How to estimate a flooring job

Flooring looks like the simplest trade to estimate — measure the room, multiply by a rate — and the two figures that decide whether the job makes money are the ones that measurement does not produce: how much material the room's shape wastes, and what condition the subfloor turns out to be in.

Measure each room, then decide the waste

  1. Take every room separately

    Closets, hallways and bays are all their own rectangles. One combined figure hides the small awkward spaces, and small awkward spaces are where the offcuts pile up.

  2. Set the waste factor from the layout

    A square room laid straight wastes little. A diagonal or herringbone layout, or a run of narrow hallways, wastes far more, and the same product in the same house can carry two different factors.

  3. Round up to whole boxes or rolls

    Material is bought in units, not in square feet, and the customer pays for the unit. Quoting the bare area means absorbing the difference on every job.

  4. Count the transitions and the trim

    Thresholds, reducers, stair nosings, quarter round and baseboard are their own material and their own labour, and they are what a bare per-square-foot rate silently omits.

The subfloor is what the estimate cannot see

Stairs are priced by the tread

A staircase is not floor area. Each tread and riser is cut, fitted and finished individually, and a flight can take as long as a bedroom. Count treads, count risers, say whether the nosing is included, and price landings as the small rooms they are.

What moves a flooring number up

  • Tearing out and disposing of the old covering, especially glued vinyl or tile set in mortar
  • Moving furniture and appliances, and disconnecting anything plumbed in
  • Doors that have to be undercut, and doors that have to be trimmed to clear the new height
  • Acclimatising material on site before it can be laid, which is days on the schedule and nothing on the invoice
  • A pattern that has to be matched across a doorway, which changes both the waste factor and the labour

Hold the price for thirty days

Valid for 30 days, which here is a dye-lot question rather than a market one: material from a single production run is consistent, and a box ordered weeks later can be visibly a different shade in the same room. Say that the price covers material reserved now, so that a delay is understood as a re-order and not as an inconvenience.

Start from the flooring estimate template

Common questions

How much waste should a flooring estimate include?
Enough for the layout rather than a figure carried between jobs. A straight lay in square rooms needs very little; a diagonal or herringbone pattern, or a floor broken up by hallways and closets, needs considerably more.
Should subfloor preparation be in the square-foot price?
No. Nobody can assess flatness or moisture until the old covering is up, and installing over a subfloor outside the manufacturer's tolerance voids the warranty. Quote it as a rate applied to the area that needs it.
How are stairs estimated?
Per tread and per riser, not as floor area. Each one is measured, cut and finished on its own, which is why a single flight can carry as much labour as a whole bedroom.

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