Carpet installation cost, itemized
A 12 × 15 ft bedroom takes $477 in carpet and cushion at today’s store prices (Shaw Floors Pet Perfect carpet over a 7/16 in cushion), and each day one carpet installer works adds about $472 to the price, overhead and profit included (U.S. median wage). Carpet is cut from a 12 ft roll, so a room wider than that both ways takes more carpet than its floor area. Enter your rooms, your city and the installer’s time, or type a quote to see how many hours of work it pays for.
Your rooms carpeted at today’s prices
Each figure says where it comes from: the carpet and cushion at a store’s posted prices, the installer’s time at what a carpet installer costs an employer where you live, and the share of the price flooring contractors spend on overhead and keep as profit. The time and the overhead share are yours to change.
Filled in as an example: one 12 × 15 ft bedroom, carpeted in Shaw Floors Pet Perfect Remixed Classic carpet over Mohawk Viking Medium carpet cushion, both at Stine Home + Yard’s posted prices; installer’s time not yet typed. Type over any of it with your own rooms, carpet and installer’s figures.
The materials priced here, at today’s prices: $477. Each day one carpet installer works adds about $472.
| Part | Cost | Where the figure comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Carpet: 180 sq ft | $358 | Shaw Floors Pet Perfect Remixed Classic carpet, Cobble Drive, 12 ft wide at $1.99 a sq ft, Stine Home + Yard in Sulphur, LA, . Cut in full widths of the roll, room by room (12 × 15 ft: one 12 ft width 15 ft long). |
| Cushion: 1 roll | $119 | Mohawk Viking Medium carpet cushion, 7/16 in thick, 6 lb density at $118.99 a roll of 270 sq ft, Stine Home + Yard in Sulphur, LA, . 180 sq ft of floor, in whole rolls. |
| Tack strip, seam tape and doorway edges | Not priced | The strip nailed around the walls that holds the stretched carpet, the tape that joins the widths, and metal or vinyl edges where the carpet meets another floor. |
| Labor | Not added | Type the carpet installer’s time above. Each worker-day adds about $472 to the price, overhead and profit included. |
| Materials at today’s prices | $477 | $2.65 a sq ft of floor. Not yet the job’s price: the labor and the carpet installer’s overhead and profit come in when you type the carpet installer’s time. Not priced, so not in this total: tack strip, seam tape and doorway edges. Not counted: taking up and hauling away the old carpet and cushion, moving furniture, stairs, repairs to the subfloor, sales tax and delivery. |
What an hour costs: no carpet maker or public body publishes how long a room takes to carpet, so the estimate counts the time you type and no other. Carpet installers in the U.S. earn a median $24.20 an hour (BLS, May 2025). Benefits make up 30.5% of what construction employers spend an hour on pay and benefits (all trades, BLS, June 2026), so an hour of a carpet installer at that wage costs an employer about $35, and an 8-hour day about $279.
Got a quote? Type its total above: the estimate shows how many hours of work it pays for.
What moves the price
- The roll width. Most carpet is made 12 ft wide, and some 15 ft (Shaw). A room up to 12 ft wide in one direction takes one width; a room wider both ways takes a second width and a seam, and the rest of that width is trimmed off. A 25 × 40 ft basement, 1,000 sq ft of floor, laid across its 40 ft side takes four widths 25 ft long, 1,200 sq ft of this carpet: $2,864 in carpet and cushion at today’s prices before any labor.
- The carpet itself. This one, a 39 oz texture, is $17.91 a square yard; the same store lists others from under a dollar a square foot. A carpet with a large pattern takes more again, to match the pattern at the seams (Shaw).
- The cushion. The Carpet and Rug Institute’s installation standard, which Shaw links from its own installation page, requires the cushion to follow the carpet maker’s recommendations for that carpet and sets 7/16 in as the most for a home; Shaw says a cushion that falls short of its minimum puts the warranty at risk. The cushion priced here is 7/16 in thick at 6 lb density. Ask the installer to name the cushion they price, and check it against your carpet’s warranty.
- Taking up the old carpet, moving furniture and hauling the old carpet away. Every piece of furniture has to come out of the room, and the store or installer may charge extra to move it or to remove the old floor (Shaw). This estimate leaves all three out.
- The layout. Stairs, closets and many doorways mean more cuts, and Shaw says the time a job takes depends on the room’s size, how complex the layout is and whether the old floor has to come up.
Before the carpet is cut
Look at the carpet when it arrives, before the installer cuts it: the style, the color and the texture you ordered, and no flaws in the face. Shaw tells owners to call the store and stop the installation if they see a defect, because a carpet installed with a visible defect may not be covered for replacement under its warranty. After the work, open the windows: Shaw asks for 72 hours of fresh air to clear the new-carpet smell.
How the carpet goes down
The installer fastens tack strip around the walls, lays the cushion, cuts the carpet to the room with the fewest seams, joins the widths and stretches the carpet onto the strip with a power stretcher. The Carpet and Rug Institute’s standard makes the power stretcher mandatory, and Shaw calls proper power-stretching critical to how the carpet wears and to keeping its warranty. Shaw also says carpet installation is not a job to do yourself.
Whose wage this is
The installer’s wage is the one BLS publishes for carpet installers, who lay carpet from rolls or blocks and install the padding (O*NET). The estimate takes the median for your area and raises it to what an hour costs the employer. BLS publishes no carpet installer wage for the Chicago, Houston, Philadelphia, Miami or Seattle area, so a visitor there gets the U.S. figure.
What owners paid
When owners hired someone for flooring, carpet, paneling or ceiling tile work in about 2021–2023, the middle half paid $2,000 to $7,000 and the typical job cost $4,000 (Census Bureau). That survey counts every floor covering and room size together, so use it as a check on a whole project, not as the price of a carpeted room: flooring costs by metro.
Before you compare quotes
Ask every installer to price the same carpet and cushion, in writing: the carpet by style and color, how many square feet or yards they order and where the seams go, the cushion, the old carpet’s removal and haul-away, moving furniture, stairs, and the edges at each doorway. Then keep every price for the project in a budget worksheet.