What a flooring quote is for
A quote is a firm price. Once your customer accepts it, that is the number — so it needs an expiration date, a defined scope, and clear terms on what falls outside it.
For flooring contractors selling to homeowners, landlords, and builders, the quote is usually the only thing the customer compares side by side against two competitors. It is doing sales work whether you designed it to or not.
The unit that trips this trade up: Flooring is priced per square foot installed, but subfloor prep is the line that decides whether the job is profitable.
What every flooring quote must have
- An expiration date, so the price does not follow you around forever
- A scope specific enough that both of you can tell what is excluded
- Deposit and payment terms stated before the work is scheduled
- A named change-order process for anything discovered after approval
- Your license or registration number where the trade requires it
What flooring contractors bill for
These are the lines that show up on most flooring quotes, with the unit each is normally priced in. Ranges are illustrative planning figures, not market data — your own costs, region, and margin decide the real number.
| Line item | Unit | Typical range |
|---|---|---|
| Luxury vinyl plank, supplied and installed | sq ft | $4–$11 |
| Hardwood, supplied and installed | sq ft | $8–$26 |
| Tile, supplied and installed | sq ft | $9–$28 |
| Carpet with pad, installed | sq ft | $3–$9 |
| Tear-out and disposal of existing floor | sq ft | $1–$4 |
| Subfloor leveling and prep | sq ft | $2–$6 |
| Transitions, trim and baseboard | linear ft | $3–$12 |
| Furniture moving | each | $150–$600 |
Typical deposit convention: 50% materials deposit typical, balance on completion.
Flooring quote example
A realistic job, priced line by line, with the arithmetic shown the way a customer sees it:
| Description | Qty | Unit price | Line total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tear-out and disposal of existing carpet | 950 | $1.35 | $1,282.50 |
| Subfloor leveling and moisture barrier | 950 | $1.75 | $1,662.50 |
| Luxury vinyl plank supplied and installed | 950 | $6.25 | $5,937.50 |
| Transitions and shoe molding | 180 | $4.50 | $810.00 |
| Furniture moving and reset | 1 | $385.00 | $385.00 |
| Subtotal | $10,077.50 | ||
| Tax (7.75%) | $781.01 | ||
| Total | $10,858.51 | ||
Notice that every assumption is a line rather than a conversation. That is the whole difference between a quote that holds up and one that gets renegotiated in a driveway.
Three mistakes that cost flooring contractors money
No subfloor allowance
Nobody knows what is under the old floor until it comes up. State a per-square-foot leveling price and how much prep is included, or absorb it.
Ignoring moisture testing on slab
Installing over a slab that has not been moisture tested is how a flooring contractor ends up replacing a floor for free. Put the test — and what happens if it fails — on the quote.
Waste factor left out
Customers measure the room and compare against your square footage. Show the waste factor explicitly so the higher number reads as competence and not padding.
How to send a flooring quote in about a minute
A template is only half the job — the quote still has to reach the customer in a form they can act on. With SendQuoteNow you add the customer, add your line items, and hit send. Your customer gets a branded PDF plus a link where they approve or decline with one click, and you get an email the moment they do.
- Your branding, not ours — your logo, business name, contact details, and terms on every document.
- From your phone — build and send the quote before you leave the customer's property.
- One-click approval — no login or account needed on your customer's side.
- Automatic math — subtotal, tax, and discounts calculated as you type.
- Quote → invoice — convert accepted work into an invoice without retyping it.