpet pieces — Seaming_SP00015398-01-PR10_12-3-26.dwg. DWG files are binary in this corpus, so the wiki infers their role from filename, sibling spreadsheets, and document flow: the seaming plan identifies carpet IDs, panel/cut locations, seam layout, roll direction, and the dimensions needed for take-off and order detail.

4 · Take-off report

The take-off report is the quantity summary. It has a "Take-off report" sheet and a "Sales Force" sheet, and its main table rolls up each carpet ID by design number, loom width, repeat, description, square meters required, nett area, attic stock, and item total.

For SP00015398, the report summarizes AX4, AX3, AX6, and AX5 at 3.66 m loom width:

It also lists cushion and adhesive sundries such as Tred-MOR cushion, seam sealer, carpet adhesive, cushion adhesive, and pressure-sensitive adhesive.

5 · Order detail

The order detail converts the take-off into a production cut sheet, with both "Square Meters" and "Square Yards" sheets — useful for cross-checking metric planning against US-facing or factory-facing units. It breaks each carpet ID into individual panels or groups, for example AX4 pieces for FLOOR 16 like AX4- 1,2, AX4, 3,4, and AX4- 10-11, 13-18, 20-25. The metric-sheet totals align with the take-off: 673.91 required, 41.72 attic stock, 715.63 total.

6 · Quote

The quote is the commercial document (sheets "CUSTOM QUOTE" and "Drop Down Lists"). It imports project identity, sales rep, and product lines, then adds product description, colour count, backing, required quantity, attic stock, total quantity, UOM, unit price, and total price. In the example, AX4, AX3, AX6, and AX5 are priced at 30 per m², producing a grand total of 21,468.90. The quote also carries terms: validity, freight exclusions, payment requirements, manufacturing overage, lead time, country of origin, tariff language, and California stewardship language.

This chapter explains the core planning documents and how each links to the others. The five document types are the seaming plan, the take-off report, the order detail, the quote, and the colourbook.

Seaming plan

The AutoCAD drawing that converts the customer's floorplan into carpet pieces that can be manufactured and installed. It should be considered the geometry source of truth. DWG files are binary, so the field list below describes the planning information the drawing is expected to carry, inferred from the sibling take-off and order-detail files.

Take-off report

The quantity summary — sheets "Take-off report" and "Sales Force". The RTUS blank template Take off report.xltx uses square-yard language in the main fields.

Order detail

The cut-sheet for production, with "Square Meters" and "Square Yards" sheets. The RTUS template adds fields for suggested mill overage and stipple calculations.

Quote

The commercial document — sheets "CUSTOM QUOTE" and "Drop Down Lists". It should not be re-imagined from the drawing; it should be reconciled to the quantities the planner already calculated.

Colourbook

Supports design/colour communication — the example CPT Colourbook.xlsx has one sheet, "Tai Ping Colors", linking most directly to seaming/design review and the quote's product description.

Template files

Metric vs feet-inch

The SP00015398 take-off reports loom width 3.66 and square meters (673.91 required / 41.72 attic / 715.63 total). The order detail carries both "Square Meters" and "Square Yards" sheets — the m² sheet uses roll lengths in meters, the SY sheet uses feet. RTUS templates are US-facing: "Sq Yds Required", "Panel SY", "Roll Lengths (feet)", Calhoun, Georgia terms.

Royal Thai vs Carpet Inter

Drawing templates separate brand context — Royal Thai (metric + feet-inch) versus Carpet Inter's own DWG template. Choose the template that matches the entity issuing the deliverable; this affects title blocks, labeling standards, and layer/annotation conventions. The Order Detail template title is "Factory Order Detail" with an internal "Tai Ping Order #:" label, while the SP example uses "Royal Thai Order #:". Keep brand language consistent across the plan, take-off, order detail, and quote before issue.

