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Flooring Cost Calculator Ontario (2026): Hardwood, Vinyl Plank, Tile and Carpet Room by Room, With Removal, Subfloor Prep, Stairs and HST
Flooring & TileFree Calculator
What Should New Floors Cost? Every Room, Any Mix of Materials, With the Tearout and the Subfloor Work That Never Makes It Into the First Quote.
Hardwood in the living room, tile in the bathrooms, vinyl in the basement, carpet upstairs, stairs on top. One number, before and after HST. No email address required to see it.
A flooring price has three parts and most quotes only show you one. The material and the labour to lay it is the part everybody prices. Getting the old floor out and getting the subfloor flat and dry is the part that shows up as “extras” halfway through the job. This calculator prices all three at Ontario rates, room by room, so when a quote comes in at a number that looks too good, you can see which part it left out.
Step-by-step
Flooring Cost Calculator (Ontario)
1
The rooms and what goes in each
| Room | Length (ft) | Width (ft) | New floor | Old floor coming out | Layout |
|---|
Measure wall to wall at the floor, closets included. Pick a different material for each room if you like; the calculator keeps them separate and adds the transitions. Waste is added for you: 10% for a straight lay, 15% for diagonal or herringbone, 12% and 18% for tile.
2
Grade and tile details
Labour barely changes with grade. Material does. What each grade buys.
Big tile needs a flatter floor and a bigger trowel. Large format.
Tile on plywood without one cracks sooner or later. Why.
3
The subfloor
Flat means 3/16 in. in 10 ft for hardwood and LVP, 1/8 in. for big tile. Levelling.
Usually a few rooms, not the house. Leave 0 for none.
Applied to every room on concrete, which the calculator takes as the basement rooms plus any room you mark below. Floors on concrete.
Basement floor area, or the whole house if it is slab on grade.
4
Trim, stairs and the house
5
Where is the house?
Material costs the same everywhere; labour does not, and labour is about half of a flooring price.
Used only to tell you whether the house is in our direct service area. Not stored.
Enter a postal code to see service coverage.
BuildersOntario.com
Your Flooring Budget
Illustrative Ontario estimate
| Item | Estimate |
|---|
Estimated total with HST$0
Example only, using BuildersOntario budgeting rates checked October 2026 for materials delivered with waste, installed to the manufacturer’s instructions and the NWFA or TCNA method for the material, over a subfloor that is flat and dry or made so by the prep lines above. It does not include heating systems (see the hydronic cost guide), shower waterproofing (see the tile and shower calculator), plumbing, painting, or furniture you forgot to mention. The installer’s site measure and moisture readings govern the contract, not this page.
Request a Real Quotation
Your room list, materials and subfloor notes become a written scope a flooring installer can price without guessing, so three of them price the same job. It goes straight to our inbox, and a copy comes back to you; reply to that copy with photos of the existing floors, a close look at any soft or uneven spots, and the floor plan if you have one.
What this calculator does, and what it will not do!
It takes each room, the floor you want in it and the floor that has to come out, and prices the three parts separately: material with waste, labour by installation method, and the tearout and subfloor work in between. Then it adds the things people forget: baseboard, transitions where one floor meets another, the stairs, the disposal bin, and HST. The result is one budget for the whole house with every line visible, which is more than most quotes manage.
It cannot see your subfloor. It does not know the plywood by the patio door is soft, that the slab was poured in November and is still at 90% humidity, or that the previous owner glued the parquet down with something black from 1972. Those come out on the walk-through and the moisture test, which is why the number here is a budget and the number on the contract is a quote.
A rule of thumb: in Ontario in 2026, mid-grade floors run about $6 a sq ft installed for vinyl plank, $11 for engineered hardwood, $16 for porcelain tile and $5 for carpet, before tearout and before HST. A typical 2,000 sq ft house with a sensible mix is $21,000 to $27,000 all in; with a flight of oak stairs and a tiled ensuite shower it is over $30,000 with the tax.
