Flooring costs, materials and planning guides
The one surface in the house you touch every day, priced per square foot and decided by what is underneath it.
What new flooring costs
New flooring runs $1,500 – $10,000 per room-sized area depending on what you lay, and the material band is wide: carpet at the bottom, tile and solid hardwood at the top, with vinyl plank now sitting where most American houses actually land.
Flooring is quoted per square foot installed, and the quoted rate assumes a subfloor that is sound, dry and flat. It very often is not, which is why tear-out and levelling are the lines that separate a quote from an invoice.
Every guide here works from that logic. The cost guide prices each material per square foot, scales it by area, and then lists what gets added: lifting the old floor, levelling what is under it, stairs, patterns and trim. No estimate here asks for your phone number.
What moves the price of new flooring
$1,500 $10,000
Per room, installedEvery flooring quote moves on:
- Material; carpet to tile is roughly a fourfold spread
- Floor area, and how many rooms it crosses
- Tear-out, and the state of the subfloor beneath
- Stairs, patterns and the trim that finishes the edges
Figures on this page are indicative national brackets, not quotes. Your number depends on the size, complexity and condition of the job itself, and on what local crews are charging when you buy. Use them to judge a bid, not to replace one.
What each flooring material costs installed
| Material | Installed cost per sq. ft., installed | Lifespan | Who it suits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Carpet | $2 – $6 | 5 – 15 years | Cheapest to buy and fastest to fit, and the only floor here that wears out rather than ages. Bedrooms and stairs, rarely anywhere water goes. |
| Laminate | $3 – $8 | 10 – 25 years | A photograph of wood under a wear layer, clicked together over foam. Convincing at a distance, and finished the day it fails at a seam. |
| Luxury vinyl plank | $4 – $12 | 15 – 25 years | The floor that took over American houses in a decade. Waterproof, forgiving of an imperfect subfloor, and impossible to refinish. |
| Engineered hardwood | $6 – $14 | 20 – 40 years | Real wood on a plywood core, stable enough for a basement or over concrete. Refinishable once or twice, depending on the veneer. |
| Solid hardwood | $8 – $18 | 40 – 100 years | The only floor on this list you can sand back to new, several times. It moves with humidity, which is why it belongs above grade. |
| Ceramic or porcelain tile | $7 – $20 | 50 – 100 years | Mostly a labor cost, and the labor is the product: flatness, layout and a proper mortar bed decide whether it lasts a lifetime or cracks in a season. |
Installed cost covers material and labor on a sound, flat, dry subfloor. Tear-out, levelling, underlayment, stairs and pattern work are priced on top; the cost guide sets out what each one adds.
How Home Palais reads a flooring quote
Every flooring quote is written for a subfloor nobody has seen yet. The rate is the easy part; what is under the old floor is the part that moves the invoice
Flooring questions, answered
How is flooring priced?
Per square foot of finished floor, material and labor bundled. Order 5 to 10 percent more material than the measured area for cuts and waste, and more again for a diagonal or herringbone layout, which can waste 15 percent.
Is luxury vinyl plank as good as hardwood?
For water resistance and cost, better. For longevity and resale, no. Vinyl plank cannot be refinished: when the wear layer goes, the floor goes. Hardwood sands back to new several times over a lifetime.
Can new flooring go over the old?
Vinyl plank and laminate often can, over one sound, flat layer. It saves the tear-out line and raises the floor height, which then has to be resolved at every doorway, appliance and stair nose.
What flooring works in a basement?
Anything that tolerates moisture from below: vinyl plank, tile, or engineered wood over a vapour barrier. Solid hardwood does not belong below grade, whatever the showroom says, because it moves with humidity.
How long does flooring last?
Five to fifteen years for carpet, ten to twenty-five for laminate, fifteen to twenty-five for vinyl plank, and decades for hardwood and tile. Traffic and grit decide most of it, which is why entry mats outperform every warranty.
The calculator prices flooring per square foot on the same national data as every guide on this page; no phone number, no lead form.
Measure the rooms Before the first quote