The Cost Of Carpet: What To Expect When Budgeting

Carpet is priced as three things added together, the carpet, the pad under it and the labor to put it in, and the carpet line moves the total more than the other two combined. Every figure on this page is a national number with its source and date beside it, so you can tell which ones fit the quote in your hand.

Per square foot. Carpet alone costs about $1 to $5 a square foot in synthetic fibers and $4 to $20 in wool. Installed, with pad and labor, it costs $3 to $11 a square foot. Both ranges come from HomeAdvisor's June 2026 survey of homeowners who had finished the job. Fixr, which builds its figures from contractor pricing databases, puts the installed range at $1.36 to $13.58 with an average of $7.47 as of January 2025.

For a whole room. A 10 by 12 bedroom is 120 square feet, so it comes to $360 to $1,320 installed at $3 to $11 a foot. Three average bedrooms, about 500 square feet, run $1,500 to $5,500 in the same survey. A thousand square feet runs $3,000 to $11,000. The carpet you buy is usually more than the room measures, because it comes off a 12-foot roll, and a section of this page explains that gap.

Replacing old carpet. Tearing out the old carpet adds $1.10 to $5.10 a square foot in HomeAdvisor's June 2026 removal survey, or $0.50 to $1.50 in Fixr's. Carpeted stairs run $36 to $65 per step installed in Fixr's stair guide. A subfloor repair found under the old carpet averages $600. In Connecticut, the 6.35 percent sales tax lands on the carpet and pad, not on separately listed labor.

Here is every line you will see on a carpet quote, with the national range for each.

The page runs in this order. First the per-square-foot price and what separates a $3 carpet from a $12 one. Then how carpet is priced by the foot, the yard and the roll. Then rooms, stairs and whole houses, with a worked example. Then installation, replacement, padding, fiber and style, and what Mohawk, Karastan, Shaw, Masland and Stanton carpets cost. After that, why carpet costs what it does, where to save, how to build your own estimate, carpet against other floors, and the questions people ask.

How much carpet costs per square foot

Carpet costs $3 to $11 a square foot installed, and $1 to $5 a square foot for the carpet alone in a synthetic fiber. Those are HomeAdvisor's figures from its June 2026 survey of finished projects. Which end of the range you land on depends on the fiber, how densely the carpet is made, and what the quote includes.

Carpet alone versus carpet installed

The price on a sample tag is the carpet alone. It is the number most people compare between stores, and it is not the number you will pay. Fixr's January 2025 guide puts the carpet at $1.11 to $12.60 a square foot, then adds $0.35 to $1.14 for the pad and $0.74 to $1.17 for labor. So a $3 carpet becomes roughly a $4.50 to $5.50 floor once it is in, and a $10 carpet becomes an $11.50 to $12.50 floor.

Two questions save you from a bad comparison. Is the price per square foot or per square yard? The same carpet at $36 a yard is $4 a foot. And is it the carpet alone or installed with pad? A $6 installed price and a $6 carpet-only price are two very different floors.

How much is good carpet per square foot?

Good carpet, meaning a nylon or triexta dense enough to stand back up in a hallway, costs about $2 to $8 a square foot for the goods and about $5 to $8 installed. The goods figures are HomeAdvisor's fiber ranges. The installed figure matches Homewyse's September 2026 estimate for in-stock carpet, $5.53 to $8.08 a square foot. You can spend more, and you do not need to for a bedroom.

The three grades break down like this. Basic carpet is a light polyester or olefin, the trade's name for polypropylene, at $1 to $3 a square foot for the goods, and it lands near the bottom of the installed range, about $3 to $5 a foot. Mid-range carpet is nylon at $2 to $5 or triexta at $3 to $8, and it lands around $5 to $8 installed. High-end carpet is wool at $4 to $20, or a dense patterned nylon, and it pushes the installed price past $11.

What separates the grades is not the color or how soft the sample feels. The Carpet and Rug Institute, the industry's trade association, says a cut pile gets its durability from "the type of fiber used, density of tufts, and the amount of twist in the yarn."

The pile is the fiber you walk on. Density is how much of it is packed into each square inch, twist is how tightly each tuft is wound, and face weight is the ounces of fiber in a square yard. More fiber, tighter twist and a better fiber cost more to make, and that is the difference you pay for.

