How Much Does Carpet Cost? Prices Per m2 and Per Room

Carpet from Adore costs between $25 and $65 per m2 for the carpet itself, depending on the range. A 3 x 4 metre bedroom takes 12 m2, so the carpet for that room comes to between $300 and $780. Installation with standard 8mm underlay adds $25 per m2, which puts that bedroom at $600 to $1,080 supplied and installed. Stairs, removing the old floor and any slab work are priced at a free measure, because they change from house to house.

What carpet costs per m2

Every carpet in our Sydney carpet range is from Belgotex: nine ranges and 85 colours. The published supply price across all of them runs from $25 to $65 per m2.

Where a particular carpet lands in that band comes down to what it is made of and how it is built. You can check each of these on the product page:

• Fibre. Eight of the nine ranges are solution dyed nylon. Auburn Ridge is 100% wool, made in Australia.
• Pile type and height. The cut pile ranges run from 9mm (Naples) to 17mm (Riverside Reserve). Alexandria and Benghazi are loop pile.
• Warranty. Westminster carries a 20 year residential warranty. Parkview Gardens and Riverside Reserve carry 15 years residential and 7 years commercial.

A higher price is no guarantee of a better floor for your room. A 17mm plush on a staircase shows every footprint. A 9mm cut pile keeps shading down across a big open room.

How much to carpet a room

Broadloom carpet comes off a roll. Eight of our nine ranges are made 4.0 metres wide, and Auburn Ridge wool is 3.66 metres wide. You pay for the rectangle cut from the roll, which is not always the same as the floor area of the room.

Here is how that plays out for common room sizes on a 4.0 metre roll. Each price is shown twice: for the carpet only, and installed with standard 8mm underlay, which adds $25 per m2 of carpet. The $25/m2 and $65/m2 columns are the bottom and top of the published carpet range.

Why a small room can cost as much as a bigger one

Look at the first two rows. The 3 x 3 metre room needs as much carpet as the 3 x 4 metre room, because both take a 3 metre length off a 4 metre wide roll. The extra metre in the smaller room is offcut.

That offcut is not always wasted. When several rooms are measured together, a strip left over from one room can often cover a built-in robe or a landing somewhere else. Whole house jobs tend to use the roll more efficiently than a single room for exactly this reason.

Rooms wider than 4 metres need a join. The seam is planned at the measure, ideally away from doorways and the main walkway, and the extra drop adds to the metres ordered.

What else goes into a carpet quote

The carpet is usually the biggest single line, but it is one of several. For a supplied and installed job, we measure the rooms and quote the carpet and underlay along with the labour. Then our regular installers lift the old floor covering, take it away and lay the new carpet.

These are the items that move the total:

• Installation and underlay. Installation with standard 8mm underlay is $25 per m2 of carpet, on top of the carpet price.
• The old floor. Lifting and removing old carpet is part of a supplied and installed job with us.
• Stairs and landings. These take far longer per m2 than a flat room, so they are priced at the measure.
• Uneven slabs. A slab that needs work before carpet goes down is also priced at the measure.
• Furniture. Empty rooms are quicker to lay. If beds, wardrobes or a piano need moving on the day, raise it at the measure so it is in the quote.

Stairs are where quotes vary most between homes. A straight flight uses carpet differently from one that turns at a landing, and every tread has to be wrapped over its nosing.

For stairs, choose a short, dense pile. Parkview Gardens at 12.5mm was built for stairs and hallways, and it suits whole house jobs. Loop pile hides footmarks well too.

What it costs to replace carpet

Replacing carpet adds one step to a new install. The old layer has to come up first.

Can new carpet go over the old floor instead? Sometimes, if the existing floor is level, sound and dry. In most homes the old covering comes up so the new underlay sits properly, and we will tell you which applies when we measure.

Once the old carpet is up, the subfloor can be seen for the first time in years. Damp patches, lifted boards or old adhesive can show up at this point. Anything like that is better found at the measure than on install day.

Partial jobs follow the same pattern. If only the bedrooms are being redone, the new carpet meets the existing floor at each doorway, and a trim finishes that edge.

Nylon or wool: where the price gap comes from

Every nylon carpet we stock is solution dyed. The pigment goes into the nylon while it is still liquid, so the colour runs right through each strand. Red wine and coffee can be cleaned out hard, and it stands up to Sydney sun far better than a carpet dyed on the surface.

With wool, the trade off is care rather than wear. Auburn Ridge is 100% wool loop pile at 11.5mm, rated Extra Heavy Duty Residential, with a 15 year residential warranty. It springs back after furniture dents and holds warmth on a cold morning. It cannot be cleaned with bleach, though, so spills need blotting straight away with a wool safe cleaner.

For a rental, a family with pets or a room with big windows, solution dyed nylon usually settles it. Wool earns its place in a main bedroom or a formal lounge that you sit in more than walk through.

What about carpet tiles?

Carpet tiles are ordered differently. Most of ours are 500 x 500mm, and Belgotex cartons hold 20 tiles covering 5.0 m2. You buy whole cartons and round up. Terrain and Rhythmic come as 1000 x 250mm planks, also 20 to a carton and 5.0 m2, so the carton maths is the same.

A 12 m2 home office, for example, needs three cartons, which cover 15 m2. Order a spare carton at the same time. A tile bought three years later may not match the dye lot, and swapping out one stained tile is the main reason to choose tiles in the first place.

Tiles suit playrooms, home offices, garages and rumpus rooms. Browse the carpet tile range; we install across Sydney, or you can buy supply only and lay them yourself. Still weighing carpet against a hard floor? Our guide to carpet or hard floors works through it room by room.

Getting an exact figure for your rooms

A price range is good for a budget. It cannot tell you what your hallway, stairs and three bedrooms add up to, because roll width and seams move the number, and so does the state of the old floor.

A measure can. We measure every room and quote the whole job for your home, labour included. It helps to know which rooms you want done, and whether the stairs are part of it, before we arrive. You can also see the carpet ranges in person at our showroom at 111 Station Road, Auburn, open 7 days from 10am to 6pm and until 7pm on Thursdays.

Browse the carpet range or book a free measure and quote.