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The Best Flooring for Your Budget: What $5, $8, $12 and $16 a Square Foot Installed Actually Buys in Ontario, and the $2,500 That Does Not Change
Flooring & Tile
What $5, $8, $12 and $16 a Square Foot Buys You, Installed, and Why the Cheap Floor Is Never as Cheap as the Rate
People come to flooring with a budget and a showroom full of samples, and the samples do not have the labour on them. So here are the four budgets I hear most, with what each one buys supplied and installed in a Central Ontario house, and what I would pick at each. Then the part nobody budgets for: the tearout, the prep, the baseboard and the delivery are about the same $2,500 on a 1,200 sq ft main floor whether you put down a $5 floor or a $16 one, which makes the cheap floor 40% more expensive than its rate and the dear one 13% more.
The four tiers
| Budget, installed | What fits | Installed rate | What I would pick |
|---|---|---|---|
| $5 | Builder vinyl plank, click | $5.00 | The vinyl plank. It is the only one of the three that shrugs off a wet boot. Builder grade means a thin wear layer, so keep it out of the kitchen if you can. |
| Mid-grade carpet with pad | $5.00 | ||
| Builder laminate with underlay | $4.75 | ||
| $8 | Premium vinyl plank, click | $7.50 | Premium vinyl for a basement or a rental. Floated builder engineered for a bedroom level where you want wood under your feet and the subfloor is a slab. Both leave change. |
| Builder engineered hardwood, floated | $7.50 | ||
| Premium carpet with pad | $7.50 | ||
| Premium laminate with underlay | $6.75 | ||
| $12 | Mid engineered hardwood, nailed | $10.75 | Mid engineered, nailed, with the $1.25 of change going to a better plank. This is the tier most of the houses I build land in. Solid at exactly $12.00 if the house is dry and the subfloor is 3/4 in. plywood. |
| Mid solid hardwood, 3/4 in., nailed | $12.00 | ||
| Mid engineered, glued to a slab | $12.75 | ||
| $16 | Mid porcelain tile, 12×24 | $15.75 | Porcelain where there is water, premium hardwood where there is not. Nobody needs premium tile and premium hardwood in the same budget. |
| Premium solid hardwood, nailed | $15.00 | ||
| Premium engineered, nailed | $13.50 |
Rates from the master price table. Large-format tile ($18.75), herringbone and natural stone sit above the top tier and are not a budget, they are a decision.
The 1,200 sq ft main floor at each tier
Take an open main floor: kitchen, living, dining, hall, powder room, 1,200 sq ft, one material throughout to keep it simple. The floor itself is the budget times the area. The lines under it are the same four lines every time.
| Line | $5 floor | $8 floor | $12 floor | $16 floor |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Floor, 1,200 sq ft installed | $6,000 | $9,600 | $14,400 | $19,200 |
| Remove old carpet and pad, $0.90 | $1,080 | $1,080 | $1,080 | $1,080 |
| Screw down, fill and sand the subfloor, $0.75 | $900 | $900 | $900 | $900 |
| Baseboard off and back on, 160 lf at $2.50 | $400 | $400 | $400 | $400 |
| Delivery | $150 | $150 | $150 | $150 |
| Before HST | $8,530 | $12,130 | $16,930 | $21,730 |
| Real cost per sq ft | $7.11 | $10.11 | $14.11 | $18.11 |
The $2,530 of fixed lines is 42% on top of the $5 floor and 13% on top of the $16 floor. Waste is not shown; add about 10% of the material price only, so $270 on builder vinyl and $540 on mid porcelain. The tile tier also wants a $3.50 uncoupling membrane over plywood, which is another $4,200 on this floor, and that is the real reason a tiled main floor is a $26,000 job and not a $19,000 one.
How I would spend each budget
At $5, buy the builder vinyl plank and spend the money you did not spend on carpet on a $0.35 vapour retarder if it is going on a slab and on getting the subfloor flat. A $5 floor on a bad subfloor is a $5 floor with gaps by Christmas. Vinyl plank by grade.
At $8, this is the tier where the question is wood or not. A floated builder engineered is real wood with a thin wear layer; you will not sand it, but you can live on it for twenty years. Premium vinyl is thicker, quieter and better looking than the $5 version and still vinyl. In a basement, vinyl; upstairs, the wood.
At $12, you are buying mid-grade hardwood and the only decision is engineered or solid. Over plywood in a house with a humidifier, solid is fine and refinishes forever. Over a slab or over radiant heat, engineered, glued. The engineered vs solid page is the argument in full.
At $16, you have left the price of the material behind and are paying for labour and durability. Porcelain in the kitchen, mudroom and baths; premium hardwood where people sit. If the $16 is going into tile, put $3.50 of it into the membrane before you put it into a nicer tile.
Where homeowners go wrong
- Budgeting the rate times the area and stopping. The tearout, prep and trim are $2,000 to $3,000 on a main floor at any tier. Put them in first.
- Spending the whole budget on the material. A $4.75 plank with a $2.75 click install is a $7.50 floor. The same plank glued down at $3.75 is $8.50 and quieter. The install method is part of the budget, not an afterthought.
- Buying one tier up on the sample and one tier down on the installer. The $8 floor installed by the cheapest fellow on the classifieds is a $5 floor with a nicer photo in the listing. How to hire one.
- Mixing five materials on one floor. Every change is a $35 transition and a line in the carpet. Two materials on a main floor is plenty.
- Forgetting the HST. Thirteen percent of $16,930 is $2,200. It is part of the budget whether the quote shows it or not.
Questions people ask
What is the best flooring for the money?
Mid-grade vinyl plank at $6.00 installed in wet or hard-use rooms and mid engineered hardwood at $10.75 in the living rooms and bedrooms. That mix comes out around $9 a square foot across a house and holds its value.
Is it worth paying more for hardwood over vinyl plank?
On a main floor you will own for ten years or more, yes: $4.75 a square foot more installed buys a floor that can be sanded, that buyers pay for, and that does not look like vinyl in the afternoon light. In a basement or a rental, no. The full comparison.
How much should I budget for flooring in a whole house?
About $10.50 a square foot of floor area for a mid-grade mix, installed, before HST, plus $150 a tread for hardwood stairs and $3,800 for a tiled shower. A 2,000 sq ft house is about $27,000 all in before tax.
Can I do a good floor for $3 a square foot?
Only if you install it yourself. Builder laminate is $1.75 in the box plus $0.50 underlay; builder vinyl plank is $2.25. The $2.50 to $2.75 of labour is what a $3 budget does not have room for, and a floating floor laid by a careful homeowner on a flat subfloor is a fair result.
Put your rooms in
The flooring cost calculator prices each room at whatever tier you choose, adds the prep and trim lines, and shows the real per-foot number with the HST. Quotes already in hand? The $99 review tells you which tier each one is really selling.
Sources and further reading
- National Wood Flooring Association: the installation guidelines every hardwood warranty points to: subfloor flatness, moisture limits, acclimation, fastening schedules and the radiant-heat chapter.
- Torlys: Canadian maker of engineered, vinyl and laminate floors; the installation and radiant-heat instructions are a good example of what the sheet in the box says.
- Your rights when starting home renovations or repairs: Ontario government: the 10-day cooling-off period, the written contract rule, estimates, and what to do about a contractor who walks.
