Before committing to a certain type of new flooring, it’s wise to find out how long that flooring will take to be installed.
If you’re having new flooring installed in a bedroom and it is going to take a few days, then that means you’re going to need to find somewhere else to sleep during that time.
And depending on whether you want furniture and floor removal, how big your project size is, the type of carpet you choose, and how many installation crews you need, it can take from 1 day to several days to finish.
If you’re in a hurry to finish your home renovation, then you might also be interested in choosing whichever flooring type is going to be installed in the shortest amount of time.
Carpet is a popular choice because it gives a warm and soft look to a home, and it can also be installed really quickly, making for a sudden transformation to the interior of a property.
Carpet is typically installed more quickly than hardwood or laminate flooring, and it takes considerably less time than tiling, grouting, and sealing a floor surface.
Here we take a more in-depth look at the typical time scale associated with carpet installation and what can affect the length of time carpet installation takes.
Furniture Removal
Furniture removal can be included in the carpet installing services. So if you are able to spend, you can hire the carpet fitter crew to do the job.
If your carpet installation crew arrives to fit a carpet in a room that has not been emptied, then this is going to add extra time to the total project. The size of the carpeting space, which needs to be cleared of furniture, as well as the number of belongings in the room, can drastically ramp up the expected installation time.
If a crew needs to remove all of the items from every bedroom in a home before they can start working on the flooring, then this is likely to add several hours onto their expected finish time. If you want to speed up the installation of carpet, then you should clear out the rooms of furniture and everything else before your crew is due to arrive.
Many installation crews will charge a labor cost per hour, so if you can remove the furniture and belongings from the rooms yourself before they come to fit the carpet, then you will also be saving yourself some money on the cost of the project.
The floor will need to be completely clear before an installation crew can begin work, so ensure you move everything out of a room and temporarily store it in a different area of the house until the new carpet has been installed.
Most installers recommend waiting 24 hours before putting furniture down on newly laid carpets.
Floor Preparation
The current state of your floors is another factor that is going to affect carpet installation time. If they have to remove your existing flooring material before they get to work on the new carpet, then this can add between 20 minutes and several hours to the job, depending on what flooring you currently have and how many rooms are being updated.
If your current flooring is carpet or vinyl and you are only having new carpet installed in one room, then this should be a quick and easy job for the carpet fitting crew to pull out the old flooring and load it into a skip or into the back of their truck for disposal at a later time.
A reasonable time expectation for this is less than half an hour. However, if you have many rooms with flooring which need removing, then this could take as much as half a day.
And if your current flooring is hardwood, laminate, or tile, then this can take an entire day just to remove the flooring surface so that it is ready for the carpet to be installed.
Much like clearing your rooms of furniture, if you want to save time and money, then you need to have your current flooring removed before your carpet installers arrive.
This may not always be possible, but if it is, you can really speed up the carpet installation project by already having the floor prepared.
Project Size
If you want to know how long it takes to install a carpet, then, of course, you need to know what size the space is where the carpet will be laid.
On average, a team of carpet fitters will be able to install 1000 square meters of carpet in one day, but this does not include removing furniture or previous floor coverings.
If you are having your whole house carpeted, then you can get a rough time estimate based on the square footage of your house.
A typical four-bedroomed house will be around 2000 square feet in size, so you can expect a team of experienced carpet installation professionals to be able to install carpet across the whole house in two days.
Carpet Type
The type of carpet you choose can affect how quick and easy it is to install, and so this can also impact the time an installation project takes.
Shag or high-pile carpets are more difficult to cut and install, so this can add extra time to carpet installation, while low pile carpets will be quicker to install.
If you are looking for the quickest installation time possible, then opt for low pile carpets; however, deeper pile carpets are only likely to add a number of minutes to the installation time for an experienced carpet fitter, so you should choose the carpet you like the best.
If you are going to install the carpets yourself and are not experienced in carpet installation, then opt for a low pile carpet for a better chance of getting a professional-looking result.
Medium pile and Berber carpets are slightly more difficult to cut compared with low pile carpets, but they are still suitable for an inexperienced carpet fitter to install.
Room Shape and Obstacles
A room that is square or rectangular with no obstructions is going to be much quicker to install carpet in compared with a room that is an awkward shape or a room with features that need to be worked around.
If you have a closet in a bedroom that also needs carpeting, a bay window, or a fireplace that juts out into a room, then all of these things will make a carpet installation more complex, adding time to the project.
If you are having your stairs carpeted, then this will also bump up the total time for carpet installation. There is nothing you can do to change the shape of your rooms, so this issue simply needs to be worked around.
It won’t present a problem for experienced carpet fitters; it just means you need to expect a slightly longer installation job.
Installation Crew
The number of people you have working in your carpet installation crew is obviously going to affect the amount of time the installation takes.
A single contractor working alone is going to take significantly longer to fit a carpet across an entire house compared with a team of six installers all working together.
The level of experience of your installation crew will also be a factor. Contractors who install carpets and other types of flooring on a daily basis will have perfected their technique to enable them to work efficiently, while contractors with less experience may take longer to get the carpet fitted to an acceptable level.
Some people who are keen on DIY might be tempted to install carpets themselves to save on installation costs. If you are not in a hurry to get your carpets fitted, then this is a perfectly valid option, but you should allow yourself double the amount of time that an experienced installation crew would take.
If a carpet fitting crew has estimated that they will have your carpets installed in a day, then you should expect when fitting the carpets yourself that the same amount of work will take several days.
