Cost to Carpet a Whole House in 2026: $2,120 to $5,510 for a 3-Bedroom Example
Carpeting a whole house costs $3.53 to $9.19 per sq ft of carpeted floor in nylon or triexta, with pad and professional labor: $3,530 to $9,190 for 1,000 sq ft and $7,060 to $18,380 for 2,000 sq ft. Our 3-bedroom example (three bedrooms, a hallway and 14 stairs) comes to $2,120 to $5,510. Prices checked 13 October 2026; removal of the old carpet is extra.
Whole House Carpet Cost, Quick Reference
3BR example, standard$2,120–$5,510
1,000 sq ft, standard$3,530–$9,190
2,000 sq ft, standard$7,060–$18,380
Per sq ft installed, standard$3.53–$9.19
Removal of old carpetPriced separately
Median new house, 2025 (floor area)2,142 sq ft
Whole House Carpet Cost by Carpeted Area, 500 to 3,000 Sq Ft
Find the row nearest the area you are carpeting. Each figure is carpet and pad with 10 percent waste plus professional labor, with low ends added together and high ends together. Four sizes have their own page with what only that size needs: 500 sq ft (what three or four rooms come to, and how it sits against the advertised room deals), 1,000 sq ft (the average cost question, basement and Home Depot comparisons), 1,500 sq ft (12-foot vs 15-foot rolls and seams) and 2,000 sq ft (dye lots and how close it is to a median house). Carpeting a finished basement? It needs a pad made for concrete, priced on the basement carpet cost page. One room at a time is on the bedroom carpet cost page.
Per sq ft installed: budget $1.94 to $7.49, standard $3.53 to $9.19, premium $4.77 to $15.35. National rates; for your region see the cost-by-state guide.
Sources and method.The Home Depot, Installed Carpet listings by fiber (per sq ft prices of polyester, nylon, triexta, wool, olefin and berber carpet; checked 13 October 2026); Lowe's, carpet listings (nylon and polyester) (per sq ft prices of nylon and polyester carpet; checked 13 October 2026); The Home Depot, Carpet Padding listings (per sq ft prices of 6 lb and 8 lb pad, memory foam and moisture-barrier pad; checked 13 October 2026); The Home Depot, Carpet Installation Cost Guide (average cost per sq ft: carpet $1 to $4, padding $1.01, installation $0.69 for basic install; furniture moving, removal and disposal priced separately; checked 13 October 2026); The Home Depot, How to Calculate Square Footage (order 5 to 10 percent more material for waste; checked 13 October 2026); U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS May 2025, Carpet Installers (47-2041) (national and state hourly wages, read through the BLS public data API; checked 13 October 2026); International Code Council, 2021 IRC section R311.7 (stair width at least 36 in, riser at most 7 3/4 in, tread at least 10 in, nosing up to 1 1/4 in; landings at least as wide as the flight and 36 in deep on a straight run (R311.7.6); winder treads at least 10 in deep at the walkline and 6 in at any point (R311.7.5.2.1); checked 13 October 2026); U.S. Census Bureau, Characteristics of New Housing 2025: Square Feet of Floor Area in New Single-Family Houses Completed (released 1 July 2026) (2025 completions: median 2,142 sq ft and average 2,378 sq ft of floor area; share of houses by floor-area band; regional medians; checked 13 October 2026); U.S. Census Bureau, Characteristics of New Housing 2025: Number of Bedrooms in New Single-Family Houses Completed (2025 completions: 12 percent had 2 bedrooms or fewer, 46 percent had 3, 42 percent had 4 or more; checked 13 October 2026); Shaw Floors, Carpet Installation (plan and install guide with FAQs) (most carpet is made in 12-foot rolls and 15-foot rolls are available; larger rooms and large pattern repeats need extra material; installation takes several hours or a couple of days depending on size and complexity; furniture moving and old-floor removal are usually an additional cost; checked 13 October 2026); Mohawk Flooring, Soft Surface Flooring FAQs (fiber traits (nylon for heavy traffic, triexta with built-in stain protection, polyester as the budget fiber, wool needing more care); quality carpet can last 10 to 15 years or longer with care and professional cleaning every 12 to 18 months; checked 13 October 2026); National Floors Direct, Free Flooring Services (included pad specification, furniture moving, free standard stair labor on boxed stairs and its statement that most installers charge 10 to 25 dollars per step, free measuring and next-day estimates; checked 13 October 2026). Installed figures are our arithmetic on the cited inputs: carpet and pad at the retail prices shown, plus 10 percent for waste, plus labor from $0.69 per sq ft (Home Depot's published basic rate) to $1.60 (our estimate: $0.69 scaled by the BLS 90th to 10th percentile installer wage ratio). Removal, furniture moving and stair surcharges are not included.