Builder grade is the trade's name for the lightest carpet that meets a builder's spec, usually a low-weight polyester or olefin on a thin pad. It is the carpet in most new-construction bedrooms and most "three rooms for one price" ads, and it sits at the $1 to $3 end of the range. It looks fine on day one and flattens in the traffic lanes first.

For a rental, the grade that survives tenants is a mid-weight nylon or triexta in a medium tone. Builder grade is the carpet that gets replaced at the next turnover.

The quickest way to judge a sample is to bend it backward. If the backing shows easily between the tufts, the density is low and the carpet will mat, whatever the fiber. Our guide to the best carpet fiber for high-traffic areas goes through the fibers one by one.

How carpet is priced by the foot, the yard and the roll

Carpet is priced by the square foot in most ads and by the square yard on many showroom tags and quotes, and the two units are nine times apart. HomeAdvisor's guide notes that carpet "is often priced by the square yard, at $30 to $50 each," which is $3.33 to $5.56 a square foot. You can only compare two quotes once both are in the same unit.

Square yards, square feet and square meters

A square yard is 3 feet by 3 feet, or 9 square feet. Divide a per-yard price by 9 to get the per-foot price, so a $45 a yard carpet is $5 a foot. A 180-square-foot room is 20 square yards. If you are reading prices from abroad, a square meter is about 10.76 square feet, so a $5 per square foot carpet is about $54 per square meter.

The mistake to avoid is reading a per-yard price as a per-foot price. It makes a carpet look three times cheaper than it is, and the surprise arrives on the written quote. Ask the salesperson to write both units on the tag.

Why you buy more carpet than the room measures

Carpet comes off a roll, and Shaw Floors, one of the makers we carry, says "most carpet is manufactured in 12-foot rolls, although 15-foot rolls are available as well." Your room is not 12 feet wide. So the installer cuts a main piece the length of the room and fills the rest with a strip from a second cut, seamed in. Shaw adds that a larger room may need extra material for seaming, and that a patterned carpet with a large repeat needs more to match the pattern.

Here is what that does to the quantity. A 12 by 14 bedroom fits the roll, so you buy 14 feet of a 12-foot roll, which is 168 square feet, and the room is 168 square feet. A 13 by 14 bedroom needs the same 14-foot main piece plus a fill strip 1 foot wide and 14 feet long. The strip has to run the same direction as the pile, so it comes off a second 14-foot length of roll.

The order becomes 28 feet of roll, or 336 square feet, for a 182-square-foot room. The leftover 11-by-14 piece is not wasted if it can carpet a hall or a closet on the same job, and that is why a good estimator plans the whole house together. It is also the biggest reason the square footage on a quote is higher than length times width.

A roll itself is never priced as a unit for a home. You buy a length cut from it, and the short pieces left at the end of a roll are the remnants that the saving section covers.

What it costs to carpet a room, a staircase or a whole house

A 10 by 12 room costs $360 to $1,320 to carpet, a 12 by 12 room $432 to $1,584, and a 20 by 20 room $1,200 to $4,400, all at HomeAdvisor's $3 to $11 a square foot installed. The small rooms in this table are that range multiplied by the room's area. The larger areas are HomeAdvisor's own survey rows. The carpet ordered for any of them will be a little more than the area, for the roll-width reason.

A worked example for one 12 by 14 bedroom

You measured a 12 by 14 bedroom, 168 square feet, and you want a number before you call anyone. Take a mid-range nylon at $4 a square foot, inside HomeAdvisor's $2 to $5 nylon range, and the carpet is $672. A felt or rebond pad at Fixr's $0.86 is $144. Labor at $1 a foot is $168. Tearing out the old carpet and pad at $1 a foot is another $168. That is $1,152 before tax, or about $6.86 a square foot installed, near the middle of every guide.

Connecticut taxes the carpet and pad, so add about $52 on the $816 of goods, and nothing on the labor lines. Now change one thing at a time. Make the room 13 feet wide and the carpet order roughly doubles, so the job runs $1,800 or more unless the leftover goes into the hall. Choose wool at $12 a foot instead of nylon at $4 and the carpet line rises by $1,344. Width, fiber and what the quote includes explain most of the surprises people get.

