unused materials are they mine?

vax2002

If he has only ordered 36m2 of material, the building trade is not some magical no law place where it matters not that you have been overcharged:
Lets simplify this.
You take your car to a garage for 4 new tyres, they quote 4 new tyres at £400, when you collect the car it only has 3 new tyres.
Would you
: Ask where the tyre was you had paid for
say nothing as you accepted the quote
Or insist you are charged for 3 tyres ?

Nilrem

vax you're comparing apples to chickens there.

When you measure for any job that requires bits to be cut to length you allow an excess - as has been said already, sometimes you'll end up cutting boards to length and have a load of offcuts that are useless for any other part of the job.
For example if you need to cut to length, you might find the offcut is then 1" short of what's needed anywhere else on the job (unless you're happy having a bodge with a couple of short cuts to make the length).
Likewise if you have to cut an angle on one side, that can mean wasting most of a board.

I've had fun doing tiling and the like around my house, and usually ended up using more than the straight basic measurements suggested due to off cuts/things not square.

Replacing a cars tires on the other hand is a job that has a very simple,. fixed number of parts needed.

MX5huggy

42 square yards = 35.12 sq meters

A possible source of confusion.

For get counting boxes, how big is the area laid?

iamcornholio

A m2 pack of flooring does not cover a m2 of floor - there are always offcuts which can't be used

ukjoel

Carpet fitters are the worst for this.

They always are very keen to pack away the unused underlay tackboards that they can use later or sell on but the carpet remnants get let in a pile in the corner.