Carpet Installation Cost 2026: $1,500–$4,000 for 500 Sq Ft

Installing about 500 square feet of wall-to-wall carpet in a US house — synthetic fiber, pad included, stretch-in, the old carpet and pad hauled away — often clusters around $1,500–$4,000. That is the typical carpet installation cost. How much does it cost to install carpet in that scope? It is the size row below, from $1,500 up. Carpet cost per square foot, for that installed job, is typically $2–$8. The cost to replace carpet is that same rate when the old stretch-in carpet comes out with the new one. The cost to carpet a room is the room’s own row, and a single bedroom sits under the typical band. The cost to carpet stairs, for one straight flight the floor price left out, is typically $150–$600. The wider national spread, about $200–$16,000, covers a very small room at the low end and a large synthetic floor, or wool on about 1,000 square feet, at the high end. A hardwood floor is the wood you might keep. New hardwood is a different floor. New laminate is a hard floor. Interior painting is the walls. A kitchen remodel is the room that usually does not get this carpet. These are typical planning ranges, not a survey and not a quote.

This page is wall-to-wall carpet on an existing single-family floor. A bid may call it carpet installation, recarpeting, or a stretch-in. It is not a sand-and-finish of hardwood. It is not new hardwood plank. It is not click-lock plank, which is the vinyl plank flooring guide. It is not laminate. It is not paint on the walls, which is the interior painting guide. It is not the floor inside a kitchen remodel. Carpet tile, a commercial glue-down, and a bound area rug are different products.

The price of the floor is the carpet, the pad, the stretch, and the haul. Square feet are the first cut. Fiber is the second. A per-foot rate is a way to check a row. It is not a second bill. Price the floor you can measure. A square yard is nine square feet. $2–$8 a square foot is $18–$72 a square yard. Two times nine is $18. Eight times nine is $72. A quote in yards and a quote in feet are the same floor if the dollars match. Do not add them.

The rows below are ways to read one job. They are not added together. The size table is synthetic carpet with the pad, a stretch-in, and the haul-away of one layer of stretch-in carpet and pad. The fiber table is that same installed floor, by fiber, and it replaces the generic $2–$8 rate. Wool replaces synthetic. It is not a second carpet on top of nylon. Use an add-on row only for a line the size row does not include. A pad the proposal already names is not a second pad. A haul-away inside the installed rate is not a second haul. Stairs are not inside the flat-floor square feet, so a flight is an add-on only when the written price stopped at the rooms.

Floor	Square feet	Typical installed cost
10×12 bedroom	120	$240–$960
12×12 bedroom	144	$288–$1,152
One larger room	200	$400–$1,600
Bedrooms and a hall	500	$1,000–$4,000
Most of one floor	1,000	$2,000–$8,000
A larger floor	1,500	$3,000–$12,000

Fiber	Typical installed cost per square foot
Polyester or olefin	$2–$4
Nylon	$3–$7
Wool	$8–$16

Add-on	Typical planning range
Pad, when the bid leaves it out	$0.75–$1.75 per sq ft
Haul-away, when the bid leaves it out	$0.70–$1.60 per sq ft
One straight stair flight, about 13 steps	$150–$600

The fiber rows replace the generic rate inside the size row. Do not add nylon on top of a size row that was already priced as nylon. The add-on rows are lines the size row left out. A pad the proposal already includes is not the pad row on top.

A 10×12 bedroom is 120 square feet and is typically $240–$960. One hundred twenty times $2 is $240, the floor. One hundred twenty times $8 is $960, the top. One hundred twenty times $3 is $360, inside the row and under the typical band. The typical band is about 500 square feet. This bedroom can land on a few hundred dollars and still be a different job from that 500 square foot floor. One hundred square feet at $2 is $200, the floor of the wider spread, under the row, because a real small-room visit does not shrink to a closet price and a room that has not reached 120 square feet is not this row. Fifty square feet at $2 is $100, under the wider floor. From $240–$960 the job is the 10×12 row. Do not add the 500 square foot row on top of it.

A 12×12 bedroom is 144 square feet and is typically $288–$1,152. One hundred forty-four times $2 is $288, the floor. One hundred forty-four times $8 is $1,152, the top. One hundred forty-four times $4 is $576, inside the row and under the typical band. The whole row sits under $1,500. A 12×12 at the top of the synthetic rate is still one bedroom. It is not the typical band with a discount. One hundred forty-four times $1.50 is $216, under the row and just above the wider floor. Do not add the 10×12 row to this one.

