How much does carpet cost per m² in the UK? Supply, underlay and fitting

Carpet is priced per square metre, but the number on the label is rarely what the room costs. Underlay, gripper, fitting and the waste from cutting a rectangle out of a roll all add to it. This guide gives real UK prices for 2026, works three rooms through from roll to fitted floor, and shows where the money goes so you can decide what to spend it on.

The short answer

Budget carpet is £8 to £10 per m², mid-range £12 to £18, and premium wool £30 and up. Underlay adds £3 to £5 per m², and a fitter charges £3 to £6 per m² plus a call-out, or £40 to £80 for a staircase. A 4m by 3.5m bedroom in a mid-range Saxony with underlay comes to about £280 in materials and £340 fitted. Our ranges run from £8.20 per m² for a felt-backed twist to £15 for a 15mm Saxony, cut to your room size so you are not paying for the offcut.

What carpet costs per m² in 2026

Type	Typical UK price per m²	What you get
Budget felt-backed twist, 7 to 8mm	£6 to £10	Polypropylene, built-in cushion, bedrooms and rentals
Action-backed twist, 10 to 12mm	£9 to £16	Hard-wearing, the standard stairs and hall carpet
Saxony, 12 to 16mm	£12 to £25	Deep, soft, for bedrooms and lounges
Wool twist or loop, 80/20	£30 to £60	Natural fibre, better feel, needs more care

Ours, for reference: 8mm felt-backed twist £8.20, 8mm Saxony £8.49, 11mm twist £10, 15mm and 16mm Saxony £14.50 to £15. All polypropylene, all bleach-cleanable, all cut from 4m or 5m rolls.

The extras

• Underlay: £3 to £5 per m². Our 8mm underlay is £50 for a 15m² roll, so £3.33 per m². Skip it only under a felt-backed carpet in a quiet room; see the underlay guide.
• Gripper rods: about £1 per linear metre of room edge. A 4m by 3.5m room needs 15m, so £15.
• Door bars and threshold strips: £5 to £15 each.
• Fitting: £3 to £6 per m² for a room, £40 to £80 for a straight staircase, more for winders. Most fitters have a £60 to £100 minimum, so combine rooms into one visit.
• Waste: the hidden one. Carpet comes in fixed widths, so a 3.3m wide room cut from a 4m roll wastes 0.7m across the whole length. Choosing the roll width that fits your room is worth more than haggling on the per-metre price.

Three rooms costed

Bedroom, 4m by 3.5m, 15mm Saxony. Cut from a 4m roll at 3.6m long: 14.4m² at £15 is £216. One roll of underlay £50. Gripper £15. Materials £281, delivered free. Fitted by a local fitter at about £60: £341. The same room in 8mm Saxony at £8.49 is £122 for the carpet and £247 fitted.

Living room, 5m by 4.2m, 11mm twist. Cut from a 5m roll at 4.3m long: 21.5m² at £10 is £215. Two rolls of underlay £100 (or £75 if your fitter sells it by the metre). Gripper £19. Materials £334. Fitted about £420.

Stairs and landing, 13 steps plus a 2m by 1m landing, 11mm twist. Roughly 6.5m² for the stairs and 2m² for the landing: 8.5m² at £10 is £85, but you will order a 4m by 2.5m piece to cut the runners from, so allow £100. Underlay £50. Fitting £70 to £90. Fitted about £240. Stairs are the job where the cheapest carpet costs most, because it wears through in three or four years and you pay the fitter twice.

Where to save and where not to

• Save on the spare room. 8mm felt-backed twist straight down, no underlay, £8.20 per m² and done.
• Do not save on stairs. Action-backed twist, underlay, proper fitting. The stairs guide explains why.
• Spend on underlay before you spend on pile depth. An 11mm twist over 8mm underlay feels better than a 16mm Saxony on bare boards, and costs less.
• Measure before you fall for a colour. The room calculator tells you which roll width wastes least. On a big room that can be £40 either way.

Buying online versus a carpet shop

A high-street carpet shop bundles fitting into the price and typically charges £20 to £35 per m² for a carpet we sell at £10 to £15. Buying the carpet online and booking an independent fitter (Checkatrade, Rated People, or the fitter your neighbour used) usually saves a third on a whole-house job. The trade-off is that you measure. Two measurements per room is all it takes, and free samples mean the colour risk is the same either way.