Project number pattern

The canonical project number is SP00015398-01-PR10:

Date suffixes & filename prefixes

The seaming DWG uses a compact date suffix 12-3-26; the take-off shows Date:12-3-2026; the order detail revision date is March 12, 2026. Because day/month order is ambiguous across regions, preserve the exact filename string and record the spreadsheet's full date. Template DWGs use suffixes like 03-07-2026 and 11-3-25 — these are template version dates, not project issue dates.

Practical naming rules

1. Keep the complete project/revision token intact: SP########-##-PR##.
2. Put the document type first when possible: Seaming_, Take off_, Order Detail_.
3. Preserve the plan revision in every downstream document. A PR10 quote should not mix with another PR's order detail.
4. Use the same date across a coordinated issue set.
5. Keep unit and brand visible through the template choice.
6. When a file has a generic name, verify project name, number, and date inside the workbook first.

Broadloom carpet planning starts with a fixed manufacturing width. The loom makes a continuous roll at that width, and the planner decides how room shapes, pattern repeat, pile direction, seams, and spare stock fit into roll lengths. Work appears in three width folders: 2.50/, 3.66/, and 4.00/.

Loom widths in this corpus

Anatomy of a take-off

SM Required is what must be manufactured; Net Area is the installed footprint; Attic Stock is spare material deliberately ordered beyond required. The note "Manufacturing overages are not included on this takeoff" appears on every take-off — so mill overage ≠ attic stock.

Order detail anatomy — reconciliation

Waste & attic stock

Planning waste ≈ (SM Required − Net Area) / Net Area. It reflects fixed loom width, repeat matching, pile direction, geometry, and roll grouping — not a judgment on the planner.

Seam planning, repeat & sundries

Plotted PDFs turn the spreadsheet quantities into installable pieces: the Four Seasons PDF labels page 1 SEAMING PLAN, page 2 WEAVING PLAN, notes ARROWS INDICATE PILE DIRECTION, marks dashed lines as seam locations, and shows manufactured-roll blocks like 15.40 × 2.50 m. Emirates Palace shows drop orientation WEST/EAST/DROP 1–8; KLCC warns curved-space carpet is made straight and stretched to fit, with possible pattern mismatch.

Repeat is recorded as AX across all broadloom take-offs; the source files do not expand the abbreviation, so the wiki treats it exactly as written. Within these scoped broadloom examples, order details are carpet-manufacturing documents rather than installation-sundry bills — no cushion or adhesive order lines were found in the named set (the MBS plan's "PAD Training Flooring Zone" label is a room label, not a sundry line).

Carpet tile planning starts from a different assumption than broadloom. Instead of optimizing roll lengths, the planner converts measured area into modular pieces, then into boxes. The useful source is Carpet Tile/SP00019922-01-PR01.pdf, a two-option plan for an 11th-floor area. Its legend uses Thai and English together: พรมคุณภาพ = quality carpet, แผ่น = pieces/tiles; qualities are FLATLANDS #FL28, #FL24, #FL04, #FL38.

Extracted tile quantities

Laying pattern & direction

Both pages are labeled Checkerboard (Option 1 / Option 2). A checkerboard install alternates tile orientation or colour by module, so the estimator counts each quality separately even though all share the 0.50 × 0.50 m size. Other examples in the folder use different modules: SP00019262 uses Foundation/Groundwork tiles, while SP00017184 and SP154994 Holiday Inn Hua Hin show 0.25 × 1.00 m plank-style tile. The pile-direction note still matters — in a checkerboard the alternation is intentional but must still match the approved plan, not become random rotation.

How tile take-offs differ from broadloom

The designer can change the visual distribution between qualities without changing the total ordered area. Tile planning is modular and inventory-oriented; broadloom planning is roll-oriented.

Stairs break the simple room-area model because each tread, riser, landing, and loose-laid rug section behaves like a small panel. The source is Cambridge House Hotel, London — project SP00003413-01-PR04, dated 27-09-2023. The seaming schedule includes five stair items: ST06, ST15, ST24 (labeled Stairs <W T W>, wall-to-wall) and ST94, ST95 (labeled Stairs <Loose Laid> RUG-Binding edge).

