How to Quote a Flooring Job in Australia

Flooring quotes go wrong in a specific order. First, you measure up over the existing carpet and price a number that feels right. Then you pull the carpet back on day one and find a subfloor that needs grinding, levelling, or both. Then you either eat the cost or have a conversation with a client who did not expect to pay more. Neither option is good.

Most flooring quotes that blow out were not priced wrong. They were priced without enough information. Here is how to build a quote that holds up.

1. Look at the subfloor before you quote anything

This is the step that separates a flooring quote from a guess.

If the room has existing flooring, ask to lift a corner before you leave the site. Thirty seconds of looking tells you whether you are walking into a flat, clean concrete slab or a patchwork of old adhesive, moisture damage, and movement that will cost real time and real money to prepare properly.

What you are looking for:

• Levelness. Most floating floors tolerate 3mm variation over 1.8 metres before the manufacturer's warranty is voided. Timber subfloors and older concrete slabs frequently exceed this. Levelling compound is not expensive per bag - but a floor that needs significant build-up across a large area adds up fast.
• Moisture. Concrete slabs emit moisture vapour, and a slab that reads high on a moisture meter needs either a longer acclimatisation period, a moisture barrier, or both before you can install most timber and hybrid products. This is a cost. Price it.
• Existing adhesive or residue. Old carpet adhesive, vinyl adhesive, black mastic - all of these need grinding back before a new floor goes down. Grinding is dusty, slow work. It has a real hourly cost that does not belong buried in your square metre rate.
• Timber subfloor movement. Squeaky boards, loose sheets, visible flex. Fixing movement in a timber subfloor before installing adds time the client should know about upfront.

If you cannot access the subfloor before quoting - the client is still living there, furniture cannot be moved - include a conditional note. State that the quote assumes a subfloor in good condition and that any prep required will be assessed on day one and quoted separately before work proceeds.

2. Measure properly and apply the right waste allowance

Measure each room separately. Not as one combined area - separately. Each room has its own door swings, alcoves, built-in wardrobes, and cut edges. Lumping them together hides the complexity and makes your waste allowance meaningless.

For the waste allowance:

• Straight lay, regular room: 10%
• Rooms with alcoves, bay windows, or irregular shapes: 12 to 15%
• Diagonal install: 15%
• Herringbone or parquet pattern: 15 to 20%

Timber and hybrid planks deserve a specific mention. They come in long lengths with directional grain patterns. A cut at one end of a run produces an offcut that may not be long enough to start the next row - particularly in rooms shorter than a standard board length. The effective waste rate in awkward rooms is higher than the percentage suggests. Add a board or two to your calculation before ordering.

Carpet has its own calculation because it comes in rolls with a fixed width, typically 3.66 metres or 4 metres. You are fitting roll widths into room dimensions and the offcuts are rarely reusable in another room because of pile direction. Calculate each room against your roll width and price accordingly.

3. Price by product type, not a single square metre rate

A flat rate per square metre applied across carpet, hybrid plank, engineered timber, and solid hardwood is a reliable way to underprice some jobs and overprice others. The install time, difficulty, and subfloor requirements differ significantly.

How to think about relative pricing across product types:

Carpet with underlay over concrete. Fastest product to install per square metre. Grip rod, stretch, trim. Your base rate.

Hybrid and laminate floating floor. More precision required for expansion gaps, transitions, and cuts around door frames. Budget more time per room than carpet, particularly for the fiddly finishing work.

Engineered timber, floating. Similar to hybrid but often more expensive product requiring more care. Acclimatisation time may apply depending on the product and conditions.

Engineered or solid timber, glued down. Slower than floating. Adhesive application, careful placement, weighted during cure. More labour per square metre and more prep required for the subfloor to be within tolerance.

Solid hardwood, nailed to timber subfloor. The most time-intensive installation. Factor accordingly.

4. Materials as separate line items

Bundling underlay, adhesive, and trims into your labour rate makes your quote harder to defend and harder to adjust if scope changes. Keep them separate.

