About Underfoot

New Zealand’s flooring industry is a billion-dollar sector that touches almost every home and commercial space in the country. It has never had a publication worthy of it.

That’s the reason Underfoot exists.

What we do

We publish independent journalism covering carpet, vinyl and hybrid, hard flooring, floor preparation, and window furnishings — for three audiences:

• Homeowners working out what flooring to buy and who to hire
• Installers running their craft and their businesses
• The wider industry — suppliers, retailers, FloorNZ members — who need considered analysis of where the market is going

Most of what’s been written about flooring in New Zealand serves someone else’s interests. Retailer content is commercial. Manufacturer content is commercial. International content ignores NZ pricing, climate, regulation, and product availability. Lead-generation platforms publish thin SEO bait. Industry communications stay inside the membership. Underfoot exists to fill the gap none of them can.

What we stand for

Five things, none of them negotiable:

Editorial independence. We don’t take pay-to-play content. We don’t accept brand sponsorship that influences coverage. We don’t pull punches on supplier or retailer behaviour. Even when we eventually have revenue partnerships, the editorial wall is absolute.

NZ-first relevance. Every piece has to be useful to a New Zealand reader specifically — NZ prices, NZ products, NZ regulation, NZ climate, NZ language. We never republish or reskin international content.

Depth over thinness. If a topic deserves 2,500 words, we write 2,500. If it deserves 500, we write 500. We don’t pad for keyword density and we don’t shortchange to chase clicks.

Practical usefulness. Every piece must change what the reader does next. If you can read something we publish and walk away with nothing you can act on, we’ve failed.

Respect across audiences. Homeowners deserve the full picture, told properly — no condescension, no jargon-as-gatekeeping. Installers deserve to be treated as the professionals they are — no “tradie” cosplay, no top-down lecturing. The same publication is useful to a Mt Eden homeowner and a Wellington flooring contractor.

What you’ll find here

Cost guides, buyer guides, regional comparisons, and process explainers for homeowners. Installation techniques, training pathway guides, business advice, and health-and-safety coverage for installers. Market analysis, supplier news, regulatory tracking, and industry interviews for the trade.

All of it free to read. No paywall. No member gate.

How we make money (and how we don’t)

Underfoot is funded through advertising and sponsorship that is structurally separated from editorial — and by reader-supported memberships and paid premium reports as we grow. We will turn down advertising relationships that compromise editorial independence, in the same way The Spinoff and Stratechery have built their models. The money has to come from the side; it can never come from between us and our readers.

Get in touch

You can reach us at hello@underfoot.co.nz. Tips, corrections, story ideas, partnership enquiries — all welcome. If you’re an installer, retailer, supplier, or industry insider with something we should know about, that line is for you.