Enter room sizes or square feet, pick the carpet type, pad, stairs and region, and add the removal rate from your quote. It shows each cost line, the price per sq ft and per sq yd, and the square yards to order with 10% waste. The same tool, with worked examples, is on the carpet installation cost calculator page.
Removal is not included in any cell, and stair figures exclude any per-step stair charge. On a nylon 12x12, pad and labor are about 30 percent of what you pay; the carpet is the rest.
Search for carpet installation cost and you get ranges from $1.36 to $13.58 per square foot. We read each guide on 14 October 2026. They disagree because they price different things, on different carpet, from different years.
| Who, and what it covers | Per sq ft, as published | Dated |
|---|---|---|
| Fixr pricing databases, contractors and industry experts; budget to high-end carpet, pad and labor | $1.36 to $13.58 (avg $7.47) | 31 Jan 2025 |
| This Old House cost data from Angi and HomeAdvisor; installed; its own 12x12 answer adds pad and installation on top | $3.00 to $11.00 | 8 Jun 2026 |
| The Carpet Guys an installer's own guide; another answer on the page says $3 to $10; carpet, pad and labor; removal, stairs and trim asked about separately | $3.00 to $11.00 | no date shown |
| Homewyse its cost model, national average; material, labor, job supplies and an equipment allowance; removal optional | $5.27 to $7.72 | May 2026 |
| The Home Depot its own prices as separate lines; removal, disposal and furniture moving priced separately | install $0.69; carpet $1.00 to $4.00; pad $1.01 | checked 13 October 2026 |
| This site Home Depot and Lowe’s carpet and pad listings, Home Depot’s install rate, BLS wages; carpet, pad and labor, removal and stairs separate | $1.94 to $15.35 | checked 13 October 2026 |
They price different things. Homewyse adds job supplies and an equipment allowance as their own lines and treats removal as an option. This Old House’s own 12x12 answer adds pad and installation on top of its per sq ft range, and its sidebar shows a different range again. The Carpet Guys give two different top ends on the same page. Home Depot publishes the parts separately and does not add them up.
They span different carpet. Fixr’s range runs from budget carpet to high-end wool, so its average sits far above what a plain polyester bedroom costs. The width of any range is mostly the width of the carpet aisle: on the listings we checked, carpet alone ran from $0.88 to $11.44 per sq ft.
They come from different places and years. This Old House says its figures come from Angi and HomeAdvisor; Fixr’s page was last updated in January 2025; Homewyse runs its own cost model. Ours is shelf prices on one day plus a published install rate. We could not open HGTV’s guide (it redirects outside the US) or Carpet Exchange (it refuses our requests), so neither is in the table.
What you will actually be quoted: a carpet line, a pad line and a labor line, plus removal, stairs and furniture moving if the seller charges for them. For nylon or triexta on 8 lb pad, those first three lines come to $3.53 to $9.19 per sq ft in our sum. A quote above that for the same carpet weight should say why; one well below it is worth checking for what has been left out. Put any quote’s lines into the calculator to see which line differs.
Rooms or sq ft, fiber, pad, stairs, removal and region, line by line.
Every line converted, for quotes that come by the yard.
Every room size from 10x10 to 20x20, by carpet grade.
10x10 to 14x20 master, by carpet grade.
Higher traffic, longer seams, the laminate question.
Per-step pricing, waterfall vs cap-and-band explained.
1,000 to 3,000 sq ft, room-by-room breakdowns.
Polyester, nylon, triexta, berber, frieze, wool, olefin.
Rebond, frothed foam, memory foam, felt, rubber waffle.
Pro rates vs the full DIY removal walkthrough.
Which phases are worth doing yourself, and which are not.
Cost, comfort and durability, side by side.
Comfort vs resale value, where each one wins.
All 50 states, with labor scaled by BLS installer wages.
Labor only, separated from carpet and pad. By region.
Whole-house threshold where mill discounts kick in.
No published rate: the measure, the offer terms and a sum on Lowe's carpet.
The All-Inclusive estimate, next-day fine print and the coupon.
The budget fiber, by room and area.
Multi-room promos: what the price covers, the square-foot cap, and what is extra.
The biggest single line item, and the one with the widest range: those are the lowest and highest per sq ft listings we found across polyester, nylon, triexta, wool and olefin. A 12x12 bedroom needs about 158 sq ft of carpet once 10% is added for cuts and seams. US retail is per sq ft for the consumer, but rolls are mill-direct in square yards (1 sq yd = 9 sq ft).
From $0.26 for 6 lb rebond to $1.31 for premium waterproof foam. 8 lb rebond lists at $0.34 to $0.51 and memory foam at $0.47 to $1.06; Home Depot's cost guide uses $1.01 for pad on an installed job. Reusing old pad voids most carpet warranties, never accept that compromise.
Home Depot publishes $0.69 per sq ft for basic installation, and its estimator currently advertises installation from 49 cents. Lowe's quotes only after a free in-home measure. The $1.60 upper figure is our estimate, scaled by the BLS spread in carpet installer pay. Covers cutting, power-stretching, seaming, and trimming.
Pull-up, haul-away, and tack-strip handling. Home Depot prices removal and disposal separately, and neither big-box retailer publishes a per sq ft rate. The most practical DIY job in the process: pull it up yourself before the install and that line comes off the quote. Check your local transfer station's rules for carpet.
Most jobs need none of this. Squeaky, rotted or uneven subfloor is priced once the installer has seen it. Tack strip is cheap (the basement page lists concrete tack strip and leveler bag prices); transitions and stair work should be their own lines on the quote.
Get three written quotes for any whole-room job, ideally from different kinds of seller. Ask each to itemise carpet, pad, labor, stairs and removal, and to state the square yards ordered, so the totals compare like for like: Home Depot, Lowe’s, Empire Today.
Send it over and a person reads it. We answer what we can answer, and every answer names what it rests on, whether that is a pad manufacturer’s specification, a wage series, or a retailer’s own published price sheet.