If you would rather not measure at all, our free shop-at-home service brings samples to your house, measures the rooms and leaves the samples so you can see them in your own light. The shop-at-home page explains how it works.

How much does it cost to carpet stairs?

Carpeting a straight flight of 12 steps costs $430 to $780, and most people pay about $650 for a level-loop triexta, in Fixr's January 2025 stair guide. That works out to $36 to $65 per step installed.

The guide's low end is $300 for an olefin Berber on straight stairs, and its high end is $2,460 for a velvet wool on stairs with spindles. Stairs cost more per foot than a floor because, as Fixr puts it, "the carpet is not more expensive, but the installation is." Every step is cut, tucked and tacked by hand.

A few details decide where your staircase lands. Open-sided stairs that have to be wrapped add $2 to $5 per step. Installers often charge a flat $75 to $250 to carpet a run of about 12 steps, and 12 stairs use roughly 54 square feet of carpet. A runner instead of full coverage has to have its edges bound, at $2 to $6.50 per linear foot, and an average staircase needs about 22 linear feet of runner.

The Carpet and Rug Institute recommends running the pile up the stairs to reduce slips. A dense low pile or a loop wears best there, and our article on what carpet is best for stairs covers the choice. Ask for the stairs as their own line on the quote, priced by the step.

How much does it cost to carpet a whole house?

Carpeting 1,000 square feet costs $3,000 to $11,000 and 2,000 square feet costs $6,000 to $22,000, from HomeAdvisor's survey rows. In most Fairfield County colonials the carpeted part of the house is the upstairs bedrooms, the hall and the stairs, which lands nearer the 1,000 figure. A whole-house job wastes less carpet than four separate rooms, because the estimator can plan the cuts so a fill strip from one bedroom becomes the hall.

It also carries lines a single room does not. Every doorway where carpet meets wood or tile needs a threshold strip, which Fixr prices at $15 to $50 each. Each flight of stairs is its own line. Ask for the quote by room, with the stairs and thresholds separate, so you can drop a room without re-pricing the whole job.

What carpet installation costs and what the labor line covers

Carpet installation labor costs $0.74 to $1.17 a square foot on average in Fixr's January 2025 guide. HomeAdvisor's June 2026 survey folds pad installation and labor into one line at $0.75 to $2 a square foot. Homewyse's September 2026 estimate carries a two-hour minimum labor charge, which is why a closet costs more per foot than a bedroom. These are national ranges, and the labor line on a Fairfield County quote will reflect local crews.

What the installer does for the money

An installer inspects and repairs the subfloor, then nails tackless strip around the room. That is the wood strip with angled pins that grips the carpet's back. The pad goes down and is seamed, and the carpet is cut and seamed on top of it.

Then the carpet is power-stretched onto the strip with a lever tool that pulls the whole width tight. Shaw Floors says "proper power-stretching is critical to ensure optimal performance of your carpet and to maintain warranty coverage." Carpet stretched only with a knee kicker, the small hand tool, ripples within a year or two, and the fix is a re-stretch you pay for.

The warranty lives in that work. Mohawk's residential carpet warranty brochure requires a professional installer trained in the Carpet and Rug Institute's methods, and it says the institute's installation standards "must be followed in order to qualify for Mohawk carpet warranties." Shaw's guide says carpet installation is not a do-it-yourself job. Our installation team is licensed and insured and installs to each manufacturer's recommendations, and our installation page explains how to prepare the room on the day.

Furniture, thresholds and the other lines on a quote

Moving furniture and removing the old floor are usually extra. Shaw's planning guide says your retailer "may arrange for someone to remove your furniture and/or your old flooring but you should expect this to be an additional cost." Thresholds run $15 to $50 each in Fixr's guide. Stairs are their own line. A subfloor repair found after the old carpet comes up cannot be priced in advance, and HomeAdvisor's survey average for one is $600.

Furniture removal is one of our services, so it can sit on the quote as a line rather than a surprise. Ask for every line, and ask which ones are allowances that could change once the old floor is up.

What carpet replacement adds

Replacing carpet costs the same $3 to $11 a square foot as new carpet, plus the tear-out. HomeAdvisor's June 2026 removal survey puts removal at $1.10 to $5.10 a square foot and $280 for the average job. Fixr's guide puts it at $0.50 to $1.50 a square foot including disposal. Replacement also carries the two costs that only appear once the old carpet is gone, the subfloor and the stairs, and it is the moment to ask whether the old carpet needs replacing at all.

