Flooring quote template: what a professional UK quote includes
Two quotes land in a customer's inbox. One is a text message: "carpet supplied and fitted £1,850". The other is an itemised PDF: the product named with its width and colour, each room listed, underlay specified, uplift and disposal as a line, fitting as a line, deposit terms, and a validity date. Even when the totals are identical, the second quote wins more often — because a quote isn't just a price, it's the customer's first evidence of how you work.
This guide is the template: every section a professional flooring quote should carry, the order to put them in, and the handful of sentences in the terms that prevent the most common disputes.
The header: who, where, when
- Your business identity — trading name, logo, address, phone, email, and company/VAT numbers where applicable. This is a trust signal as much as a legal nicety.
- Customer and property — name, the address being fitted (not just the billing address), and their phone/email.
- Quote reference and date — a unique reference the customer can quote back, the issue date, and the validity period ("valid for 30 days").
The body: itemised, area by area
List each area with the product specified, then the supporting lines. Specificity is your friend twice over: the customer sees exactly what they're buying, and six weeks later there's no argument about which grade of underlay was included.
| Section | What the line says | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Materials | Product name, colour, roll width, per area — plus underlay grade, gripper, adhesives | Prevents "I thought it was the thicker one" and pins the spec you priced. The quantity comes from your cutting plan (see our wastage guide) |
| Fitting | Fitting per area; stairs called out separately | Stairs cost more — showing it avoids subsidising them invisibly |
| Preparation | Uplift & disposal, furniture moving, subfloor prep (latex, ply) | The most commonly forgotten money on flooring quotes |
| Sundries | Door bars, trims, easing doors | Small lines that leak margin when unwritten |
| Totals | Subtotal, VAT stated explicitly, fixed total | A surprise 20% at invoice is how good jobs become bad reviews |
| Deposit & payment | Deposit amount to accept, balance due on completion, how to pay | Cut carpet can't be restocked — the deposit should cover materials |
One total, many lines. Itemise the build-up but present a single fixed price for the job — not a rate card. The itemisation explains; the fixed total commits. How to build those numbers honestly is covered in our guide to pricing carpet fitting.
The terms that prevent disputes
You don't need three pages of legalese. You need the six sentences that cover the ways flooring jobs actually go wrong:
- Subfloor condition: "This quote assumes a sound, dry, level subfloor. Additional preparation found on uplift will be quoted before work proceeds." — the single most valuable sentence on the document.
- Measurements: quantities are from the survey/cutting plan; the price is fixed unless the scope changes.
- Furniture and access: what you move and what the customer clears; who takes the doors off if needed.
- Old flooring: whether uplift and disposal are included (point at the line item).
- Lead time: estimated, from deposit — material availability moves, so don't promise a date you don't control on the quote itself.
- Cancellation: materials are cut/ordered specifically for the property; the deposit covers them after ordering. Consumers have statutory rights (for contracts made away from your premises there's a 14-day cooling-off period unless they ask you to start sooner in writing) — reflect them, don't fight them.
Deposit: how much and when
Common UK domestic practice is a third to a half on acceptance, before materials are ordered, with the balance on completion. The logic to apply to your own number: once a 4m roll is cut for a specific house, it has no other buyer — so the deposit should at least cover the material cost. State how to pay (card link, bank transfer) on the quote; the easier the deposit is to pay, the faster jobs confirm.
Presentation: the quiet salesman
A clean PDF with your branding, sent the same day as the measure, beats a better price sent on Thursday. Speed is the part people underestimate: the first professional quote frames what "normal" looks like, and every later quote is compared to it. If your process needs an evening at the kitchen table to produce the PDF, that's the process costing you jobs, not the price.
Two upgrades worth making if your tooling supports them: online acceptance (a link where the customer accepts and pays the deposit in one step, instead of "reply to confirm and we'll send bank details"), and expiry automation — a polite nudge before the 30 days run out, which is often the cheapest job you'll ever win.
The template, already built
PlanIt produces the itemised PDF quote from your measurements and rates — cutting plan behind the material line, stairs priced separately, deposit and online acceptance built in. From £19 per user a month, with unlimited quotes.
Start a free trialFrequently asked questions
What should a flooring quote include?
Business and customer details, quote reference and validity, each area with product specified, itemised materials, fitting, preparation and sundries, the VAT-inclusive total, deposit and payment terms, and short terms covering subfloor, access, lead time and cancellation.
Itemised or one figure?
Itemised lines under one fixed total. It reads as thoroughness, explains the price, and pre-agrees what happens if the customer removes a line.
What deposit should I take?
Commonly a third to a half on acceptance, before ordering — at minimum enough to cover materials, since cut rolls can't be restocked.
How long should the quote stay valid?
State it — 30 days is typical. It protects you from supplier price rises and stops quotes coming back from the dead a season later.