One of the first questions we get asked in our Warana showroom is what new carpet is going to cost. It deserves a straight answer, so here it is. For many Sunshine Coast homes in 2026, carpet can cost between about $42 and $87 per square metre supplied and installed, with underlay included. If your taste extends to premium wool, expect to pay more than that… and the sky really is the limit.
The range is wide because carpet spans four quite different tiers. Understanding which one suits your home is the fastest way to a realistic budget.
Two Prices You'll See: Supply Only vs Supplied and Installed
Carpet is quoted two ways, and it pays to know which one you're looking at.
Supply only is the carpet itself, and at Kawana Flooring our supply prices already include underlay. Carpet and underlay go hand in hand, and it's rare to sell one without the other, so we price them together.
Supplied and installed adds the labour of laying it. Installation runs at a rough $12+ per square metre across our first three tiers below, whichever you choose. Premium carpets take more care to lay, so their install rate is $18+ per square metre and upwards.
That's the whole formula. Everything below is supply price plus labour, with no hidden layers in between.
The Four Carpet Tiers
Entry level: polyester and polypropylene. Soft underfoot, great colour choice, and the most budget-friendly way to freshen bedrooms or a rental. These synthetics suit lower-traffic rooms where comfort matters more than heavy durability. Expect roughly $30 to $45 per square metre supplied with underlay, or around $42 to $57 installed.
Mid-range: solution dyed nylon. The workhorse of Queensland family homes. The colour is locked into the fibre during manufacturing rather than dyed on afterwards, so it shrugs off sun fade, stains, and cleaning products. If you have kids, pets, or a hallway that gets real traffic, this is the tier most of our customers opt for. Expect roughly $45 to $65 per square metre supplied with underlay, or around $57 to $77 installed.
Entry-level wool. Real wool without the premium price tag. You get the natural warmth, the softness, and the hypoallergenic qualities that make wool special, in ranges built for everyday homes. Expect roughly $65 to $75 per square metre supplied with underlay, or around $77 to $87 installed.
Premium wool. For main bedrooms, formal living areas, and homes where the floor is part of the design statement, premium wools run from about $85 to $200+ per square metre supplied, and honestly, there's no ceiling. As Ryan puts it: "We even installed alpaca carpet in a Brisbane penthouse a few years back, and that was north of $350 a square metre." Including the higher install rate, budget from around $103 per square metre installed.
The Broadloom Metre Trap
Something that catches a lot of people comparing quotes. Carpet is manufactured on wide rolls, and some retailers advertise prices per broadloom metre, meaning one metre cut across the full roll width. A broadloom metre of a standard 3.66 metre roll is 3.66 square metres of carpet, so a price that looks impressively low per broadloom metre can be higher per square metre than a competitor's honest number. Always compare per square metre, and ask which measure a quote is using. We quote per square metre so there's nothing to decode.
What Moves the Price
Beyond the carpet itself, a handful of factors shift the final number on any job:
Removing old flooring. Pulling up and disposing of existing carpet adds roughly $5 per square metre plus tip fees, which vary with the size of the load. A couple of bedrooms is a small tip fee; a whole house is a bigger one.
Stairs. Stairs take time and skill to carpet properly. As a guide, allow around $400 in additional labour, though the exact figure depends on your staircase, since wraps, winders, and bullnose steps all take different amounts of work. We confirm it at the measure.
Room shapes and wastage. Awkward room shapes can need more material than the floor area suggests. A proper measure keeps wastage, and cost, to a minimum.
The small stuff. New smooth edges, trims, ramps between floor levels, and very small jobs (a single walk-in robe, for instance) can each add a little. None of it is hidden; it's all in the quote.
Subfloor surprises. If the old carpet comes up and reveals a subfloor needing repair, we pause, and a carpenter gets involved before we continue. We can help coordinate that. The good news is our site assessor is expert at catching problems early. They will ask about moisture, movement, and bouncy corners at the measure, so surprises on installation day are rare.
Budgeting a Typical Job
As a rough guide, carpeting three standard bedrooms (around 40 square metres) on the Sunshine Coast lands somewhere between $1,700 and $3,500 installed, depending on the tier you choose and whether we’re disposing of the old carpet. The honest answer for your home comes from a measure, which is why we do them free, but those brackets should tell you whether you're planning for the right ballpark before you fall in love with a sample.
Comparing carpet against hard flooring? We've published the same honest guide to vinyl flooring prices.
Get a Real Number, Not a Guess
Every home is different, and the difference between a guess and a quote is a tape measure. Book a free measure and quote and we'll come to you, measure properly, and give you a fixed price with no surprises.
Or visit our Warana showroom to feel the difference between the tiers for yourself, because carpet is one product you really do want to touch before you buy.