How I price it
Installed, before HST, Central Ontario, checked October 2026. Material rates are per square foot delivered, before the waste the calculator adds. Labour is a professional installer, not a handyman and not you on a Saturday.
| Line | Builder | Mid | Premium | Labour |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Engineered hardwood | $3.50 | $5.25 | $8.00 | $5.50 nailed, $7.50 glued to a slab with adhesive, $4.00 floating |
| Solid hardwood, 3/4 in. | $5.00 | $6.50 | $9.50 | $5.50 nailed. Not over a slab, not over radiant. |
| Luxury vinyl plank | $2.25 | $3.25 | $4.75 | $2.75 click, $3.75 glue-down |
| Laminate | $1.75 | $2.50 | $3.75 | $2.50, plus $0.50 underlay |
| Porcelain tile | $3.00 | $4.50 | $7.50 | $10.00 at 12×24, +$3 large format, +$4 pattern, +$5 mosaic; setting materials $1.25 |
| Ceramic tile | $2.50 | $3.50 | $5.50 | Same labour as porcelain |
| Natural stone | $9.00 | $14.00 | $22.00 | Same labour, plus sealing |
| Carpet with pad | $4.00 | $5.00 | $7.50 | Supplied and installed as one number |
| Oak stair tread, boxed | $150 each | $200 open or wide, $40 carpeted | ||
| Removal | $0.90 to $3.50 | Carpet $0.90, floating $1.25, glued $2.00, tile $3.50; bin $450 | ||
| Subfloor prep | $0.75 to $6.00 | Minor $0.75, self-level $3.00, grind $2.00, plywood $2.75, replace $6.00 | ||
| Moisture control | $0.35 to $4.00 | Poly $0.35, raised panel subfloor $3.50, epoxy $4.00 | ||
| Baseboard | $2.00 to $6.50 per ft | Quarter-round, remove and reinstall, or new and painted | ||
| Minimum job | $1,500 | One room still takes a truck, a day and a trip to the dump | ||
The hardwood labour and material lines are what I pay on my own houses; the rest is checked against Ontario installers each month. The full price guide has three houses worked through.
Where homeowners go wrong
- Pricing the floor and forgetting the floor under it. Tearout, levelling and a moisture test are $2 to $6 a sq ft that the first quote often leaves as “if required”. Ask for the unit rate in writing before anyone starts. Levelling costs.
- Putting a floating floor on a wet slab because the box said waterproof. The plank is waterproof. The mould under it does not care. Test the slab first.
- Choosing by the sample, not the wear layer. Two engineered planks that look the same can have 1 mm or 4 mm of real wood on top. One can be sanded; one cannot. Wear layers.
- Forgetting the stairs. Fourteen treads at $150 is $2,100, and the hardwood floor looks odd stopping at a carpeted staircase. Stairs.
- Over radiant heat, not knowing what the floor runs at. Our slabs take 40 C water and the floor runs 30 to 37 C; the wood and vinyl sheets say 27 to 29 C and the warranty hangs on it. Know which one you are choosing. The temperature rule and the compatibility checker.
Questions people ask
How much does flooring installation cost per square foot in Ontario?
Installed and before HST in 2026: vinyl plank about $6, laminate about $5.50, engineered hardwood $10 to $13 depending on whether it is nailed or glued, solid hardwood about $12, porcelain tile $15 to $22 depending on size and pattern, carpet about $5. Add $1 to $4 a sq ft for removing the old floor and any subfloor work.
Is it cheaper to do the whole house at once?
Somewhat. The fixed costs (delivery, bin, minimum charges, moving furniture) get spread over more square feet, and an installer gives a better rate for two weeks of work than two days. Expect 5 to 10% off the per-foot price for a whole house, not half.
Does the price include the subfloor?
On a new build, the subfloor is the framer’s and is already there. On a renovation, the price here includes whatever prep you select; the installer’s quote should say what is included and what the unit rate is for anything found after tearout. How to compare quotes.
Should I buy the flooring myself?
You can, and for LVP and laminate many people do. You then own the waste calculation, the dye lots and the damaged boxes, and the installer will not warranty the material. For hardwood and tile, let the installer supply it or at least check the order before it is placed.
Why does tile cost so much more than hardwood?
Labour. A hardwood installer lays 400 to 600 sq ft a day; a tile setter lays 100 to 150, and has to come back to grout. The tile itself can be cheaper than the wood. Tile costs.
Bathroom tile and a shower too?
The Tile and Shower Calculator prices the shower pan, waterproofing, walls, niches and heated floor that this calculator deliberately leaves out. If you already have quotes, the $99 quote review puts them on one grid and tells you what each one left out.
