Carpet Installation Cost Calculator
Carpet Installation costs $2,700 to $4,075 for a typical 500 sq ft job in 2026, against a national benchmark of $3,300. Labor runs 17 crew hours at $35.21 an hour. Enter a ZIP code to apply that area's measured wages for this work and its regional price level.
What makes up the price
Cost by size
National averages, before any local adjustment. Computed from the same model as the calculator above, so the two always agree.
| Floor area | Sq ft | Typical | Range |
|---|---|---|---|
| 275 sq ft | 275 | $2,000 | $1,625 to $2,475 |
| 400 sq ft | 400 | $2,725 | $2,225 to $3,375 |
| 500 sq ft | 500 | $3,300 | $2,700 to $4,075 |
| 675 sq ft | 675 | $4,300 | $3,525 to $5,350 |
| 850 sq ft | 850 | $5,325 | $4,350 to $6,600 |
What a carpet quote actually contains
Carpet is advertised by the square foot or the square yard, and that number is the carpet. A finished job is at least four things, and the gap between a headline price and a final one is almost always in the other three.
- The carpet, around $2.50 a square foot for a mid-range nylon.
- The pad, tack strip and seam tape, around $0.70 a square foot.
- The labor, about 45 square feet an hour — the fastest of any floor here.
- Removal and disposal of what is down now, around 8% more.
At $6.60 a square foot installed, carpet sits between laminate and vinyl plank. Unlike those two it arrives on a roll, which is why it covers ground so much faster than anything laid a plank at a time.
| Flooring | Laid at | Typical installed |
|---|---|---|
| Carpet | ~45 sq ft/hour | $6.60 / sq ft |
| Laminate | ~35 sq ft/hour | $6.25 / sq ft |
| Luxury vinyl plank | ~35 sq ft/hour | $7.60 / sq ft |
| Ceramic or porcelain tile | ~13 sq ft/hour | $11.05 / sq ft |
The pad is the decision people get wrong
It is under a tenth of the job and it decides how long the rest of it lasts.
Carpet does not usually wear out from the top. It fails because the pad beneath it has collapsed, which lets the backing flex, which breaks the fibers at the base. A good carpet on a cheap pad fails early and looks like a carpet problem.
- 6 lb rebond, 7/16 inch. The standard, and the minimum worth fitting. Most carpet warranties require it.
- 8 lb rebond. Noticeably better underfoot and longer lived. Around $0.40 a square foot more — roughly $200 over a 500 square foot job.
- Memory foam. Luxurious, and it bottoms out faster in a hallway than rebond does.
- Thin builder pad. What a budget quote contains. It voids many warranties.
Ask what pad is in the quote, by weight and thickness. If a quote is cheaper than another by a few hundred dollars, this is usually where.
Fiber, which decides how it wears
| Fiber | Typical | Holds up to | Weak against |
|---|---|---|---|
| Polyester (PET) | $1–$2.50 / sq ft | Stains, fading | Crushing in traffic paths |
| Nylon | $2–$5 | Traffic, crushing | Needs treatment for stains |
| Triexta | $2.50–$4 | Stains and traffic both | Newer, less long-term data |
| Wool | $5–$12 | Everything, beautifully | Price, moths, bleach |
Nylon is the right default for anywhere people walk — stairs, hallways, family rooms. It recovers from compression in a way polyester does not, which is the difference between a five-year-old carpet that looks used and one that looks flattened.
Polyester is genuinely good value in a bedroom or a guest room where the traffic is light. Choosing it for a stair is a false economy that shows within two years.
Face weight and twist
Face weight — ounces of fiber per square yard — is the number most often quoted and is only half the story. A 40 oz carpet with a tight twist outlasts a 55 oz one with a loose one. If you can only check one thing, press a sample into the pile and see how quickly it stands back up.
Stairs are priced separately, and should be
A stair is roughly ten times the work per square foot of an open floor: every tread is measured, cut, wrapped and fastened individually, and a waterfall or a cap-and-band finish changes the labor again.
Expect $15 to $40 per step on top of the floor area. A quote that covers the whole house in one square-foot figure without mentioning the stairs is a quote that has not looked at the stairs.
Where carpet is still the right answer
Carpet has lost ground to vinyl plank across most of the house, and deserves to in kitchens and entrances. Where it still wins:
- Bedrooms, for warmth underfoot and quiet.
