Flooring cost calculator

Flooring is priced per square foot of floor, installed, and the material sets most of the price. We combined the per-square-foot installed ranges from HomeAdvisor, Bob Vila and Modernize. Where three guides price a material, the low is the middle of their lows, the high is the middle of their highs, and the typical price is the middle of their midpoints. Where two do, we average them.

The ranges are wide because each covers cheap and premium products. A $1.50 vinyl plank and a $7 one install the same way, but they do not look or wear the same. As whole jobs, HomeAdvisor's average flooring installation is $3,153 with a normal range of $1,528 to $4,850, Bob Vila's is $3,067 for 500 sq ft, and Thumbtack's national average is $2,455.

• Luxury vinyl plank. Waterproof, warm underfoot and quick to lay as a floating click-lock floor. It suits kitchens, basements and homes with pets. Modernize notes a good $6 a sq ft LVP floor can make more sense than a $15 hardwood one in laundry rooms and mudrooms.
• Laminate. A photo layer on a fiberboard core. Looks like wood for less and resists scratches, but most kinds do not like standing water.
• Engineered hardwood. A real wood top layer on plywood. It handles humidity changes better than solid wood and can go over concrete, and it can usually be refinished once or twice.
• Solid hardwood. Can be sanded and refinished many times. Unfinished boards finished on site cost $2 to $8 a sq ft more, according to Modernize, but give a seamless, custom-colored floor.
• Tile. The most durable choice for wet rooms. Labor is the big cost: setting, cutting and grouting tile takes much longer than clicking planks together.
• Carpet. The cheapest to install and the softest. Modernize puts pad at $0.75 to $1.75 a sq ft, and a better pad makes a cheaper carpet feel and last better.

If you are buying the flooring yourself and paying only for installation, the material is the part you control. Thumbtack's materials-only prices per square foot give a sense of the spread before labor:

This Old House shows the same thing for a 200 sq ft room: hardwood from about $2,017 to $6,676, ceramic tile from $2,258 to $7,905, laminate from $910 to $4,204 and vinyl from $517 to $1,821. The bottom of each range is a basic product; the top is a designer one. Pick the look first, then compare two or three products at different prices in the same style. The difference between a mid-grade and a premium plank is often smaller on the floor than on the price tag.

Think about the room as well as the material. Kitchens, bathrooms, laundry rooms and basements need a floor that shrugs off water, which points to tile, LVP or a waterproof laminate. Bedrooms are where carpet still makes the most sense. Main living areas are where people splurge on wood, because that is where it is seen.

Modernize breaks removal down by what is coming up: carpet is about $0.70 to $1.60 a sq ft, laminate or LVP $2 to $3, hardwood $1.75 to $3.50, tile $2 to $7, and glued-down floors $3 to $5 or more. Some installers include removal in the price and some do not, so ask.

Subfloor repair is the classic surprise. Under an old bathroom or a kitchen sink, the plywood is often soft. A good installer will tell you the price per square foot before starting, so a surprise is a known number.

An owner is replacing worn carpet in a living room, dining room and hall, 500 sq ft in all, with luxury vinyl plank. The installer will pull the old carpet and pad.

• LVP, installed. 500 sq ft × $3 / $9 / $15 = $1,500 / $4,500 / $7,500.
• Tear-out. 500 sq ft × $1 / $3.50 / $6 = $500 / $1,750 / $3,000.
• Total. $2,000 to $10,500, with $6,250 typical at the US average.

Carpet comes up faster than the general tear-out rate, so the real removal line is likely near the low end; Modernize's carpet-only figure would be $350 to $800. Enter a ZIP in the calculator to scale the labor share to your state.

The same 500 sq ft with other floors, tear-out included, at the typical price:

Going from carpet to tile across the same rooms adds about $5,125 typical. Going from LVP to engineered hardwood adds about $1,375, which is why engineered wood is a common step up for main living areas. Mixing floors is normal: tile in the bathroom, LVP in the kitchen and hall, carpet in the bedrooms.

• Layout. Open, square rooms go fast. Many small rooms, closets, angles and doorways mean more cuts and more transitions.
• Pattern. Herringbone, diagonal and mixed-width layouts take longer and waste more material.
• Installation method. Modernize puts basic installation of laminate, carpet and click-lock LVP at $1.50 to $3.50 a sq ft, standard engineered and tile at $3 to $6, and complex solid hardwood, custom tile and glue-down work at $5 to $10.
• The floor underneath. Concrete may need leveling and a moisture barrier. Wood subfloors may need screws, patches or replacement.
• Moving things. Appliances, toilets, baseboards and furniture all have to come out and go back.
• Hazards. HomeAdvisor and Bob Vila put asbestos removal at $5 to $20 a sq ft and mold remediation at $10 to $25 a sq ft if either turns up.

Click-lock LVP and laminate are the most do-it-yourself friendly floors, because they float on an underlayment and need only a saw, spacers and patience. Labor is a large share of those floors' price, so a careful homeowner can save a good part of the bill. Solid hardwood, tile and carpet are harder: nailers, wet saws, thinset, seams and stretching all take practice, and mistakes are visible for years.

Whoever does it, let the flooring sit in the room for the time the maker asks so it adjusts to the temperature and humidity, keep the expansion gap at the walls, and keep the leftover boxes. A few spare boards make a future repair invisible.

Plan the order of work too. Flooring goes in after painting walls and before baseboards, and after any cabinets in a kitchen remodel, unless the installer prefers to run under them. Book it after the messy trades are done, so a dropped tool or a wet paint can does not mark a brand new floor. Ask whether the quote includes removing and refitting baseboards and shoe molding, transition strips at doorways, and cutting door bottoms so they clear a thicker floor.

• Measure every room and add waste: more for diagonal and patterned layouts, less for open rooms.
• Separate supply and labor if the customer may buy the flooring, and say what happens if their material is short or damaged.
• Price prep as its own lines. Tear-out, leveling, subfloor repair, baseboard and transitions, so the customer sees them.
• Charge stairs per step and appliances and toilets per item.
• Mind the margin. Our profit margin calculator and markup calculator show the price that keeps it.

The "Save as an estimate" button above turns the result into lines. Send it from Koira and the customer can sign and pay a deposit on their phone.