Standard line items for a flooring quote:

• Flooring product - quantity based on measured area plus waste allowance, at supply price. If the client is supplying product, note it as excluded.
• Underlay - required for most carpet and floating floor installs. Specify the type and thickness. The difference between cheap underlay and acoustic underlay is significant in price and performance, and the client should be choosing with full information.
• Adhesive - for glued installs. Coverage varies by product and spread rate. Price from the manufacturer's specification, not from memory.
• Grip rod - for carpet, priced by linear metre at perimeter.
• Trims and transitions - the most consistently underpriced line item in flooring quotes. Every doorway, every transition between floor types, every exposed edge at a step or threshold needs a trim. Walk the job and count them before you quote.
• Subfloor prep allowance - a stated dollar allowance with a clear note that anything beyond it is additional.

5. Whole-house quotes vs room by room

A whole-house job has real efficiency gains worth sharing with the client to win the work - one mobilisation, one material delivery, no return visits between rooms. A small whole-house discount makes commercial sense.

That said, price each room separately inside the quote document even when you offer a combined total. Here is why:

• If the client pulls one room out of scope after accepting, you need to know exactly what that room was worth. A single blended rate makes this impossible.
• Subfloor conditions differ between rooms. A bedroom over a suspended timber floor and a kitchen over concrete are different jobs at different costs.
• Variations are easier to price and easier to explain when the client can see the line item you are adjusting.

6. Exclusions that will save the conversation later

A flooring quote without clear exclusions is an open door for scope creep. At minimum, spell out:

• Removal and disposal of existing flooring, if not included.
• Subfloor prep beyond the stated allowance.
• Flooring product supply if you are quoting labour only.
• Furniture removal. Are you moving it, is the client moving it before you arrive, or is it going room to room as you progress? State it clearly.
• Making good to skirtings and architraves after install. Some clients expect this included. Most flooring quotes do not cover it.
• Stair nosings and feature areas not visible or discussed at measure-up.

The clearer your exclusions, the less room there is for a client to feel surprised by a variation. And when a variation does arise on site, document it and get sign-off before the work proceeds. The guide on how to write a variation covers exactly how to handle that without it becoming a dispute at invoice time.

7. Putting it together

A flooring quote that protects you looks like this:

• Labour by room, by product type, with a rate and area for each.
• Materials itemised - product, underlay, adhesive, trims, grip rod.
• Subfloor prep allowance with a conditional note.
• Total including GST.
• Exclusions listed clearly.
• Quote valid for 30 days - product prices and your schedule both change.

The Proposal and Quote Builder in Smart Tools handles the layout and structure so you are not reformatting a Word document at 9pm. Enter your line items, it builds a professional PDF. For the pricing side of things, the guide on how to set your labour rate covers how to work backwards from your actual costs to a rate that covers the business, not just your time on the tools.

Frequently asked questions

How much should I charge per square metre for flooring installation?

There is no single answer, and quoting a flat rate across all product types is how you lose money on the hard jobs and overprice the easy ones. Price labour by product type, list prep as a conditional separate line, and let the quote reflect the actual job. A carpet over flat concrete is not the same job as glued-down engineered timber over a subfloor that needs levelling.

What waste allowance should I use for flooring?

10% for straight layouts in regular rooms. 12 to 15% for irregular shapes and alcoves. 15% or more for diagonal installs. When in doubt, go higher. Running short on materials mid-job - particularly on a product that is no longer in stock - is significantly more expensive than a few boards left over.

Should I charge separately for subfloor preparation?

Always. You cannot see the subfloor properly until the existing floor is up. Include a stated allowance and note that anything beyond it is charged at your hourly rate after notifying the client. Most clients respect the transparency. The ones who do not are worth knowing about before you start the job.

How do I quote a whole-house flooring job vs room by room?

Price each room separately inside the quote even if you offer a whole-house discount on the total. If a room gets pulled out of scope, you need to know what it cost. If subfloor conditions differ between areas, you need to show it. And if a variation comes up in one room, a room-by-room breakdown makes the conversation straightforward instead of a negotiation about a blended rate nobody can fully explain.