How much does carpet cost in NZ in 2026? Installed prices per m²
What carpet costs installed in NZ in 2026: mid-range synthetic from $50/m², wool or wool-blend from $80/m², plus underlay, uplift, stairs and room totals.
Carpet installation in NZ costs about $50–$80/m² for mid-range synthetic carpet and $80–$130/m² for mid-range wool or wool-blend in 2026, with standard underlay and laying included. A 12 m² bedroom in mid-range synthetic comes to about $600–$960, and published guides put a mid-range three-bedroom house at roughly $6,000–$10,000, though some go higher. What moves the final number most is the fibre, whether the old carpet has to come up, and stairs.
Quick answer (supplied and installed with standard underlay, 2026)
- Per m²: synthetic $50–$80 mid-range, $75–$110+ premium. Wool or wool-blend $80–$130 mid-range, $120–$200+ premium. These rates exclude removal of the old carpet, which is priced separately below. Some guides, such as Tradie Tools’ carpet cost page, include it, so check your quote, and check whether GST is in.
- Laying only (you buy the carpet): about $20–$45/m².
- A 12 m² bedroom: about $600–$960 in mid-range synthetic.
- A three-bedroom house (about 70–110 m² of carpeted floor in most published guides: bedrooms, hall and living areas, not the kitchen or bathroom): published mid-range figures cluster around $6,000–$10,000, though Carpetland’s runs to $16,000. At the very bottom, 70 m² of entry-level polyester at Tradie Tools’ $35–$55/m² works out at $2,450–$3,850 (our arithmetic).
- Removing old carpet: about $5–$12/m², or $500–$1,200 for 100 m². One Auckland contractor charges $10–$14/m² for a full strip-out and $24–$34/m² for glued-down carpet.
- Stairs: about $400–$900 for a straight 14-step flight (roughly $30–$65 a step, supply and install).
On this page: prices per m² · synthetic vs wool · underlay · laying only · removal · stairs · room and house examples · comparing quotes
This is the carpet-only deep dive. For other floor types, see our cost guide for every flooring type.
Carpet installation cost per m² in NZ in 2026
Supplied and installed, per m²:
| Carpet | Mid-range (per m², installed) | Premium (per m², installed) |
|---|---|---|
| Synthetic | $50–$80 | $75–$110+ |
| Wool / wool-blend | $80–$130 | $120–$200+ |
“Supplied and installed” usually means the carpet, standard underlay and standard installation. Removal of the old carpet is where sources split. Tradie Tools’ carpet cost page says its installed rates include removal and disposal, but Tradie Tools’ own installation cost pages list removal separately, and Superior Property Services’ and Midway Flooring’s rates exclude it. We treat the headline rates as excluding it and show uplift (removing the old carpet) separately.
Synthetic carpet is the cheapest floor most people lay through a house, though standard sheet vinyl can come in lower. Still deciding between carpet and a hard floor? Our comparison of carpet, vinyl and hybrid flooring in NZ covers that.
What mid-range and premium mean
Two guides publish installed per-m² prices by fibre: Tradie Tools’ carpet cost page nationally (GST included, standard underlay and removal included), and Superior Property Services for Auckland (underlay and standard installation included; stairs, strip-out and subfloor repair excluded).
| Grade | Fibre | Installed, per m² | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Entry | Polyester | $35–$55 | Tradie Tools |
| Rental grade | Solution-dyed polypropylene | $45–$70 | Superior (Auckland) |
| Mid-range | Nylon or polyester | $55–$80 | Tradie Tools |
| Mid-range | Solution-dyed nylon | $70–$110 | Superior (Auckland) |
| Premium synthetic | Premium nylon | $75–$110 | Tradie Tools |
| Wool blend | 80% wool, 20% nylon | $80–$130 | Tradie Tools |
| Pure wool | 100% wool | $100–$180 | Tradie Tools |
| Wool | Wool or wool-blend | $120–$200+ | Superior (Auckland) |
In plain terms, mid-range synthetic is everyday nylon or polyester, and premium synthetic is premium nylon. On the wool side, mid-range is a wool-rich blend and premium is mostly pure wool, though Superior’s $120–$200+ band covers wool-blends too. The bands overlap: premium nylon can cost as much as a wool blend.
What “from $39/m²” actually means
Those “from $39/m²” signs in shop windows are often the supply-only price for the cheapest range. No underlay. No laying. Add underlay at $10–$25/m² and labour at $20–$45/m², and the $39 carpet lands at roughly $70–$110/m² installed.
GST
Tradie Tools’ carpet cost page quotes installed prices including GST, and so does Midway Flooring’s Auckland guide. Most other sources don’t say either way, and some labour-only rates, such as the hourly rates in Tradie Tools’ carpet layer pricing guide, are quoted excluding GST. Check every quote.