Old carpet removal and disposal cost

Removing wall-to-wall carpet from a 12 by 12 room costs about $140 to $290 and takes two to four hours in HomeAdvisor's survey. Removing the pad adds about $0.60 to $1.60 a square foot, and stairs run $7.50 to $10.50 per step. Fixr's national average is $186 to remove and dispose of the carpet and pad from a 200-square-foot room plus 13 stairs. Glued-down carpet costs the most to remove, $3.10 to $5.10 a square foot in HomeAdvisor's figures, because the adhesive has to be scraped.

Most installers include the haul-away, and Fixr says most contractors "include the disposal cost in the project quote." Ask anyway, and ask for it as its own line. Carpet disposal is one of our services. Pulling the old carpet yourself is the one part of a carpet job a homeowner can do safely, and it is worth asking whether that changes the price.

Subfloor repair when the old carpet comes up

A subfloor repair averages $600 and a full replacement runs $3 to $10 a square foot in HomeAdvisor's survey. Neither can be quoted until the old carpet is off. What turns up is usually a squeak, a soft spot near a bathroom or a radiator, water staining, or pet damage that soaked through the pad. Subfloor repair is one of our services, and the fair way to quote it is as an allowance confirmed on the day.

When re-stretching or repairing beats replacing

If your carpet is loose or rippled but not worn through, a re-stretch costs $100 to $300 for the first room and $45 to $65 for each additional room in Fixr's repair guide. Replacing a 12 by 12 room costs $432 to $1,584. The Carpet and Rug Institute says buckling comes from improper installation, the wrong cushion, moving furniture or high humidity, and the fix is to clear the room and power-stretch the carpet tightly in all four directions.

Burns, snags and small tears are patched from a remnant, which is why Mohawk's warranty brochure recommends keeping a 2 by 3 foot piece from your installation.

Replace instead of repair when the traffic lanes have matted and no cleaning brings them back. Replace when the backing has delaminated, meaning it has separated from the carpet so it wrinkles again after a stretch. Replace when an odor lives in the pad. Carpet re-stretch and flooring repairs are on our services list, so you can have the floor looked at before deciding.

What carpet padding costs and what the warranty requires

Carpet padding costs $0.35 to $1.14 a square foot for the material in Fixr's January 2025 guide and $0.75 to $2 a square foot installed in HomeAdvisor's June 2026 survey. It is the smallest line on the quote and the one that most decides how long the carpet lasts. The Carpet and Rug Institute puts it in one sentence: "Carpet cushion is the life of the carpet."

Fixr's material prices run from $0.49 a square foot for bonded urethane and $0.50 for light-traffic urethane foam, to $0.74 for flat rubber, $0.86 for felt or fiber cushion and $0.89 for waffle rubber. Rebond, the speckled bonded-foam pad in most homes, is the value choice when it meets the density the carpet needs. Thick memory foam feels best on the sample board and is the wrong pad under a loop carpet or on stairs.

Thickness and density are the two numbers to ask for. The institute's rule of thumb for most residential carpet is a cushion "no more than 7/16 inch thick and no less than 1/4 inch with 6 pounds per cubic feet density." For Berber or low-profile carpet it is "no more than 3/8 inch thick with 8 pounds density." The wrong cushion causes wrinkling, buckling and seam separation, and the institute says it "may void warranties from the carpet manufacturer."

Mohawk's warranty brochure sets its own minimums. The cushion must meet the federal housing minimums known as FHA/HUD requirements, with at least 5 pounds per cubic foot of density and a thickness of 3/8 to 1/2 inch, and Berber styles need 8 pounds at 1/4 to 3/8 inch.

So the upgrade worth paying for is density, not thickness. Hallways and stairs need a thinner, firmer pad, and a moisture-barrier pad earns its cost in a house with pets. Our short guide to carpet padding types compares rebond, memory foam and rubber.

What a carpet warranty costs and requires

A carpet warranty costs nothing extra, because the maker's wear, stain and texture coverage is included in the carpet's price. What you pay for is the tier. Mohawk's brochure covers material, labor and stairs on its top warranties and material only on its lowest, and buying its SmartCushion pad adds 20 years of abrasive-wear coverage that includes stairs.

