How Much Does It Cost to Install Carpet?

As of November 2026, installing carpet costs about $2 to $8 per square foot including carpet, pad and labor, with mid-grade carpet landing near $5 per sq ft ^[1][5]. For a single project, HomeAdvisor reports an average of $1,780 and a typical range of $781 to $2,812 ^[2]. A 12x12 bedroom usually runs $250 to $1,100, and carpeting the bedrooms of a 3-bedroom house runs about $1,600 to $6,700 ^[1].

Prices per sq ft. Sources: [2], [1]

Prices installed. Sources: [1]

Prices as noted. Sources: [1], [4], [6]

Carpet installation cost per square foot and per square yard

Our analysis of six published cost sources shows a broad spread, because some quote budget polyester and others include premium wool:

We weight HomeGuide and Homewyse most heavily. Both are itemized, and Homewyse is date-stamped May 2026. The overlap of those two ($5 to $8) is where most mid-grade jobs land. The wider ranges from Fixr and Thumbtack mostly reflect wool and designer lines at the top.

Carpet is still often sold by the square yard (9 sq ft). HomeGuide’s range converts to $18 to $72 per sq yd installed ^[1]. HomeAdvisor lists $30 to $50 per sq yd ^[2], which doesn’t line up with its own $3 to $11 per sq ft figure (that converts to $27 to $99 per sq yd), so treat its per-yard number as a mid-range snapshot. To compare quotes, divide any per-yard price by 9.

Labor vs. materials

On a typical job, the carpet itself is the largest cost and labor is surprisingly small:

• Carpet: $0.50 to $1.50 per sq ft for builder grade, $1.50 to $6 for mid-grade, $6 to $21 for high-end ^[1].
• Pad: $0.25 to $1.00 per sq ft ^[1]. As a retail check, a 7/16-inch, 8 lb density pad lists at $105 for 180 sq ft at Home Depot, or about $0.58 per sq ft ^[10].
• Installation labor: $0.50 to $1.50 per sq ft, or $35 to $80 an hour with a $75 to $150 job minimum ^[1]. Fixr’s narrower range is $0.74 to $1.17 ^[4]. Home Depot advertises installation starting at $0.49 to $0.69 per sq ft with its carpet ^[8].

For context, BLS puts the median pay for carpet installers at $50,340 a year as of May 2025, and projects employment in the trade to fall 16% over 2025-35 as demand for carpet declines ^[11]. A shrinking installer pool is worth watching in areas where scheduling is already tight.

Carpet types: nylon, polyester, triexta, wool and berber

The fiber table above shows the price spread ^[2]; lifespans are from HomeGuide ^[1]. In practice:

• Polyester ($1 to $3) is soft and cheap but mats down faster in hallways. Good for guest rooms.
• Nylon ($2 to $5) is the long-standing all-rounder for family rooms and stairs.
• Triexta ($3 to $8), sold as SmartStrand among others, carries the longest lifespan among synthetics (10 to 20 years) and strong stain resistance.
• Wool ($4 to $20) is the premium natural option.
• Berber is a loop style, not a fiber. Olefin berber is cheap; nylon or wool berber costs much more. Loops can snag with pets.

Removal, stairs, furniture and other extras

Removing old carpet. This is where sources disagree most. HomeGuide lists $0.25 to $1.00 per sq ft for removal and $0.70 to $1.60 when pad and disposal are included ^[1]. Angi gives $120 to $720 per job ^[3]. Bob Vila’s figures ($2 to $3 per sq ft for carpet plus $1.50 to $2 for pad) are far higher and date to 2023 ^[7], so we treat them as an outlier. Many installers fold tear-out into the quote ^[4], so ask whether it is itemized.

Stairs. Stairs are priced per step because each one is cut and fitted by hand: about $12 to $45 per step all-in, $10 to $25 for basic box stairs and $20 to $45 for stairs with spindles ^[1]. Thumbtack lists lower figures ($3 to $10 per standard stair, $15 to $25 for box or spindle stairs) without saying whether carpet and pad are included ^[6], so confirm what a per-step quote covers.