How Big Is a Whole House? What the Census Says
The median new single-family house completed in 2025 had 2,142 sq ft of floor area and the average had 2,378 sq ft, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Characteristics of New Housing (released 1 July 2026). Medians differ by region: 2,459 sq ft in the Northeast, 2,162 in the South, 2,090 in the West and 1,969 in the Midwest.
That is floor area for the whole house, kitchens and bathrooms included, so a 2,000 sq ft house does not mean 2,000 sq ft of carpet. Nobody publishes the carpeted share, so measure your own rooms. Use the Census figures to place your house among new homes, then read the row in the table above that matches the rooms you are carpeting.
This is the worked example behind our 3-bedroom figure, at standard grade (nylon or triexta), national rates, excluding removal. It is our own room list, not a claim about a typical house. Stairs are a 36-inch-wide staircase at the International Residential Code’s tread and riser limits, before any per-step stair charge.
Room
Size
Standard (nylon or triexta)
Main bedroom
14×16 (224 sq ft)
$790–$2,060
Bedroom 2
12×12 (144 sq ft)
$510–$1,320
Bedroom 3
10×12 (120 sq ft)
$420–$1,100
Hallway
3×15 (45 sq ft)
$160–$410
Stairs
14 steps
$230–$610
TOTAL
TOTAL (excl. removal; rows rounded)
$2,120–$5,510
Multi-room jobs: carpeting 3+ rooms in one visit gives the installer one setup and one trip. Ask each installer what they charge for the whole job in one visit and compare totals; we have found no published typical discount, so we do not quote one. For the stairs alone, see the carpet stairs cost page.
What a Whole-House Total Leaves Out
The figures above are carpet, pad and fitting. Four things are usually quoted on top, and none has a published national price we could check:
Removal and disposal of the old carpet. Home Depot’s cost guide says “Furniture moving, removal and disposal are priced separately.” See carpet removal cost.
Moving furniture. Every room must be empty. Shaw says a retailer or installer may arrange furniture and old-floor removal, “but you should expect this to be an additional cost.”
A per-step stair charge. National Floors Direct, which includes standard stairs free, says most installers charge $10 to $25 per step. That is its claim about other installers, not a price list.
Extra carpet for seams and patterns. Shaw says most carpet comes in 12-foot rolls, with 15-foot rolls available, and that larger rooms and patterns with a large repeat need more material than the floor area.
Frequently Asked Questions
It depends on how much of the house is carpeted, so we price a worked example: a 14×16 main bedroom, a 12×12 and a 10×12 bedroom, a 3×15 hallway (533 sq ft) and 14 stairs. In nylon or triexta with pad and labor that is $2,120–$5,510. Budget polyester: $1,170–$4,490. Wool: $2,860–$9,200. Removal of the old carpet and any per-step stair charge are extra. Three bedrooms is the most common layout in new US houses: 46 percent of the single-family houses completed in 2025 had three, and 42 percent had four or more (U.S. Census Bureau).
= 144 sq ft of floor, or 16.0 sq yd. Order about 18 sq yd with 10% waste.
the everyday cut pile; both big-box sites sell most carpet under this name
Enter the rate on your quote, or 0 if you pull it up yourself. No retailer publishes one, so we do not guess it.
Estimated installed cost
$510 to $1,300
$3.53 to $9.03 per sq ft, or $31.77 to $81.27 per sq yd, for carpet, pad and labor on the floor
Carpet
Nylon, $2.24 to $5.74 per sq ft, plus 10% waste
$355 to $909
Pad
8 lb rebond, $0.34 to $1.01 per sq ft, plus waste
$54 to $160
Installation labor
$0.69 to $1.60 per sq ft
$99 to $230
Prices checked 13 October 2026 at Home Depot and Lowe’s. Not included: furniture moving, subfloor repair, transitions and any per-step stair fee. Ask for each as its own line on a written quote.
Ask about a carpet quote
A figure here that does not match your quote?
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.