What a warranty does cost you is its conditions. Mohawk requires professional installation to the industry standard, a cushion that meets its minimums, and a professional hot-water extraction cleaning every 18 months with the receipts kept. Shaw's guide says cushion "minimum requirements must be met to ensure warranty coverage," and Shaw asks buyers to keep a cutting of the carpet with the purchase records. Our note on carpet warranty fine print lists the other conditions people miss.

Carpet prices by fiber

Fiber sets the floor and the ceiling of the price. Polyester and olefin start at $1 a square foot, nylon at $2, triexta at $3 and wool at $4, and wool tops out at $20, all for the carpet alone in HomeAdvisor's June 2026 fiber table. The Carpet and Rug Institute says almost all carpet made in the United States uses one of five fibers, nylon, polyester, polypropylene (olefin), triexta and wool.

Nylon is the fiber to price first for a hallway, a family room or stairs, because it springs back from crushing better than any other synthetic. Triexta, the fiber Mohawk sells as SmartStrand, costs a little more than nylon and carries its stain resistance in the fiber rather than in a topical treatment. Mohawk's warranty brochure pairs its SmartStrand Forever Clean line with a lifetime pet warranty.

Polyester is the bedroom fiber, soft and inexpensive, and the right buy where nobody walks in shoes. Our comparison of nylon and polyester carpet weighs the two room by room.

Wool is its own market, and the two guides draw its range differently because Fixr's includes woven and hand-tufted goods. Fixr's wool guide puts the material at $5 to $26 a square foot and $6 to $28 installed, and it says most wool buyers pay $10 to $20 installed. Installing wool costs the same $1 to $2 a square foot as any other carpet.

The spread comes from construction. A wool woven on a loom costs far more than a tufted wool, and a hand-tufted pattern more again. The wool carpets in our catalog show where each construction sits.

Carpet prices by style

Style moves the price less than fiber does, and it moves the installation cost more. HomeAdvisor's June 2026 table prices texture at $1 to $12 a square foot, saxony and plush at $2 to $8, frieze at $1 to $8, loop at $1 to $5, patterned at $2 to $6 and Berber at $3 to $20, all for the carpet alone. The wide ranges are the fiber inside each style. A nylon frieze and a polyester frieze look alike on the board and sit at opposite ends.

Two styles cost more to install than their tags suggest. A patterned carpet has to be matched at every seam, and Shaw's guide says a large pattern repeat "will need more material to account for matching the pattern," so the order and the labor both rise. A loop or Berber has to sit on a firm, thin pad and be seamed with care, because a pulled loop runs like a snag in a sweater.

Fixr's Berber guide prices the goods by fiber, from $1 to $4 a square foot for olefin up to $5 to $8 for wool. Our article on whether Berber carpet is right for your home covers the trade-offs. The patterned and wool carpets on our carpet page are the ones that most often surprise people at the upper end.

Why carpet costs what it does

Carpet is the least expensive floor you can buy installed, and it still feels expensive because the total arrives all at once for several hundred square feet. Fixr's guide says carpet "is the most economical choice" against hardwood and laminate. Its own figures put hardwood at $14 to $32 a square foot installed, against carpet's $1.36 to $13.58. What you pay for in a carpet is fiber by the pound. The face weight, density and twist that decide durability all mean more nylon or wool in each square yard.

The fairer way to judge a carpet's price is per year. HomeAdvisor's guide says most carpet lasts five to 20 years with the right care, with better fibers and light traffic near the top of that range. A $3 a square foot polyester that mats in six years costs more per year than a $6 nylon that holds for fifteen. The labor and pad you pay for twice make the gap larger still. Our article on how long carpet lasts gives the ranges by fiber.

Where you can save on carpet

The savings that hold up are the grade you choose, the goods a store has in stock, a remnant for a small room, and a quote that includes only what you need. The savings that do not hold up are a thinner pad and cheaper labor. Fixr's guide makes the same point, that better carpet and padding cost less over time because they last, and it suggests asking whether doing the tear-out yourself changes the price.