Synthetic vs wool carpet: what the extra money buys
- Polypropylene is cheap but flattens quickly under heavy use. Fine for low-traffic rooms and rentals.
- Polyester: affordable and fine for bedrooms, but it crushes easily.
- Nylon is durable, and solution-dyed nylon (colour locked into the fibre) resists fading and stains. Godfrey Hirst recommends it for hallways, stairs and family rooms.
- Wool is resilient and naturally flame-resistant, but needs insect treatment and handles spills less well than some enhanced synthetics. Good in bedrooms and lounges.
- Wool blends sit in between. “Wool-rich” means at least 80% wool, according to Consumer NZ.
How long carpet lasts
Flooring Design’s June 2026 guide gives budget synthetic 5–8 years, against 12–20 years or more for premium wool or solution-dyed nylon. Cheap carpet needs replacing sooner, so it can cost more over time. And because premium wool and solution-dyed nylon get the same 12–20 years, in our view wool is a choice about feel, not lifespan.
Carpet underlay cost, and why cheap underlay can be a false economy
Underlay costs about $10–$25/m². Some published figures fall either side of that range, and premium underlay runs higher. Standard underlay is already in the installed rates above. It affects how soft and warm the carpet feels and how well it wears.
Buy on density (kg/m³), not thickness. Consumer NZ’s example: a 10 mm, 120 kg underlay outperforms an 11 mm, 95 kg one. Consumer NZ’s recommended minimum is 95 kg, and most NZ products sit at 95–130 kg. Carpetland puts it plainly: “Avoid choosing underlay only by thickness. A thick but soft underlay can compress quickly. Density matters.”
Never reuse old underlay. New carpet gets new underlay.
Carpet laying cost if you buy the carpet yourself
Labour on its own costs about $20–$45/m², and Auckland is usually dearer (the Auckland figure in the table below doesn’t bear that out; see the Auckland section). Some guides sit lower:
| Source | Labour-only figure |
|---|---|
| Carpetland | $20–$45+/m² |
| Superior Property Services (Auckland) | $20–$35/m² |
| Tradie Tools carpet installation cost page | $15–$25/m² |
| Tradie Tools carpet layer pricing guide | $18–$30/m², or $60–$120/hr excluding GST |
| ArchiPro (March 2024) | about $20/m² or $50/hr |
Small jobs cost more per m², because they still carry travel and set-up time. Stairs, tight halls, wardrobes and multiple joins push labour up too. Buying clearance or roll-end carpet? Let the installer measure first, so the quantity covers pattern matching and waste.
Carpet layers don’t need a licence in NZ, so industry association membership is one of the few checks you can make. Our guide on how to find a good flooring installer in Auckland covers the rest of the vetting.
Carpet removal cost: uplift and disposal
Lifting and disposing of old carpet costs about $5–$12/m² according to Tradie Tools’ installation cost guide, or about $500–$1,200 for a 100 m² house. One Auckland contractor charges about $10–$14/m² for a full strip-out to a clean subfloor, and $24–$34/m² for glued-down (direct-stick) carpet.
Is removal part of the carpet job? Sometimes. Tradie Tools’ carpet cost page includes it in its installed rates, but Tradie Tools’ installation cost pages and the other guides price it separately, so ask your installer whether they’ll do it and whether it’s in the price.
The $10–$14/m² strip-out price is from Auckland Floor Prep, an uplift contractor, and covers the underlay, adhesives, gripper rods and staples, leaving the subfloor clean. Carpetland gives $5–$15+/m², and Superior Property Services (Auckland) $3–$8/m², but the lower figures don’t all say what’s included. Don’t treat $10–$14/m² as a national norm, and expect more if the carpet is glued down, wet, mouldy or hard to get at.
What uplift adds (Underfoot arithmetic, area × rate):
| Area | Tradie Tools ($5–$12/m²) | Full strip-out ($10–$14/m²) |
|---|---|---|
| 12 m² bedroom | $60–$144 | $120–$168 |
| 25 m² lounge | $125–$300 | $250–$350 |
| 70 m² house | $350–$840 | $700–$980 |
| 100 m² house | $500–$1,200 | $1,000–$1,400 |
Direct-stick carpet in a 12 m² room, at $24–$34/m², comes to $288–$408.
Lifting a hard floor costs more. Our general guide has the uplift rates for vinyl, tiles and timber.
Doing the strip-out yourself
Lifting the carpet yourself saves money, but it’s messy: old underlay breaks apart and the staples are sharp. Only take it on if the carpet isn’t glued down. A skip costs roughly $200–$500 per load.