Furniture moving runs $25 to $75 per room ^[1]. Transition strips cost $15 to $50 each ^[4], and replacing baseboards or trim adds roughly $200 to $300 ^[6].

Worked example: what a 12x12 bedroom and a 3-bedroom house cost

These examples use our own assumptions, priced from the cited ranges. We order 150 sq ft for a 12x12 room (a small trimming allowance on a 12-foot roll) and add 12% waste for the whole-house job, which has more seams and a hallway. Labor and removal are charged on the actual floor area.

12x12 bedroom (144 sq ft):

The mid-grade result sits inside HomeGuide’s $250 to $1,100 range for this room size ^[1]. The premium tier lands above it because we included removal and a $6 carpet. Notice that switching from mid-grade to premium carpet adds about $510, while doubling the labor rate would add only $144.

Bedrooms and hall of a 3-bedroom house (528 sq ft plus a 13-step stair): three bedrooms (12x12, 11x12 and 13x14) plus a 3.5x20 hallway, with 591 sq ft of carpet ordered.

HomeGuide’s range for a 60%-carpeted 3-bedroom house is $1,600 to $6,700 ^[1], which brackets our mid-grade and premium totals. A quote well above $6,700 for this scope should come with a specific reason, such as wool, a pattern match or major subfloor repair.

Regional differences

No national survey we found publishes carpet prices by state, so we built a labor index from BLS wage data. We divided each state’s mean annual wage for carpet installers by the national mean of $56,990 (BLS OEWS, May 2025) ^[12] and applied that ratio only to the labor-driven lines of the mid-grade house example (installation, removal and $10 per step of stair labor, $922 in total). Material prices are largely national, so we left them unchanged.

The takeaway: even in the highest-wage state, regional labor moves this job by roughly $650, much less than moving from mid-grade to premium carpet. Two cautions. Wages are only a proxy, since contractor prices also carry overhead, insurance and rent; New York City quotes, for example, will run higher than the statewide wage suggests. And several state samples are small, so treat the index as a direction, not a precise figure.

The fine print on “free installation” at Home Depot and Lowe’s

Big-box offers can be a good deal, but read what “free” covers.

Home Depot advertises free basic installation on carpet and pad purchases of $699 or more ^[8]. Basic installation includes the in-home measure, delivery, moving basic furniture, tearing out and hauling away old carpet, and a lifetime labor warranty on seams, restretches and stair work. Exclusions: custom or spiral stairs, significant floor repairs, and heavy items such as pianos, pool tables, safes and large electronics. Beds, wall units and entertainment centers must be cleared and disassembled by you, or for an added fee. You must buy the carpet from Home Depot, and keeping the product warranty requires professional cleaning every 12 to 18 months ^[8]. HomeGuide reports a lower $499 threshold and a measure fee of up to $50 ^[1], but Home Depot’s own page, checked November 9, 2026, states the $699 minimum and offers a free measure ^[8]. Promotions change, so check the terms on the day you buy.

Lowe’s does a free measure and quotes product and labor together ^[9]. Its page lists separate charges for furniture moving (per room, more for oversized pieces), possible dump fees, and mileage fees if you live 20 or more miles from the store. Pad is included when needed, and Lowe’s won’t install over an old pad. The labor warranty is 1 year, versus Home Depot’s lifetime labor warranty ^[8][9].

Our reading: free installation moves the labor cost into the carpet and pad price rather than removing it. The only fair comparison is the total quote divided by your floor area, including pad, removal, stairs, transitions and furniture. Get the big-box quote and at least one independent installer quote on the same carpet grade and pad.

Carpet vs. LVP and laminate: cost per year of life

Carpet is the cheapest floor upfront, but it wears out fastest. We divided the midpoint installed cost of each floor by a short and a long lifespan from published estimates. If you’re weighing a switch, see our LVP installation cost and laminate installation cost guides.