Take-off summary

The gap between 400.40 m² net area and 671.86 SM required is the stair-planning lesson: many pieces are too small or constrained to pack perfectly into a 3.66 m loom width. The order must provide manufacturable roll lengths for groups of pieces, not just match surface area.

Piece groups & roll lengths

The seaming PDF shows why: Stair 6 has pieces like ST06-1 1.42×3.21 and ST06-30 1.83×2.25, then lays them out under Manufacture Roll labels such as ST06 10.08 3.66 and ST24 22.36 3.66. The order detail is the bridge between stair-by-stair field dimensions and factory roll production.

Pile & installation risks

• On stairs, a change of pile direction can make adjacent treads and landings look like different colours under light — keep direction continuous through each flight, making unavoidable changes at landings or edges where pieces already separate.
• Seams and joins carry more trip risk. Thresholds should cover joins between different pile heights in doorways; on stairs, keep joins away from nosing lines and traffic strike zones unless the construction detail requires otherwise.
• The 291.11 m of binding edge must correspond to every exposed rug perimeter after cutting.

Complex planning covers spaces where a single rectangular broadloom assumption breaks down: curved corridors, cinemas with multiple zones, and auditoria split by level and tier. Examples: Curved Corridor/SP00014007-01-PR06, Cinema/SP00008272-09-PR01, Auditorium/SP00016139-01-PR09. The specialty cases still use fixed loom widths and roll lengths, but geometry drives more cutting, grouping, and field judgment.

Curved corridor

Hardrock Hotel — Resort World Sentosa. The take-off lists 383.59 m² net area but 576.82 SM required. The revised PDF makes the constraint explicit: carpet is made in a straight roll, stretched to fit the curved space on site, with small sections cut from the inner radius, producing slight pattern mismatch — which is why required m² far exceeds net floor area.

Cinema

An eight-page plan with schedule codes CINEMA 1–4, plus CORRIDOR, LOBBY [RUG AREA], and E-TICKET [RUG AREA]. The extraction includes Thai words ขึ้น (up), ลง (down), เทปรีด (heat tape). No aisle-lighting note was visible, so the safe reading is limited to the plan labels.

Cinema planning is complex because the carpet is not one uninterrupted hall. The planner separates audience rooms from circulation and rug zones, then verifies that carpet edges, naplock, and underlay perimeter match the real transitions at concessions, tickets, and thresholds.

Auditorium by level

The package is explicitly level-based — subfolders Lv+00.00/, Lv+06.00/, Lv+12.00/ each with their own take-off and order detail. The Lv+00.00 seaming plan warns about Design Limitation on Curve Stair-Step: curved risers need extra overlap carpet, cut back during installation, with inevitable pattern mismatch. It states Stair Nosing = 515.00 M.

The order details show the factory view of the same split — e.g. Lv+00.00 CP02 becomes nine rolls totaling 656.84 SM and 164.21 m of roll length. This per-level structure prevents one auditorium number from hiding the real problem: curved risers, tiered seating, balconies, lobbies, and nosing all need separate roll and installation logic.

This chapter reads three real deliverable sets as project packages to see how the same carpet IDs and quantities move from planning documents into factory and commercial documents.

Case 1 · Okada Manila PED-2025-270F

The cleanest self-contained Asia-style set. The folder contains the drawing source, plan PDF, take-off, and factory order detail in both PDF and workbook form.

The flow is visible by matching totals: take-off CP1 Zone A = 6,201.51 and CP2 Zone B = 2,118.15 become Totals Line 1 and Totals Line 2 in the order detail — proving the take-off is the control total for the factory order, which then explodes CP1 into pieces like CP1-1,30 with roll lengths 12.30 m and 29.30 m.

Case 2 · RTUS Custom Project 12564-03 R3

The most complete RTUS custom set — Nashville Music City Center Phase 3, RTUS five-digit job number with revision suffix.