Two hundred square feet is typically $400–$1,600. Two hundred times $2 is $400, the floor. Two hundred times $8 is $1,600, the top. Two hundred times $7.50 is $1,500, the typical floor, and that dollar is still one room at the top of the rate. It is not 500 square feet. Two hundred times $4 is $800, inside the row and under the typical band. From $400–$1,500 the job sits under the typical band. From $1,500–$1,600 the dollars have touched the typical band and the room is still 200 square feet. Do not add the 12×12 row to this one.

About 500 square feet — bedrooms and a hall, or one open living area of that size — is typically $1,000–$4,000 on the size row, and the typical band of $1,500–$4,000 is that row from $1,500 up. Five hundred times $2 is $1,000, the floor of the row and $500 under the typical floor. Five hundred times $3 is $1,500, the typical floor. Five hundred times $4 is $2,000, inside the row and inside the typical band. Five hundred times $8 is $4,000, the top of the row and the typical top. The overlap of the size row with the typical band is $1,500–$4,000. From $1,000–$1,500 the job sits under the typical band and stays inside the wider spread. This is the floor the typical band describes: synthetic, pad in, stretch-in, old carpet hauled. Do not add a per-foot rate on top of this row. The per-foot reading is how the row was built.

About 1,000 square feet, most of one floor, is typically $2,000–$8,000. One thousand times $2 is $2,000, the floor. One thousand times $3 is $3,000, inside the row and inside the typical band. One thousand times $4 is $4,000, the typical top, inside the row. One thousand times $8 is $8,000, the top of the row. The overlap with the typical band is $2,000–$4,000. From $4,000–$8,000 the job has left the typical band and stays inside the wider spread. Nothing in this row is 500 square feet someone doubled and then charged twice for the trip. The truck is already there. Do not add the 500 square foot row to this one.

About 1,500 square feet is typically $3,000–$12,000. Fifteen hundred times $2 is $3,000, the floor. Fifteen hundred times $8 is $12,000, the top. Fifteen hundred times $4 is $6,000, inside the row and above the typical band. The overlap with the typical band is $3,000–$4,000. From $4,000–$12,000 the job has left the typical band and stays inside the wider spread. The $3,000 floor is inside the typical dollars and is still 1,500 square feet, not the 500 square foot job. Fifteen hundred times $10 is $15,000, which has left the row, stays inside the wider spread, and is a rate above synthetic. Do not add the 1,000 square foot row to this one.

Carpet cost per square foot

Carpet cost per square foot is the installed floor, not the remnant price on a roll. The size rows use $2–$8 for synthetic carpet with the pad, the stretch, and the haul-away of one stretch-in carpet. Polyester or olefin is typically $2–$4. Nylon is typically $3–$7. Those two rates overlap from $3–$4. Ask which fiber the bid is. Wool is typically $8–$16 and replaces the synthetic rate.

On 500 square feet, polyester or olefin at $2 is $1,000, the floor of the size row, and at $4 is $2,000, inside the typical band. Nylon at $3 is $1,500, the typical floor, and at $7 is $3,500, inside the typical band. Wool at $8 is $4,000, the typical top, and at $16 is $8,000, which has left the typical band and the 500 square foot size row and stays inside the wider spread. On 1,000 square feet, wool at $8 is $8,000, the top of that size row, and wool at $16 is $16,000, the top of the wider spread. A heavier wool, or 1,500 square feet of wool, can clear $16,000. Fifteen hundred times $16 is $24,000, which has cleared the wider spread. That is a different product from the synthetic row. Do not add the $2–$8 rate under a wool price.

A bid that splits the pieces is still one floor. Carpet material for a common synthetic is often about $1–$5 a square foot. Pad, when the bid leaves it out of a carpet-only price, is typically $0.75–$1.75 a square foot installed. Labor to stretch it in is typically $0.50–$1.50 a square foot. On 500 square feet, material at $1, pad at $0.75, and labor at $0.50 is $1,125. Five hundred plus $375 plus $250 is $1,125. Material at $5, pad at $1.75, and labor at $1.50 is $4,125. Twenty-five hundred plus $875 plus $750 is $4,125. The floor of that stack, $1,125, sits inside the 500 square foot row and under the typical band. The top, $4,125, has left the typical band by $125 and stays inside the wider spread. $5 plus $1.75 plus $1.50 is $8.25, just over the $8 rate. Five hundred times $8.50 is $4,250, the same kind of step past the row. Use the split when the bid is split. Do not add those pieces on top of a size row that already includes them.

