How Much Does New Flooring Cost in Kent?
Realistic installed costs for carpet, LVT, laminate, vinyl and wood in Kent homes, including underlay, preparation, uplift and the extras quotes often hide.
Almost every flooring price you see advertised is a supply-only price for the material alone. The number that matters is the installed cost, which is the floor covering, the underlay or adhesive, the preparation the subfloor actually needs, the uplift and disposal of what is there now, and the labour to fit it. Those extras routinely add half again to the headline figure.
The ranges below reflect what we quote across Medway, Maidstone, Canterbury and the rest of Kent for ordinary domestic work in 2026. They assume a straightforward room, a sound subfloor and normal access. Where your job differs, the survey stage is what turns a range into a fixed figure.
Typical installed costs per square metre
| Floor type | Budget | Mid range | Premium |
|---|---|---|---|
| Carpet | £18 to £26 per m2 | £28 to £42 per m2 | £45 to £80 per m2 |
| Laminate | £22 to £30 per m2 | £32 to £45 per m2 | £48 to £65 per m2 |
| Sheet vinyl | £20 to £28 per m2 | £30 to £42 per m2 | £45 to £60 per m2 |
| LVT (click) | £38 to £50 per m2 | £52 to £68 per m2 | £70 to £90 per m2 |
| LVT (glue down) | £45 to £60 per m2 | £62 to £80 per m2 | £85 to £120 per m2 |
| Engineered wood | £55 to £70 per m2 | £72 to £95 per m2 | £100 to £150 per m2 |
What a whole room actually comes to
Square metre rates are useful for comparison but misleading on small rooms, because setting out, cutting and trimming take the same time whether the room is nine square metres or nineteen. Most fitters carry a minimum charge, so a small cloakroom rarely costs a fifth of a lounge.
As a working guide, a 12m2 bedroom in mid-range carpet with a good underlay lands around £380 to £520 installed. A 20m2 lounge and hallway in click LVT is commonly £1,100 to £1,500 once preparation is included. A full three-bedroom house, mixing hard floor downstairs and carpet upstairs, usually sits between £3,500 and £7,000.
The costs that are genuinely extra
- Uplift and disposal of the existing floor, typically £2 to £5 per m2, more if it is glued down or there are several layers
- Latex self-levelling screed, usually £12 to £22 per m2 depending on depth and how much filling the floor needs first
- Plywood overlay on timber floors, commonly £18 to £28 per m2 supplied and screwed down
- Door trimming, often charged per door, and new door bars or threshold strips per opening
- Furniture moving where rooms cannot be cleared before the fitting day
- Stairs, which are priced per flight or per step rather than by area because the labour is far higher
Why two quotes for the same floor differ so much
The most common reason is that one quote includes preparation and the other assumes the floor is ready. A cheaper price that leaves latex, ply or uplift out is not a cheaper job, it is an incomplete one, and the shortfall usually appears on the day when the work cannot proceed without it.
The second reason is product tier. Two carpets described as eighty twenty wool can differ by twenty pounds a metre because of pile weight, and two LVTs that look identical can carry a 0.3mm or a 0.55mm wear layer. Ask for the specification, not the marketing name, when you compare.
Where it is worth spending more, and where it is not
Spend on preparation before you spend on product tier. A mid-range floor over a properly levelled base outlasts a premium floor laid over ridges and dips, every time. Spend on underlay under carpet, because it is the single biggest influence on how the carpet feels and how long the pile holds up.
Save on bedroom specification rather than hallway specification. Bedrooms take a fraction of the traffic, so a modest carpet there and a heavy-duty floor at the front door is a better split of the same money than an even spread across the house.
Getting a price you can rely on
A written quote should name the exact product and its specification, state the underlay or adhesive, list preparation, uplift and disposal separately, and give the total including VAT. If any line is described only as sundries, ask what it covers before you sign.
We measure free of charge across Kent, and we quote the preparation we can see rather than adding it later. Where a floor may hide surprises, such as a suspected damp solid floor, we say so on the quote and price the test rather than pretending the risk is not there.
Paying for it, and when discounts are real
Flooring is one of the few home improvements where the January and late summer sales are genuinely meaningful, because roll ends and discontinued ranges are cleared at prices that will not repeat. If your room fits within a remnant, the saving on a bedroom can be forty per cent or more with no compromise in quality at all.
Be more sceptical about permanent half price offers on own-brand ranges, where the original price was set to make the discount look generous. The reliable test is to compare the specification rather than the percentage: pile weight and fibre for carpet, wear layer thickness for LVT, and board thickness and top layer for wood.
We hold clearance stock at our Gillingham warehouse and it changes weekly, so if your budget is fixed it is worth telling us the figure and letting us show you what currently sits inside it rather than starting from a full price range.
Frequently asked questions
- Is fitting included in advertised carpet prices?
- Usually not. Advertised prices are almost always supply only for the carpet itself, with underlay, gripper, door bars, uplift and labour charged on top.
- How much should I allow for subfloor preparation?
- On a sound floor, very little. On a solid floor that needs latex, allow £12 to £22 per m2, and on a timber floor needing ply overlay allow £18 to £28 per m2.
- Do you charge for measuring and quoting?
- No. Measuring and the written quote are free across our Kent service area, and there is no obligation to proceed.
- Is it cheaper to do several rooms at once?
- Generally yes, because setting up, delivery and disposal are shared across the job rather than repeated for each visit.
- Can I supply my own flooring and pay only for fitting?
- Yes, though we cannot warrant a product we did not supply, and any shortfall in the quantity ordered becomes your responsibility.
Keep reading
A plain-English breakdown of what goes into a per-m² flooring price, with guide-only UK cost bands for materials, fitting and extras.
A room by room budget for flooring a Kent three bedroom house, with realistic totals for budget, mid range and premium specifications and where to spend first.
The real cost differences between buying flooring supply-only and using supply-and-fit, including risks, warranties and guide-only price bands.
See how we survey, prepare and fit carpet across Kent.
See how we survey, prepare and fit LVT across Kent.
See how we survey, prepare and fit laminate across Kent.
Talk it through with a fitter, not a call centre
Book a free measure from our Gillingham warehouse and we will bring samples of the options discussed here, check the subfloor and leave you with a written quote you can hold us to.