The same IDs move across the package. AX22 (GX085565C043, Meeting Room 101) is 1,093.02 SY in take-off, quote, and order detail. AX23 shows why attic stock matters: Meeting Room 102 is 469.22 SY required plus FULL REPLACEMENT attic of 469.22 SY = 938.44 SY total, mirrored in the quote (938.44 total, 32,676.48 extended). The take-off also recommends consumables (2 cases 5710 seam adhesive, 865 pails 5615, 385 pails 5611, 385 pails 5809), priced in the quote (5710 at 220.26, 5615 at 65.85).

Case 3 · RTUS Marriott Classic Select 20701-01

A program/spec product set rather than a large custom ballroom package — Marriott Residence Inn Marble Falls TX, product IDs 363077, 363079, 363121, 365466.

This corpus uses filenames as a lightweight revision ledger. For RTUS work, the filename carries job number, revision, document type, and US-style date. For Asia/customer-reference work, the reference can be a customer number like PED-2025-270F, while the workbook carries issue date and totals.

Revision workflow

Quote anatomy

The clearest real quote is 12564-03 R3 Quote 2-20-26.xlsx — Nashville Music City Center Phase 3, Sales Rep Jennifer Butler.

The pipeline: drawing/seaming defines geometry → take-off summarizes quantities → quote prices them → order detail converts approved scope into manufacturable line items.

Asia vs RTUS conventions

A release checklist distilling the habits that repeat across the wiki. Every item is traceable to a topic page and, where useful, a cited example file.

Planning & seam layout

• Start from the correct template before drafting — Royal Thai metric for meter work, Royal Thai feet-inch or RTUS for US-facing, Carpet Inter for that brand.
• Keep the seaming plan as the geometry source of truth. If a seam, panel label, carpet ID, or roll direction changes, re-check take-off and order detail before release.
• Design broadloom seams around manufacturable widths, not just visual zones — panel area ÷ loom width becomes roll length, so every seam must be producible.
• Separate specialty geometry into logical zones: stairs → piece groups; cinemas → room/corridor/lobby/rug; auditoria → level-based workbooks.

Pile direction & repeats

• Preserve pile-direction arrows through the whole drawing set — treat them as installation instructions, not decoration.
• Do not guess unexplained repeat abbreviations. The pages record AX exactly as shown and avoid inventing a definition.
• Call out curved-space limitations before the job reaches site: straight-roll manufacture, stretching, inner-radius trimming, extra overlap, and visible pattern mismatch.

Waste control & attic stock

• Track net area, required area, and attic stock as separate numbers.
• Explain high planning waste through geometry and loom constraints — a small 3.66 m job can show higher relative waste than a very large corridor.
• Do not confuse attic stock with manufacturing overage; overage is excluded from take-offs, attic stock is a planner-controlled quantity in all totals.
• For tile, round by module and box logic rather than roll waste (0.50 × 0.50 m tiles → piece counts → 20-tile boxes).

Document QA & reconciliation

• Reconcile totals in sequence: seaming → take-off → order detail → quote.
• Check both summary and expanded rows — a take-off total can look correct while an order-detail line has a mismatched unit, roll length, or attic allocation.
• Verify quote rows against measured quantities before sales issue.
• Include accessories when required: cinema underlay/smoothedge/naplock/heat tape, RTUS pad and adhesive rows, stair binding-edge checks.

Revision hygiene & naming

• Keep the complete project and revision token intact everywhere (SP00015398-01-PR10, 12564-03 R3).
• Read both filename and workbook header — HT 19241-01 R2 proves a filename can say R2 while content says R1.
• Treat UPDATED, edited, _R1, R2, R3 as revision signals requiring a document-set check.
• Avoid generic issue filenames; if a file is only Quote.xlsx, open it and confirm project name, number, date, and line totals.

Regional conventions

• Keep Asia and RTUS unit systems separate until a deliberate conversion is required (m² + metric rolls vs SY + feet).
• Choose document labels that match the issuing context — Royal Thai, Tai Ping, Carpet Inter, and RTUS use different title blocks, order-number labels, and terms.
• Preserve the customer's numbering style when it is the package anchor (Okada's PED-2025-270F).

Glossary

Source corpus map

The wiki cites example folders rather than abstract rules: