Last updated October 28, 2026

How to bid flooring jobs

What a flooring bid has to say, a worked luxury vinyl plank price with waste and prep, the subfloor and transition lines that protect your margin, and the material deposit flooring installers use.

Flooring is sold by the square foot, so customers think the bid is simple math. It is not, and the bid has to show why: waste, removal, subfloor prep, transitions, baseboards, furniture, and the stairs. The installer who writes those down charges for them. The installer who does not eats them.

What a flooring bid has to answer

The square footage installed, plus the waste factor, usually 10 percent on plank and more on diagonal or pattern work.
What comes out: carpet and pad, old tile, old hardwood, and where it goes.
Subfloor prep, as its own line, by the hour or the sheet: leveling, patching, replacing bad sheets found after removal.
Transitions, baseboards, and shoe molding: removed and reinstalled, new, or not included.
Who moves furniture and appliances, and whether toilets and doors are pulled and reset.

How to price it

Example numbers for 650 square feet of luxury vinyl plank over an existing carpeted living room and hallway, in a typical market. Yours will differ.

Material: 650 feet plus 10 percent waste, 715 feet at $2.60 a foot with markup, $1,860.
Carpet and pad removal and disposal: $0.50 a foot, $325.
Install labor: $1.75 to $3 a foot for click plank. At $2, $1,300.
Subfloor prep: two hours of patching and one sheet, $180.
Transitions and shoe molding: four transitions and 120 feet of shoe, $260.
Furniture: included for a living room, or $150 as a line if there is a lot of it.
Total: about $3,900 with material. $2,975 is where the job lands when the customer supplies the plank and you install it, which is common. The bid has to say which one it is.

Hardwood refinishing prices by the foot with stairs by the tread. Tile prices by the foot with a large multiplier for small format, pattern, and showers. Carpet prices by the yard. Each has its own waste number, and the waste number belongs on the bid.

Where flooring bids go wrong

Waste was not added, and the job ran out of material two boxes short with a dye lot that no longer matches.
The subfloor was bad under the old carpet and nothing on the bid said prep was extra.
Transitions and shoe molding were assumed, by the customer, to be included.
The customer supplied the plank and it was a thin, no-pad product; the bid did not say what happens when the material is not installable.

A finished flooring bid, line by line

Four sample flooring estimates: luxury vinyl plank install, hardwood refinishing, tile floor, and carpet install. The flooring proposal template is the blank version.

Deposit and payment terms

When you supply the material, take a deposit at signing that covers it, because flooring is ordered to the job and a special order cannot go back. Half at signing is common. When the customer supplies the material, a smaller deposit or none, and payment on completion. Write on the bid that material the customer supplies is installed as is, and that an uninstallable product stops the job until it is replaced.

Getting more flooring jobs

Measure on the first visit, add the waste, and text the bid with the square footage on it before you leave. Customers trust a measured number and distrust a round one. Put material-included and customer-supplied as two prices on the same bid when it fits. Follow up at three days. Ask for the review when the last transition strip is down and send a photo of the floor with it.

BidWriter Pro writes the bid from your measurements with the removal, prep, and transitions as their own lines, signed and deposited from the customer's phone. $29 a month, 30 days free.

Questions contractors ask

How much waste do I add to a flooring bid?

Ten percent on straight-lay plank and tile, 15 percent on diagonal or herringbone, and more on small rooms with lots of cuts. Write the percentage on the bid so the extra boxes are explained before they are delivered.

Should subfloor prep be in the flooring price?

As its own line, priced by the hour or the sheet, with a note that bad subfloor found after removal is billed at that rate. Never buried in the per-foot price.

How much deposit for a flooring job?

Enough to cover the material order when you supply it, often half. Little or none when the customer supplies the material.

Write a flooring bid from your notes

Type the job the way you would text it. It comes back as a finished estimate in about five seconds, in your words. No account.

Type a job the way you would text it

Only what you type goes on the estimate. Nothing gets added.

No account needed to try it.

30 days free, then $29 a month. No card to start.

Free, no account: estimate checker, job price calculator, markup vs margin, hourly rate, and 84 sample estimates.