Haul-away of the old stretch-in carpet and pad, when the bid leaves it out, is typically $0.70–$1.60 a square foot. Five hundred times $0.70 is $350. Five hundred times $1.60 is $800. A 120 square foot room at $0.70 is $84, and at $1.60 is $192. Glued-down carpet can leave $1.60 and stays inside the wider spread. Add this row only when the written price is new carpet on a bare floor and the old carpet is still in the room, or when you are comparing a supply-only price with an installed price. A haul-away the hired price already includes is not a second haul.

The pad row is the same kind of line. A 12×12 at $0.75 is $108. One hundred forty-four times $0.75 is $108. One hundred forty-four times $1.75 is $252. That is pad only, on a floor that already has carpet you are lifting and putting back, or on a carpet-only bid. It is not a second pad under a $2–$8 price. A thicker rubber pad can leave $1.75. Ask the weight. A 6-pound rebond and an 8-pound rebond are not the same cushion, and the bid should name it.

Replacing carpet

The cost to replace carpet is the size row when the new carpet, the pad, and the old carpet leave in one visit. On about 500 square feet that is $1,000–$4,000, and the typical reading is $1,500–$4,000. Replacing the carpet in one 12×12 is $288–$1,152. Replacing most of a floor, about 1,000 square feet, is $2,000–$8,000. Those are substitutes for one another only in the sense that you pick the square feet you have. Two rooms are not the 500 square foot row plus each room again.

A second room on the same visit is more square feet, not a second mobilization at the full first-room price. Do not multiply a 12×12 by the number of bedrooms and then add the hall as a second trip. Measure the floor once. A hall and three bedrooms that add to 500 square feet are the 500 square foot row. A bid that prices each bedroom as a separate trip is charging the drive more than once.

Keeping the old tack strip, when it is still sound and the bid says so, is a reason the price can sit toward the floor of the rate. New tack strip is inside a normal stretch-in. It is not a second rate. A transition at a doorway, a metal reducer where carpet meets another floor, belongs in the same bid. It is not a second floor and it is not the hardwood refinish on the other side of the door.

Stairs

The cost to carpet stairs is typically $150–$600 for one straight flight of about thirteen steps, when the floor price stopped at the rooms. Thirteen times $12 is $156, just over the floor. Thirteen times $45 is $585, just under the top. A short flight can sit at $150. A flight with spindles, a turn, or a pie-shaped step can leave $600 and stays inside the wider spread. The steps are not in the flat-floor square feet. Add this row when the proposal includes the flight, or when you are comparing a rooms-only price with a price that takes the stairs. On a 500 square foot floor, the typical band plus a flight is $1,650–$4,600. Fifteen hundred plus $150 is $1,650. Four thousand plus $600 is $4,600. The floor of that sum stays inside the typical band. The top has left it by $600 and stays inside the wider spread. It is floors plus stairs, not a more expensive fiber.

A flight the bid already names is not this row on top. Two flights are two flights. Do not invent a discount the bid did not write, and do not price the second flight as a full second visit if the crew is already on the stair. Carpet on the landing is part of the flight when the bid says so. A landing priced as another bedroom is a question.

Stairs are a different stretch from a room. Each nosing is cut and tucked. That is why a flight does not follow $2–$8 times a guess at the square feet of the treads. Use the flight row.

What the range includes

The typical band assumes about 500 square feet of synthetic wall-to-wall carpet at a single-family house. The pad is in. The carpet is stretched to the tack strip. The old stretch-in carpet and pad are hauled away. Furniture moving, in this band, is a simple shift the owner does, or a shift the bid already names. An open 500 square feet at $3 a foot is the $1,500 floor. The same floor at $8 is the $4,000 top. Where a stair flight is in the work, it is the $150–$600 line only when the room price left it out.

How long the work takes depends on the square feet, the tear-out, and the stairs, and the bid’s schedule is the one that counts. A single bedroom is often a few hours. About 500 square feet is often a day. A full floor with stairs is often longer. These are typical planning spans, not a warranty.