- Upper floors and stairs, because it cuts impact noise dramatically — the single biggest difference between a quiet house and a loud one.
- Basements, with the right pad, for warmth over a slab.
- Anywhere a fall matters, which is not a small consideration in a house with small children or elderly residents.
And where it is not: kitchens, bathrooms, laundries, entrances, and any house where somebody has a serious dust allergy.
Timing and preparation
- Order early. Carpet is usually in stock but the cut comes from a roll and a specific dye lot; a reorder months later will not match.
- Move the furniture yourself if you can. It is often a per-room charge.
- Vacuum before they arrive, and plan to vacuum several times afterwards — new carpet sheds for weeks.
- Air it out. The smell of new carpet is off-gassing from the backing and adhesives. Open windows for the first few days, and ask for a low-VOC product if anyone in the house is sensitive.
Questions worth asking
- What pad is included, by weight and thickness?
- Is removal and disposal of the old carpet in the price?
- How are the stairs priced, and which finish?
- Where will the seams fall? A seam across a doorway in a sightline is a seam you will notice forever.
- What is the warranty, and what pad does it require?
- Is the carpet all from one dye lot?
Common questions
How much does carpet installation cost?
Around $6.60 a square foot, so about $3,300 for 500 square feet, with most jobs falling between $2,700 and $4,075. The carpet itself is roughly $2.50 of that — the rest is pad, tack strip, labor, delivery and taking up what is down now.
What carpet pad should I get?
6 lb rebond at 7/16 inch is the minimum worth fitting and what most warranties require; 8 lb is noticeably better underfoot and lasts longer, for about $200 more over a 500 square foot job. The pad is under a tenth of the price and decides how long the carpet lasts — carpet usually fails because the pad collapsed, not because the fiber wore out.
Is nylon or polyester carpet better?
Nylon anywhere people walk — stairs, hallways, family rooms — because it recovers from being crushed in a way polyester does not. Polyester resists stains and fading well and is genuinely good value in a bedroom. Choosing polyester for a stair is a false economy that shows within two years.
How much does it cost to carpet stairs?
$15 to $40 a step on top of the floor area. A stair is around ten times the work per square foot of an open floor: every tread is measured, cut, wrapped and fastened individually. A quote that covers the whole house in one square-foot figure without mentioning the stairs has not looked at the stairs.
Does carpet installation include removing the old carpet?
Sometimes, and it is worth confirming rather than assuming — it adds around 8% to the job. Old carpet, pad and tack strip all have to come up and go somewhere, and disposal is occasionally charged separately again.
What does carpet face weight mean?
Ounces of fiber per square yard. It is the number most often quoted and only half the story: a 40 oz carpet with a tight twist outlasts a 55 oz one with a loose twist. If you can check only one thing in the store, press a sample hard into the pile and watch how quickly it stands back up.
How long does carpet last?
Five to fifteen years, which is the widest range of any floor here, and the pad and the fiber decide where in it you land. Nylon over an 8 lb rebond pad in a bedroom can reach fifteen; polyester over builder pad on a stair can be finished in three.
How long does it take to carpet a house?
A day for most houses. Carpet is the fastest floor to fit at around 45 square feet an hour, because it arrives on a roll rather than being laid a piece at a time. Stairs add time out of proportion to their area.
Is carpet still a good choice?
In bedrooms, on stairs and on upper floors, yes — it is warm, it is softer to fall on, and it cuts impact noise more than any other floor, which is the main difference between a quiet house and a loud one. In kitchens, bathrooms, laundries and entrances it has been rightly replaced by vinyl plank.
Why does new carpet smell?
Off-gassing from the backing and the adhesives, which fades over days to a couple of weeks. Open windows and run the heating or air conditioning to move air through. If anyone in the house is sensitive, ask for a low-VOC product and for it to be unrolled and aired before it is fitted.
Where these numbers come from
Nothing here is copied from a contractor directory. Labor is priced from what the trades are actually paid, materials from published producer prices, and both are adjusted to your area using federal cost-of-living data.
- Flooring contractors, United States: $35.21/hour, August 2026 (BLS CES CES2023833003)
- Carpet: $2.50 per sq ft (price recorded October 2026, not index-adjusted)
- Carpet pad, tack strip and seam tape: $0.70 per sq ft (price recorded October 2026, not index-adjusted)