One warning. If lifting the carpet uncovers old vinyl or lino in a house built before 2000, stop there. WorkSafe’s guidance is that buildings built before 1 January 2000 probably contain asbestos. WorkSafe says asbestos paper backing on old sheet vinyl and lino is friable (it can be crumbled to powder by hand when dry) and must be removed by a Class A licensed removalist. Our guide to health and safety for flooring work sets out the rules.
Carpet stairs cost: how stairs are priced
Budget about $400–$900 to carpet a straight flight of 14 steps, supply and install, according to Tradie Tools’ installation cost guide. That’s roughly $30–$65 a step (our arithmetic), in line with the range of $30–$80 a step for “supply + install” on Tradie Tools’ carpet installation cost page (updated June 2026). Lower per-step figures, $15–$35 on Tradie Tools’ carpet cost page and $15–$30 in Yasen Construction’s 2025 guide, look like labour only in our view, though we haven’t confirmed it.
What to ask your installer:
- Can the stairs be their own line on the quote, and does that price include carpet?
- How are they priced: per step, per flight, or folded into a room quote?
- Are landings, winders (the wedge-shaped steps where a stair turns) and curved steps covered, and at what cost?
How much to carpet a bedroom, lounge or 3-bedroom house
These totals are Underfoot arithmetic (area × the bottom and top of each installed rate), not quotes. They include standard underlay and laying, and leave out uplift, stairs, subfloor prep, trims and furniture moving.
The house areas in this guide are carpeted m², not total floor area. Superior’s typical Auckland three-bedroom figure of 70–90 m² counts bedrooms, the hallway and living areas, not wet areas such as the kitchen and bathroom, so measure the rooms you’re carpeting rather than the whole house.
| Job | Synthetic mid ($50–$80/m²) | Synthetic premium ($75–$110+/m²) | Wool/blend mid ($80–$130/m²) | Wool premium ($120–$200+/m²) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bedroom 12 m² | $600–$960 | $900–$1,320 | $960–$1,560 | $1,440–$2,400 |
| Lounge 25 m² | $1,250–$2,000 | $1,875–$2,750 | $2,000–$3,250 | $3,000–$5,000 |
| 3-bed house 70 m² | $3,500–$5,600 | $5,250–$7,700 | $5,600–$9,100 | $8,400–$14,000 |
| 3-bed house 100 m² | $5,000–$8,000 | $7,500–$11,000 | $8,000–$13,000 | $12,000–$20,000 |
Published mid-range figures for a three-bedroom house cluster around $6,000–$10,000, though Carpetland’s runs to $16,000 (see the comparison below), so the 70 m² synthetic mid-range figure of $3,500–$5,600 fits a small, plain house with no extras. On a tight budget or in a rental, Tradie Tools’ entry polyester at $35–$55/m² puts 70 m² at $2,450–$3,850, and Superior’s Auckland rental grade at $45–$70/m² puts it at $3,150–$4,900. Those totals are our arithmetic from the per-m² rates. The two guides’ own budget figures for a three-bedroom house are higher: $3,000–$6,000 for 80–110 m² (Tradie Tools) and $4,200–$6,300 for 70–90 m² (Superior).
A whole house, built up
Take an 85 m² three-bedroom house with a 14-step staircase, where the old carpet has to come up. Using the rates in this guide (Underfoot arithmetic, before subfloor prep, trims and furniture moving), it looks like this. Some quotes already include removal, as the rates on Tradie Tools’ carpet cost page do. If yours does, take the uplift line off.
| Synthetic mid-range | Wool or wool-blend mid-range | |
|---|---|---|
| Carpet and laying, 85 m² | $4,250–$6,800 | $6,800–$11,050 |
| Uplift, 85 m² at $10–$14/m² | $850–$1,190 | $850–$1,190 |
| Stairs, 14 steps | $400–$900 | $400–$900 |
| Total | $5,500–$8,890 | $8,050–$13,140 |
Carpetland suggests a contingency of 10–15% for surprises under the old carpet, and more for older homes. If yours is an older house, our guide to the best flooring for Auckland villas covers what you might find under there.
Is carpet dearer in Auckland?
Usually, yes. Tradie Tools’ carpet installation cost pages put Auckland 10–15% above their national figures. Apply that to the 12 m² synthetic mid-range bedroom and $600–$960 becomes about $660–$1,104. We haven’t found reliable carpet figures for other cities, so we don’t rank them.