The floor of the wider spread, near $200, is a very small room. One hundred square feet at $2 is $200. It is not 500 square feet someone discounted. The top, $16,000, is about 2,000 square feet of synthetic carpet at $8, or about 1,000 square feet of wool at $16. Two thousand times $8 is $16,000. One thousand times $16 is $16,000. It is not the 500 square foot row plus every add-on. Five hundred square feet at $4,000, a flight at $600, and a haul-away someone left out at $800 is $5,400. That sum sits inside the 1,000 square foot row and under the top of the wider spread. Stacking those lines does not build the $16,000 job. The $16,000 job is the large floor or the wool, used as the size and the fiber, not as a pile of add-ons.

None of the bands include sanding a hardwood floor, painting the walls, which is the interior painting guide, or a kitchen remodel. A new subfloor, a wet slab, and new baseboard as its own trim job are not inside the carpet rate. A soft floor the carpet would hide is still a floor that needs a decision before the pad goes down. Do not fold the hardwood, the paint, or the kitchen into the carpet price.

Warranties are part of the contract, and this page is not a reading of one company’s form. A carpet warranty commonly splits the fiber, the stain resistance, and the installation, and the term on labor is often shorter than any term on the carpet. A seam that opens, a wrinkle from a stretch that did not hold, and a stain the fiber warranty excludes are questions for that form. Read it. The warranty is not a dollar line in the planning range.

Homeowners insurance and a home warranty are contracts too. A standard homeowners policy is built around sudden and accidental damage. Carpet ruined by a covered burst pipe or a covered flood is the kind of loss those policies commonly respond to, and the replacement is part of that claim only to the extent the form says. Carpet you chose to replace because it was worn, and carpet a pet stained over years, are the kind of loss those policies commonly treat as maintenance. Read the form before you treat the policy as the budget. A home warranty may name the house and still exclude floor covering. Neither contract is inside the planning range.

As a cross-check, not a bid: 500 square feet at $3–$8 is $1,500–$4,000, the typical band. Five hundred times $3 is $1,500. Five hundred times $8 is $4,000. One hundred forty-four square feet at $2–$8 is $288–$1,152, one bedroom, under that band. One thousand square feet at $8 is $8,000, inside the wider spread and above the typical band. If a bid and that reading are far apart, the bid is wool, stairs, a glued-down tear-out, a pad that was left out, or a floor the truck has to reach through the house one roll at a time.

What moves the price

Driver	How it changes the bid
Size	A 10×12 is $240–$960. A 12×12 is $288–$1,152. Two hundred square feet is $400–$1,600. About 500 square feet is $1,000–$4,000, and the typical band is that row from $1,500 up. About 1,000 square feet is $2,000–$8,000. About 1,500 square feet is $3,000–$12,000.
Fiber	Polyester or olefin is $2–$4 a square foot. Nylon is $3–$7. Wool is $8–$16 and replaces the synthetic rate. The fiber is not a second price on top of the size row.
Pad and haul-away	Both are inside the $2–$8 rate. Left out, pad is $0.75–$1.75 a square foot and haul-away is $0.70–$1.60. A glued-down tear-out can leave the haul-away row.
Stairs	One straight flight of about thirteen steps is $150–$600 when the rooms price left it out. A flight already in the bid is not a second flight.
Layout	A rectangle is the rate. Closets, a long hall, and seams down a traffic path take more cuts. The bid moves toward the top of the row and can leave it.
Region and access	Labor and disposal vary widely. A high-cost metro can clear the top of the typical band on a straightforward 500 square feet. An upstairs the roll has to be carried to is labor, too.

Square feet are the first cut, and they are not a rate times the whole house if only the bedrooms are in the bid. Measure the rooms. A 12×12 at $8 is $1,152. Five hundred square feet at $3 is $1,500. The larger, cheaper floor can cost more than the smaller, better one. The crew does not scale in a straight line from a closet, which is why a real visit often does not land under $200.

Fiber is the second cut, and it is a substitute, not a stack. Polyester, nylon, and wool are three ways to price one surface. Adding wool on top of a nylon size row is how 500 square feet becomes a number nobody can compare.

The same 500 square feet in a lower-cost area and in a high-labor city can sit at opposite ends of $1,500–$4,000 without either bid being wrong. Ask how the old carpet leaves, and ask what the pad weighs. A hardwood floor in the rooms you are not carpeting, paint in the same season, and a kitchen that is open the same month are the projects that show up beside this one. Price them on their own pages. Two bids that disagree about the pad, the haul-away, and whether the stairs are in are not the same floor.

