Turn what a fitting day really costs you into a price per m² with the margin you want, then check whether the rate you already charge covers it. Your figures, not guessed averages.
Employed: a day's pay plus your employer costs. Subcontractor: the day rate you pay them. Team on different pay? Enter the whole team's day cost and 1 fitter.
Gross pay for the year, including holiday pay.
The days you pay for, minus holidays, bank holidays, sickness, training and days with no fitting.
Use your own figure for this floor type. Output varies hugely with the product, room shape, prep, stairs and access, so these examples are not typical rates.
Share of the paid day not spent fitting: travel, loading, collecting materials, waiting for access. Leave blank if your m² figure already allows for it.
Added on top of labour cost to cover running costs such as insurance, vehicles, premises, software and office time.
Profit as a share of the selling price. The results show the markup that gives it.
No figures to hand? (made-up figures).
Worked out from unrounded figures, so a step can be a penny out.
Not VAT registered? Enter what you charge.
Your own figure for this floor type.
Employed fitter? The yearly-figures helper is on the first tab.
No figures to hand? (made-up figures).
Worked out from unrounded figures, so a step can be a penny out.
The smallest job worth taking: what half a day or a full day costs you, including getting there. It starts from your figures above, and you can change any of them.
Worked out from unrounded figures, so a step can be a penny out.
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Made-up figures to show the method, not going rates: a fitter costs £220 a day and lays 40 m² in a full fitting day, but 10% of the paid day goes on travel and loading. Overheads are 15% and the target margin is 25%.
Check it backwards on the second tab: 36 m² at £9.37 brings in £337.32 a day against £253 of labour and overheads, leaving £84.32. That's a 25% margin, or a 33.3% markup.
A per m² rate copied from a competitor or carried over from years ago says nothing about your costs. Build it from what a fitting day costs your business, and every square metre you quote carries its share of wages, overheads and profit.
It also shows where margin leaks. Every rate assumes a number of m² a day. When a job runs slower, the day costs the same, so the profit goes first. Knowing the day cost behind the rate lets you spot a slow job while you're pricing it, not after it's fitted.
An employed fitter costs more than their wage: add employer's National Insurance, pension contributions, holiday and sick pay, and the van, fuel, insurance, tools and training that come with the job. Divide by the days they actually spend fitting, not the days you pay for. The yearly-figures helper does the sum.
Check what a subcontractor's day rate includes, such as their own van, tools and fuel. You normally pay only for the days you book, but travel, waiting and return visits can still cost you. Paying subcontractors can also bring in the Construction Industry Scheme: see CIS for flooring contractors.
Compare the two on cost per m² actually fitted, not on the headline day figure.
There's no honest single figure for how many square metres a fitter lays in a day. It moves with the product, the layout and the building. These all slow a day down:
So run the calculator for each floor type with its own m² per day, and price the slow work separately.
Margin is profit as a share of the selling price. Markup is profit as a share of your cost. They're different numbers, and mixing them up quietly takes money off every job.
Take £100 of cost to keep the maths simple. Add a 25% markup and you charge £125, but your margin is only £25 ÷ £125 = 20%. For a true 25% margin you need £100 ÷ 0.75 = £133.33, which is a 33.3% markup.
| Target margin | Markup needed | Price on £100 of cost |
|---|---|---|
| 10% | 11.1% | £111.11 |
| 20% | 25.0% | £125.00 |
| 25% | 33.3% | £133.33 |
| 30% | 42.9% | £142.86 |
| 40% | 66.7% | £166.67 |
| 50% | 100.0% | £200.00 |
A conversion table, not a recommended margin.
Your per m² fitting rate should pay for laying the floor. Everything else gets its own line, so it's visible, priced on purpose and easy to remove if the customer does it themselves:
Work out materials with the carpet calculator, flooring pack calculator or smoothing compound calculator, and see how to quote a flooring job for the whole quote.
Small jobs are where per m² pricing breaks down: a few square metres at your normal rate won't pay for loading the van, driving over and parking. Decide the smallest block of time a visit takes, such as half a day or a full day including travel, and use the minimum charge helper to add travel costs, overheads and margin. Then quote whichever is higher, the m² price or the minimum.
Work your rate out ex VAT, as the calculator does. If you're VAT registered, tick the box and it adds the standard rate of 20%. You have to be registered before you can charge VAT, so if you aren't, the ex-VAT price is what the customer pays.
Not every job is standard-rated. Work for other contractors reported under the Construction Industry Scheme can fall under the VAT domestic reverse charge (see CIS for flooring contractors), and some building work, such as new homes and conversions, can be zero-rated or reduced-rated, as HMRC's VAT Notice 708 explains. If either applies, check with your accountant.
A calculator gives you a rate. Applying it to every quote is the hard part, especially late in the evening with enquiries waiting. BillyBot runs the office side of a flooring business, from first enquiry to final invoice, and it prices every quote from your own rates and markups, extras included, then puts the quote in front of you to check.
It's built by a flooring business, on 20 years of running one. See more on the flooring quoting software page.
Multiply the day cost per fitter by the fitters on the job, and divide by the m² the team fits in a paid day after travel and loading. Add your overheads, then divide by one minus your target margin. The calculator on this page shows every step.
Divide the day rate by the m² the fitter lays in a day on that kind of carpet, then add your overheads and margin. Slower work, such as patterned carpet or awkward rooms, turns the same day rate into a higher cost per m², so work it out for each type of job.
There is no single right figure. It depends on what your fitting day costs and how many m² of that product your team lays in a day. Straight planks in an empty room and herringbone with borders take very different times for the same area, so run each through the calculator with your own figures.
Margin is profit as a share of the selling price. Markup is profit as a share of your cost. On £100 of cost, a 25% markup gives a £125 price but only a 20% margin. A 25% margin needs a price of £133.33, which is a 33.3% markup.
It depends on how steady your work is. An employed fitter costs wages, employer costs, holiday pay, a van and tools all year, including days they are not fitting, while a subcontractor is normally paid only for the days you book. Compare the two on cost per m² actually fitted.
Work out what the smallest visit costs: labour for half a day or a full day including travel, plus parking and other visit costs, overheads and margin. Then charge whichever is higher, the m² price or that minimum. The minimum charge helper on this page does the sum.
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