Timber Flooring Installation Cost in Melbourne: Reading a Quote

Timber flooring installation cost in Melbourne depends on your house as much as the board you choose. A quote that shows only one number doesn’t show most of what you are paying for. A useful quote lists the boards, the underlay or adhesive, removal of the old floor, subfloor work, trims, stairs and labour on separate lines. Prices aren’t published on our site, because two homes of the same size can differ a lot. Instead, this guide explains each line, so you can read any quote with confidence and compare quotes properly.

The lines on a flooring quote

Here is what a complete supply and install quote should cover. Not every job needs every line, but you should be able to see which ones apply to yours.

Quote line	What it covers	What changes it
Boards	The flooring product, in m² and full packs	Board type, area, offcut allowance, pattern
Underlay or adhesive	Underlay for a floating floor, or adhesive for a glued one	Install method, apartment acoustic rules
Moisture barrier	A barrier over a concrete slab where needed	Slab moisture reading, ground floor or upstairs
Removal and disposal	Taking up carpet, tiles, vinyl or old boards and taking them away	What is there now and how it is fixed
Subfloor preparation	Grinding high spots, levelling low ones, fixing loose sheets	How flat and sound the subfloor is
Trims	Scotia, transition strips, reducers, end caps	Number of doorways and floor changes
Stairs	Cladding treads and risers, nosings	Number and shape of steps
Skirting	Removing and refitting, or new skirting	Whether existing skirting stays
Labour	Laying the floor	Area, room shapes, pattern, access

Boards: area, packs and offcuts

The board line is the easiest to understand and the one people focus on most. It should state the product, the area, and the number of packs, because boards are sold in whole packs.

Our pack sizes show how this works. A standard engineered oak plank pack covers 2.166 m², a wide board pack 2.904 m², a herringbone pack 1.62 m² and a laminate carton 2.13 m². A 30 m² living area in standard plank is 30 ÷ 2.166 = 13.85 packs before any offcut allowance, so the quote is at least 14 packs. Add the allowance and it rounds up again.

The allowance covers the pieces cut off at walls and around doorframes. Straight boards in an open room need the least. Small, broken-up rooms need more, and a herringbone pattern needs more again. Ask whether the quote includes a spare pack, too. A few matching boards kept after the job make a future repair much easier, because a later batch may not match exactly. If two quotes use very different areas for the same house, ask how each one was measured. Our guide on how much flooring you need goes through the maths.

What happens before the boards: removal and preparation

This is where quotes differ most, and where most surprise costs come from.

Removal

Carpet is the simplest to lift, though every staple and gripper strip has to come out. Tiles are the hardest. They are broken up and the adhesive bed ground back, which is noisy, dusty and slow. Old floating floors and vinyl sit in between, although glue left on the slab often needs grinding. Disposal is part of this line. Old flooring is bulky and has to be taken away.

Levelling and grinding

Board manufacturers set limits on how flat the subfloor must be. A slab with a dip near the back door, or a hump where two pours meet, gets ground down or filled with levelling compound. It is hard to know how much is needed until the old floor is up, so a good quote says what has been allowed and what happens if more is found. Our floor removal and subfloor page explains the process.

Moisture

Ground-floor slabs, new builds and recent extensions often need a moisture barrier before timber goes down. If a quote for a ground-floor slab has no mention of moisture testing or a barrier, ask about it.

Trims, stairs and skirting

Trims are small items that add up. Every place the new floor meets tiles, carpet or a sliding door track needs a transition, and every wall needs the expansion gap covered with scotia or skirting. A house with many doorways needs more trims than an open-plan one.

Stairs cost the most per square metre of anything on a quote, because each step is measured, cut and fitted on its own. Winders, open sides and landings add more time. Stairs should be listed on a line of their own, so you can see exactly what they add. The stairs page covers cladding and nosing options.

Skirting is the other decision. Leaving existing skirting and adding scotia is quicker. Taking skirting off and fitting new boards after the floor looks cleaner but brings in painting. Either is fine, as long as the quote says which.

Things that change the labour

Labour covers the actual laying, and several factors affect it:

• Room shapes. One large rectangle is quicker than the same area split into small rooms, halls and wardrobes.
• Install method. Gluing boards down takes longer than floating them. Herringbone is glued and laid piece by piece.
• Access. Boards carried up stairs to an upstairs floor or a walk-up apartment take time. So does working around a lived-in house.
• Furniture and appliances. Some quotes include moving furniture, most assume the rooms are clear. Fridges with water lines and dishwashers may need a plumber to disconnect.
• Doors. Doors often need trimming to clear the new floor height, and door jambs are undercut so boards slide underneath.

How to compare quotes fairly

Put the quotes side by side and go through them in this order:

1. Check the product name and the area in m². Different areas for the same rooms mean someone measured differently.
2. Check that removal and disposal are included, and for what floor types.
3. Look for levelling, and whether it is a fixed allowance or charged as found.
4. On a slab, look for moisture testing and a barrier.
5. Check trims, scotia or skirting, and stairs.
6. Ask who does the installation, and whether anything else is excluded, such as furniture, door trimming or appliance disconnection.
7. Only then compare the totals.

A lower total with missing lines often ends up higher once the work starts. It is perfectly reasonable to ask any company to break down a single-figure quote, and if they prefer not to, you may want to ask more questions before deciding.

Costs that sit outside the flooring quote

Some costs come from other trades, and no flooring quote will show them. It is still worth budgeting for them. If new skirting goes on, it needs painting. A fridge with a water line or a dishwasher that has to come out may need a plumber. Kitchen kickboards sometimes have to be trimmed to fit over the new floor. If the house has to be empty for a few days, you may be paying for storage or somewhere to stay. Ducted heating registers in the floor may need new covers to suit the new height.

None of these are large on their own, but together they can push a budget over, so we suggest listing them at the start alongside the flooring quote.

Choices that move the total most

If the quote comes in higher than you expected, look at what drives it. A pattern floor across the whole house costs a lot more to lay than straight boards, so many people keep herringbone for the hall or living room and use plank elsewhere. Our herringbone cost guide explains why. Stairs can be done later if the budget is tight, although matching the boards later is harder. Laminate costs less than engineered timber for the boards themselves, and click laminate floats quickly. Removal and levelling depend on the house, so they are harder to trim.

Get an itemised quote

Write down the rooms you want done, including any you are unsure about, and note what is on the floor now. Then book a free measure and quote. We measure each room, check the existing floor and subfloor, and send a quote with each line listed so you can compare it with any other. If you would like to talk it through first, you’re welcome to call us on 1300 690 160 or visit the showroom at 2/1386 Toorak Road, Camberwell.