DIY or hire

Hire the stairs, a glued-down tear-out, and any floor you would be stretching for the first time. The power stretcher, the seam iron, and the disposal are the job. A weekend crew is most likely to leave a wrinkle, a peaked seam, and a pad that is too thin, and those are the parts that show up as a trip hazard and a restretch.

A single rectangular room, with a clear stretch, no stairs, and stretch-in carpet that pulls up, can be a careful DIY if you have used a power stretcher before and you will haul the old carpet. That is the labor line, $0.50–$1.50 a square foot, you are not hiring. The carpet, the pad, and the disposal are still real. On 144 square feet, labor at $0.50 is $72, and at $1.50 is $216. The material and the pad are the rest of the $288–$1,152 room. A knee kicker alone, with no power stretcher, is how a DIY floor wrinkles by the next season. A house, a flight of stairs, and any glued-down carpet are a hire.

Do not skip the haul-away to save the labor. Old carpet and old pad are a load, and a pad that stays in the garage is still a pad you paid to remove from the floor only if someone removed it.

Repair or replace

Restretch a carpet that is sound in the face and only loose, rippled, or pulled off the tack strip. Restretching one room is typically $100–$300. Each additional room on the same visit is typically $50–$75. Two rooms are $150–$375. One hundred plus $50 is $150. Three hundred plus $75 is $375. Three rooms are $200–$450. The two-room floor plus another $50 is $200. The two-room top plus another $75 is $450. That span replaces the new-carpet row for those rooms. It is not added to a size row. A restretch of a 12×12, at $100–$300, overlaps the bottom of a replacement at $288–$1,152. A quote of $300 on that room should say whether the carpet is being stretched or replaced.

Patch or reseam when the damage is one spot or one split and you still have matching carpet. A seam repair or a small patch is typically $100–$250. That also replaces the room’s replacement. It is not a restretch plus a seam plus a new floor. A seam at $250 and a restretch at $300, if the bid truly splits them, is $550. That dollar sits inside the 12×12 replacement row and inside a 200 square foot replacement. If a repair quote is a large fraction of a replacement quote, price both in writing.

Replace the carpet when the face is worn through, the pad is crushed or rotten, the smell is in the cushion, or the backing has failed. A restretch on a pad that has collapsed buys a wrinkle. A patch on a floor that is gone in the traffic lanes buys a season. Leaving a crushed pad to save the $1,500–$4,000 is how the next bid is a replacement anyway, after a second trip.

Leave the carpet when the floor under it is the project. New carpet does not fix a hardwood floor you meant to uncover, and it does not fix a kitchen that needs a hard surface. Paint is the interior painting guide. If the same season includes paint, stretch the carpet after the paint, or protect a new carpet the painters will walk. Those are two scopes.

How long a remaining carpet lasts is not a number on this page. A restretch is not a warranty that the face will wear like new. A replacement is not a warranty that a pet or a leak will miss the pad. The bid’s scope is the work you bought.

How to use this number

Ask two or three installers for a written price that names the square feet, the fiber, the pad weight, whether the old carpet is hauled, whether the stairs are included, who moves the furniture, and what happens if the subfloor is soft. Compare about 500 square feet of synthetic carpet, pad in and old carpet hauled, with $1,500–$4,000. Compare the rooms with $240–$960 for a 10×12, $288–$1,152 for a 12×12, $400–$1,600 for 200 square feet, $1,000–$4,000 for 500, $2,000–$8,000 for 1,000, and $3,000–$12,000 for 1,500. Compare the fiber with $2–$4 for polyester or olefin, $3–$7 for nylon, and $8–$16 for wool. Keep the pad and the haul-away inside the $2–$8 rate. Put a left-out pad at $0.75–$1.75, a left-out haul-away at $0.70–$1.60, and a left-out straight flight at $150–$600 on their own lines.

A very low bid on 500 square feet is a reason to ask whether the pad and the haul-away are included, not a reason to celebrate. A quote near $200 should say a very small room, not a hall and three bedrooms. A high bid should point at square feet, wool, stairs, a glued-down tear-out, access, or the labor market. Two or three local bids on the same floor, the same fiber, and the same haul-away are the number that matters. How this site sets the band is explained on the methodology page.