Remnants, roll ends and in-stock rolls

A remnant is the piece left at the end of a roll, usually 12 feet wide and anywhere from a few feet to twenty-odd feet long. It sells for less than the same carpet cut to order, because a short piece cannot be used on a large job. If a bedroom, a home office or a set of stairs fits inside a remnant, you get a better carpet than your budget would otherwise buy.

Check three things before you buy one. The piece must be long enough for the room in the pile direction. The pad and labor should be priced the same as for a roll cut. And the mill's warranty may not apply to a remnant, so ask.

In-stock rolls sit between remnants and special orders. Homewyse's $5.53 to $8.08 installed estimate is for in-stock goods, and that is the middle of the market. A special-order carpet from the mill costs more per foot and takes weeks, and it is the right choice when the color or the pattern is the point.

Package deals and what they leave out

A "three rooms for one price" package covers a fixed number of square feet of one basic grade, with the pad and labor bundled. The stairs, the hall, the tear-out, the furniture and any square footage over the limit are priced on top. It is not a trick, and it is only a bargain if your rooms and your expectations fit the package. Get the same rooms quoted line by line and compare the totals, not the headline.

If the carpet you want costs more than the budget allows this month, spreading the cost is sometimes the difference between the nylon you keep for fifteen years and the polyester you replace in six. Financing is available through Lendvious and the Mohawk credit card, and our financing page has the current options.

How to estimate your carpet cost before you get a quote

You can build a working estimate on paper in ten minutes. Measure each room, add something for the roll width, and price the carpet, the pad, the labor and the tear-out separately at the national ranges. The result will land inside any honest quote's range, and it will tell you which line is driving the total when the quote arrives.

1. Measure each room at its longest and widest points, including closets and doorways you want carpeted. Multiply length by width for square feet, and divide by 9 for square yards.

2. Add for the roll. A room wider than 12 feet means a seam and extra carpet, and the estimator's layout decides how much.

3. Price the carpet by fiber: $1 to $3 for polyester or olefin, $2 to $5 for nylon, $3 to $8 for triexta, $4 to $20 for wool, per square foot of carpet ordered.

4. Add the pad at $0.35 to $1.14 a square foot and labor at $0.74 to $1.17, or use HomeAdvisor's $0.75 to $2 for the two together.

5. Add the tear-out at $0.50 to $5.10 a square foot, stairs at $36 to $65 per step, thresholds at $15 to $50 each, and a subfloor allowance.

6. Add the sales tax on the goods, then check the total against $3 to $11 a square foot installed.

What a written carpet quote should itemize

A good quote lists the carpet by style, color, fiber and square feet or yards ordered. It lists the pad by type, thickness and density, the labor, the stairs by the step, the tear-out and disposal, furniture moving, thresholds, any subfloor allowance, and the tax. It names the warranty tier and says whether the pad meets the maker's minimum. When two quotes differ by a thousand dollars, the difference is almost always in the square footage ordered, the pad, or a line one quote left out.

Measuring is the step most people get wrong, and it is the one you can hand off. Our shop-at-home service measures the rooms for free, and an estimator who has seen the rooms can lay out the cuts so the roll width works for you. If you would rather start with numbers, request an estimate with your room sizes and the rooms you want done.

Sales tax on carpet in Connecticut and Westchester

In Connecticut, carpet that is tacked down over a pad is treated as goods you buy. The 6.35 percent sales tax applies to the carpet and pad and not to the installation labor, as long as the labor is listed separately on the invoice. That is the Department of Revenue Services' rule in its contractors' guide, which says the installer "collects tax on the sale to the end customer" and "does not collect tax on separately stated nonpermanent installation labor." Separately listed furniture moving is not taxed either.

Separately listed tear-out and disposal is treated as refuse removal in the same guide. It is not taxed on an owner-occupied home, but it is taxed on a rental or other income-producing property, which is the line a landlord should expect to see tax on. Glued-down carpet is different, because the state treats it as a service to the building. Its labor is untaxed on an owner-occupied home or new construction and taxed on existing commercial or rental property.

New York works the other way. The state's Publication 862 lists carpet and carpet padding installed "in an existing building" as a taxable installation service, not a capital improvement. So in Westchester County the whole job carries the 8.375 percent combined rate, and 8.875 percent in Yonkers. If you own a rental on either side of the state line, that difference belongs on the estimate.