How our numbers compare with published house prices
House sizes and inclusions differ between guides, so treat these as rough reference points:
| Source | House | Published range | Basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tradie Tools (carpet cost page) | 3-bed, 80–110 m² | Mid-range $6,000–$10,000; premium wool $11,000–$20,000 | GST incl., standard underlay, removal of old carpet |
| Carpetland | 3-bed, 70–100 m² | Budget $5,000–$10,000; mid $8,000–$16,000 | Standard underlay and labour, excl. major subfloor repairs |
| Superior Property Services (Auckland) | 3-bed, 70–90 m² | Mid-range nylon $6,300–$9,900 | Add $500–$2,000 for stairs, strip-out or subfloor prep |
| Midway Flooring (Auckland) | 3–4 bed, 95–110 m² | “Better” band $7,440–$8,770 | GST incl., 10 mm underlay, no uplift, disposal, trims or prep |
| Flooring Design | 3-bed, 100–120 m² | $5,000–$10,000 | Installed with underlay, at $50–$90+/m² |
Our arithmetic sits inside or alongside these.
What pushes the price up, and why quotes can be thousands apart
Two houses the same size can get carpet quotes thousands of dollars apart, usually because the quotes aren’t for the same thing. Fibre, underlay, awkward rooms, stairs, uplift and Auckland are covered above. Two more to watch:
- Roll width and wastage. Carpet comes off a roll, so the area you’re billed for is usually more than the measured floor. One Auckland source puts the allowance for cutting and wastage at about 10–13%.
- Subfloor condition. Floor prep is left out of many published prices.
How to compare carpet quotes
Lineal metres vs m²
Some suppliers quote per lineal metre (a metre off the roll), others per m². Rolls are usually 3.66 m wide (some carpets come in 4 m widths), so a lineal-metre price looks higher than the per-m² price for the same carpet. To convert, divide by the roll width. Superior Property Services gives an example: $165 per lineal metre on a 3.66 m roll works out at about $45/m². To estimate how much carpet your rooms need, Godfrey Hirst has a floor calculator.
What to check on every quote
Ask each supplier to quote the same scope, itemised, and check:
- Carpet name, product code, fibre and pile weight, compared like for like
- Underlay type, with density and thickness
- Price per lineal metre or per m², and the area billed, with wastage shown
- The roll layout or seam plan (Consumer NZ notes the installation standard requires a seam plan)
- Uplift and disposal of the old carpet, and stairs as their own line, landings included
- Trims, door bars, door trimming and furniture moving
- Floor prep exclusions
- Warranty conditions, when the job will be done, and whether GST is in
- How much deposit is normal? Government consumer guidance says you don’t have to pay a deposit and suggests no more than 10%. Flooring that’s cut or ordered for your job often attracts a bigger deposit: 50% is common in NZ flooring companies’ terms and conditions. Negotiate, and get the refund terms in writing.
If one quote uses less carpet than the others, or is far below the rest, ask why. Also ask what installation standard or manufacturer’s instructions the installer works to. Consumer NZ says most of the carpet complaints it receives are about laying, and that poor installation may invalidate the warranty.
What to do next
- Measure and list your rooms. Roughly how many m² of carpet, whether there are stairs, and whether the old carpet is glued down.
- Pick a fibre and price band before you shop, so every quote is in the same band.
- Get itemised quotes on the same scope. In our view, three is enough to show you an outlier. Use the checklist above.
- Vet whoever will lay it: experience, references and industry association membership. Our installer guide focuses on Auckland, so if you’re elsewhere, FloorNZ’s Find a Flooring Professional directory is a place to start a shortlist. Our article on what FloorNZ membership involves looks at that association in detail.
For lead times and install day, see our guide to what to expect on flooring installation day. Doing more than carpet? Start with the general flooring cost guide.
Methodology and sources
Checked 27 Oct 202624 sources
Ranges compiled from published NZ retailer, installer and cost-guide pricing, checked on 27 October 2026. Sources are listed below.
These are published figures, not quotes Underfoot has gathered itself. The room and house totals are our own arithmetic: area multiplied by the bottom and top of each rate. The sources disagree on stairs, uplift, labour and underlay; where they do, we’ve shown the spread rather than picking one end. Several of these sources sell carpet or carpet laying, or connect homeowners with installers, so no single one should be treated as the last word. Lifespans come from Flooring Design’s June 2026 guide.
Installed prices and whole-house examples (9)
- Tradie Tools: carpet cost NZ
- Tradie Tools: carpet installation cost guide NZ
- Tradie Tools: carpet installation cost NZ
- Tradie Tools: carpet layer pricing guide NZ 2026
- Tradie Tools: vinyl flooring cost NZ
- Superior Property Services: carpet installation cost Auckland
- Carpetland: carpet installation costs explained
- Midway Flooring: carpet price guide (Auckland)
- Flooring Design: how much does it cost to carpet an average house
Uplift, disposal and stairs (4)
Fibre, underlay, lifespan and buying advice (5)
Asbestos (2)
Deposits and finding an installer (4)
If you have a quote that sits well outside these ranges, tell us through our contact form. We update our cost guides as the market shifts.
Still weighing carpet against a hard floor? See how carpet, vinyl and hybrid compare in NZ.