The cleaning line uses HomeAdvisor’s $120 to $240 professional cleaning cost ^[2] at the 12 to 18 month interval Home Depot requires for warranty coverage ^[8]. That works out to about $180 every 15 months, or roughly $144 a year, spread over the 528 sq ft in our house example. We did not add maintenance costs for hard floors.

On cost alone, carpet and hard floors land in about the same per-year range. Once you add carpet’s cleaning schedule, LVP and laminate usually win over the long run, as long as you stay in the house long enough to use their extra life. Carpet still makes sense for bedrooms, for a sale within a few years, or when you want warmth and sound damping upstairs.

Cost to replace a carpet vs. installing new

Replacing carpet costs the same per sq ft as a new install, plus tear-out: HomeGuide puts total replacement at $2 to $8 per sq ft, made up of new carpet ($1.00 to $4.50), pad ($0.25 to $1.00), labor ($0.50 to $1.50) and removal ($0.25 to $1.00) ^[1]. Installing over a bare subfloor in new construction skips removal. Going the other way, over hardwood or tile, can mean extra removal work: $0.85 to $3.25 per sq ft for hardwood and $1 to $3 for tile ^[1]. If the hardwood is in decent shape, refinishing it may beat carpeting over it; see our hardwood floor installation cost guide.

Hidden costs to budget for

• Subfloor repairs discovered after tear-out, at about $50 to $75 an hour plus materials for minor fixes ^[6].
• Waste from roll width. Rolls are 12 or 15 feet wide, so a 13-foot-wide room can mean buying a 15-foot cut. Plan for 5% to 20% extra ^[7].
• Tack strip, transitions and floor prep, which some retailers bill separately ^[1].
• Disassembling beds and electronics, which Home Depot leaves to you or charges for ^[8].
• Door trimming if the new carpet and pad are thicker than the old.
• Mileage and dump fees at some retailers ^[9].

Ways to save

• Spend on pad, not plush. A good 8 lb pad (about $0.58 per sq ft retail ^[10]) helps mid-grade carpet last; skip premium carpet in low-traffic rooms.
• Match room widths to roll widths when choosing which way the carpet runs, and ask the installer for a seam diagram to see the waste.
• Do the prep yourself. Clearing rooms saves $25 to $75 per room ^[1]. Pulling up old carpet yourself can save removal fees, but ask first, because some installers prefer to do it.
• Bundle rooms. Labor minimums of $75 to $150 ^[1] make a single small room expensive per sq ft.
• Shop holiday promotions, but compare total installed price, not the headline offer.
• DIY only makes sense in simple rooms. HomeGuide puts DIY at $1.25 to $6 per sq ft and notes that tool rental costs about as much as hiring a pro ^[1]. Stretching carpet properly needs a power stretcher, and a bad stretch shows up as ripples within a year.

How to get and compare carpet quotes

Get at least three written quotes on the same carpet line and pad, and ask each installer:

1. Is the price per square foot or per square yard, and is it based on floor area or carpet ordered?
2. What waste percentage did you use, and where will the seams go?
3. Are removal, disposal, furniture moving, tack strip and transitions included?
4. What is the per-step price for my stairs, and does it change for open sides or a landing?
5. What subfloor repairs are included, and what is the hourly rate for extra work?
6. Will you use a power stretcher? What does the labor warranty cover, and for how long?
7. Who does the work, your crew or a subcontractor, and are they insured?

Permits: The International Residential Code, as adopted by many cities, lists carpeting among finish work that is exempt from a building permit; Federal Way, Washington, for example, exempts “painting, papering, tiling, carpeting, cabinets, counter tops and similar finish work” ^[17]. Local rules vary, so check with your building department if the job includes subfloor or structural work. In older homes, ask about lead-safe work practices; Lowe’s includes a lead assessment where required ^[9].