Carpet versus vinyl plank, laminate and hardwood

Carpet is the cheapest of the four to install and the shortest lived. Fixr's guides, all updated January 2025, put carpet at $1.36 to $13.58 a square foot installed, laminate at $6 to $14 and hardwood at $14 to $32. Luxury vinyl plank runs $1.50 to $12 a square foot for the material, and Fixr says vinyl installation most often costs $2 to $3 a square foot, so the plank lands around $3.50 to $15 installed.

HomeAdvisor's survey gives carpet five to 20 years of life. So a $6 carpet and a $6 vinyl plank cost the same on the day, and the plank will usually outlast the carpet. Where carpet still wins is the rooms it was made for. Bedrooms, upstairs halls and stairs are warmer, quieter and safer under carpet, and no other floor at $3 to $6 a square foot installed is soft.

Kitchens, mudrooms, basements that have ever been damp, and homes with a dog that has accidents are where the vinyl plank earns its price. Many houses in Stamford end up with both, carpet upstairs and plank or wood down, and pricing the two jobs together is cheaper than pricing them a year apart.

Questions people ask about carpet cost

How much does it cost to carpet three bedrooms?

Three average bedrooms, about 500 square feet, cost $1,500 to $5,500 to carpet in HomeAdvisor's June 2026 survey. A mid-range nylon on a rebond pad sits near the middle of that range, and wool or a patterned carpet reaches the top. If the three rooms share a hall, quote the hall at the same time, because the fill strips from the bedrooms often carpet it for the cost of labor alone.

How much does it cost to carpet a 10 by 12 room?

A 10 by 12 room is 120 square feet and costs $360 to $1,320 installed at HomeAdvisor's $3 to $11 a square foot. The room is narrower than a 12-foot roll, so the carpet is one piece with no seam, which makes it the least wasteful room shape there is. A remnant will often fit it.

How much is carpet per square meter?

Carpet at $3 to $11 a square foot installed is about $32 to $118 per square meter, because a square meter is about 10.76 square feet. Materials alone at $1 to $5 a square foot are about $11 to $54 per square meter. American stores quote in square feet or square yards, so convert before you compare a quote here with prices from abroad.

How much do carpet tiles and commercial carpet cost?

Carpet tile and commercial broadloom, the trade's word for wall-to-wall carpet sold off a wide roll, are priced per square foot like residential carpet, but the goods are built differently. A dense low loop or a hard-twist cut pile sits on a backing made for glue-down installation, usually with no separate pad. That takes the pad line off the quote and adds adhesive and floor preparation, so a commercial installer prices the floor and the prep together after a site visit. Our carpet tile catalog carries the commercial lines.

What does an area rug made from carpet cost?

A custom rug made from broadloom costs the carpet's price per square foot for the piece, plus binding around the edge at $2 to $6.50 per linear foot in Fixr's stair guide. An 8 by 10 rug is 80 square feet of carpet and 36 linear feet of edge, and it is often the least expensive way to get a large rug in an exact size.

We make custom area rugs and runners in whatever size is required, and you choose the material and the border. In Connecticut, cutting and binding a remnant into a rug is taxable fabrication labor, so expect tax on that line.

Does new carpet add value before selling?

New carpet helps a listing more than it changes the price. HomeAdvisor's guide estimates that neutral, durable carpet "may return 50% to 80% of what you spend," and that is an estimate without a survey behind it. For a sale, a mid-range neutral nylon or triexta on a standard pad is the sensible spend. Wool and pattern are for a house you are staying in.

When is the best time to buy carpet?

There is no season that reliably lowers carpet prices, and no survey shows one. Promotions come and go, but the price of a given carpet does not swing much by month. The best time to buy is when you can get the rooms measured, the quote itemized, and the pad and labor done right, and when a remnant or an in-stock roll happens to fit your room. An itemized quote in hand is worth more than any sale date.

The one number this page cannot give you is the one for your house, because the width of your rooms, the stairs and what is under the old carpet decide it. Floor Covering Warehouse has been pricing carpet in Stamford since 1934. Tell us the rooms and request a free estimate, or bring your measurements to our showroom at 112 Orchard Street, and we will measure, lay out the cuts and give you the quote line by line.