← Carpet installation bid calculator
It comes up on the walkthrough, not the estimate sheet: “Can you just move the couch and the dresser too? Shouldn’t take you long.” It doesn’t take long — the calculator’s suggested rate is a flat 1.6 crew-hours — but “doesn’t take long” is not the same as “free,” and the easy answer on-site (“sure, no charge”) is a real number, not a courtesy.
Open the free carpet installation bid calculatorFurniture move is priced in this calculator as its own fixed crew task — 1.6 hours, independent of floor yards, scope, or pattern. At the calculator’s default crew rates ($38/hr wage, 30% burden, 15% overhead, 20% target margin), that is $113.62 added to the price. Turn it on across the three built-in job presets and the add-on does not move with the size of the floor:
| Preset | Price, no furniture | Price, with furniture | Add-on |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cheap special — 400 sq ft, no stairs | $2,708.76 | $2,822.38 | $113.62 |
| Typical house — 900 sq ft, 13 stairs | $7,838.30 | $7,951.92 | $113.62 |
| Whole house — 1,600 sq ft, 21 stairs | $15,135.92 | $15,249.54 | $113.62 |
Same add-on on a one-room job and a whole house, because the crew task itself — clear the floor, stage the pieces, set them back — does not scale with square footage the way carpet yardage or stair count does. That is also why folding it into a per-yard rate is the wrong place to hide it: raise the per-yard price enough to cover it on a small room and you overcharge a big one; price it low enough for the big house and the small room gives it away.
On the typical-house preset (900 sq ft, 13 stairs, tear-out and haul included), pricing with the furniture move in the scope gives a total cost of $6,361.54 against a price of $7,951.92 — a profit of $1,590.38. Quote the no-furniture price of $7,838.30 instead because it felt awkward to add a line item on the walkthrough, then still move the furniture on install day, and the real cost is still $6,361.54. Profit falls to $1,476.76 — a giveaway of exactly $113.62, the identical number the line item would have charged. The favor is not free; it is unbilled.
The other extras in this calculator scale with the job: stairs are priced per step, tear-out and haul-away are priced per billed yard, so a bigger floor or a longer stair run costs more of each. Furniture move does not — it is one flat task whether the crew clears a studio apartment or a five-bedroom house with a set of stairs in between. Pricing it as a fixed line item is what keeps a small job from subsidizing a big one and a big job from swallowing the cost of a small one.
Open the carpet installation bid calculator, pick a preset or type your own floor, and toggle “Move furniture off the floor” on and off to see the add-on on your own rates — your wage, burden, overhead, and margin may not match the defaults above, so the dollar figure will move even though the underlying hours stay flat. This is the same arithmetic as how much to charge to install carpet; it is not a scheduling estimate for how long the move itself will take, and it is not a guarantee that 1.6 hours covers a house full of oversized furniture — replace the hours with your own crew's time for a heavier job.
Yes, as its own line item. Moving furniture off the floor is a flat 1.6 crew-hour task in this calculator's suggested rates. At a $38 wage with 30% burden that is $113.62 added to the price after overhead and margin — the same $113.62 whether the floor is a 400 sq ft living room or a 1,600 sq ft whole house, because the task does not get bigger with the floor.
No, and that is the point. On the calculator's cheap-special (400 sq ft), typical-house (900 sq ft, 13 stairs), and whole-house (1,600 sq ft, 21 stairs) presets, turning on furniture move adds exactly $113.62 to the price every time. It is priced as fixed crew-hours, not a percentage of floor yards, so folding it into a per-yard rate either overcharges a small room or undercharges a big one.
You eat the cost with nothing to show for it. On the typical-house preset, quoting the no-furniture price of $7,838.30 but still moving the furniture drops actual profit from the intended $1,590.38 to $1,476.76 — a $113.62 giveaway, the identical figure the line item would have charged. Verbal goodwill on the walkthrough is a real, calculable pay cut unless the price moves with it.