Carpet replacement cost: published prices, and who pays

Carpet prices are published freely by the people who sell carpet, and each retailer publishes its own. That makes any single figure easy to find and hard to judge. This page puts the published Australian figures side by side, separates what each one includes, and then covers the two things a carpet retailer has no reason to explain: when water-damaged carpet has to be replaced rather than dried, and which insurance policy carpet actually belongs to.

Published carpet prices, side by side

The spread is wide because the figures are not the same thing. Some are supply and installation — carpet, underlay and labour in one price. Some are installation only, with the carpet priced separately. Replacement adds removal of the old carpet and gripper. And the carpet itself ranges from budget polypropylene to wool blends several times the price. Before comparing two quotes, check which of those four lines each includes.

A worked example: one bedroom

A 12 square metre bedroom, using the published figures above:

• Supply and install, mid-range: 12 m² at $55 to $75 is $660 to $900 on the Sydney figure.
• Plus removal of the old carpet: 12 m² at $15 to $35 is $180 to $420 on the Sydney removal figure; Mike’s Carpets publishes removal at $3 to $10 a square metre, $36 to $120.
• Or dried and relaid instead: one restorer’s published rate card puts one room of wet carpet dried over three days at $1,260 excluding GST, and relaying the carpet after drying at $250.

Carpet is sold in roll widths, so a quote may be for more square metres than the floor area. Ask how many metres were quoted and why.

After water damage: dry it or replace it?

Whether carpet can be saved depends on what wet it and for how long:

• Clean water, caught early. Carpet wet from a burst supply pipe and extracted and dried quickly may be able to stay, and the underlay is a separate decision. Wet carpet covers what decides it.
• Mould. NSW Health says absorbent materials such as carpet, once mould-contaminated, should be professionally cleaned or replaced (NSW Health, Mould factsheet).
• Sewage or floodwater. Queensland’s disaster guidance says absorbent items that cannot be cleaned easily, carpet among them, should be thrown away if they are wet for more than 2 days (Queensland Government, Mould (disasters and emergencies)). Category 3 water explains why contaminated carpet is removed rather than dried.

If you are claiming, photograph the carpet and keep a cut sample before anything is thrown out; the insurer may want to see the material, the colour and the backing.

Building or contents? What the regulations say

Carpet fixed to the floor looks like part of the building. The standard cover definitions treat it otherwise. Regulation 4(1) of the Insurance Contracts Regulations 2017 defines contents as including furniture, furnishings and carpets (whether fixed or unfixed) (Insurance Contracts Regulations 2017 (Cth) reg 4(1), definition of contents, para (a)), and defines home building as including fixed wall coverings, fixed ceiling coverings and fixed floor coverings (other than carpets) (Insurance Contracts Regulations 2017 (Cth) reg 4(1), definition of home building, para (c)). Under standard cover, carpet is contents whether or not it is fixed.

A policy can draw the line differently, but the Insurance Contracts Act limits how far an insurer can rely on a departure from standard cover: unless the insurer clearly informed you in writing beforehand (Insurance Contracts Act 1984 (Cth) s 35(2)). So the answer for your claim is in your own policy wording. It matters most in three situations:

• You have building cover but no contents cover, or the reverse. Check which policy names carpet before you lodge.
• You rent. The carpet is the landlord’s. A leak that damages it is the landlord’s repair, and if it is claimed, it is the landlord’s claim; your own contents policy covers your belongings, not their carpet.
• You own a unit. On this site’s strata water damage table, carpet inside the lot sits on the lot owner’s side, on a contents or lot-owner policy — consistent with the standard cover definition.

Common questions