What a new floor costs in Alabama.
Eight materials, installed ranges from Huntsville to Mobile, and a cost estimator that runs in the page. No forms, no email gate, and nobody calls you afterwards.
Kitchen
Where a slow leak finds the subfloor first.
Bathroom
The other place soft decking turns up.
Living room
The floor everyone sees first.
Entry & porch
Red clay, humidity and everything the door lets in.
Stairs
The most-walked surface in the house.
Bedrooms
Quiet, warm, and the cheapest room to get right.
Eight kinds of floor
What each one is good at, what it costs installed here, and the rooms where it is the wrong answer.
Hardwood
Solid and engineered. Still the best resale return on this list.
Luxury Vinyl Plank
Waterproof, and the one floor that survives water and comes back.
Carpet
Bedrooms and stairs — and the first thing to go after water.
Refinishing
Sand, stain and seal the boards already under the carpet.
Tile & Porcelain
Entries and kitchens, and the surface red clay does not ruin.
Laminate
The budget end done properly — and where it is a false economy.
Natural Stone
Entries and great rooms, where the floor does the talking.
Stairs & Landings
Treads, risers and railings, raised-floor houses included.
Installed ranges across Alabama
Materials and labor together. The Birmingham metro sets the top of each band; north Alabama and the Gulf Coast sit just under it, Montgomery and the east below that, and the Wiregrass at the bottom.
| Work | Installed range | |
|---|---|---|
| Hardwood, installed | $6 – $22 | per sq ft |
| Luxury vinyl plank | $2 – $12 | per sq ft |
| Carpet, installed | $2 – $8 | per sq ft |
| Laminate | $3 – $9 | per sq ft |
| Refinish existing boards | $3 – $8 | per sq ft |
| Tile, installed | $9 – $15 | per sq ft |
| Removing the old floor | $1 – $4 | per sq ft |
An estimate, not a quote. These are planning ranges for Alabama, not a quote. What you actually pay depends on your rooms, your subfloor and the material you choose.
Work out your own number
Your room, your material, what is already down. It runs in the page, it does not ask for your email, and nobody calls you afterwards.
- Runs entirely in your browser — nothing is sent anywhere unless you ask us to email it.
- Splits the number into materials, labor and the extras that actually move a flooring bill.
- Regional labor differences are applied to labor only, because that is the part that varies.
- No email required, no phone number, and nobody calls you.
Four things that are specific to Alabama
The whole state is in the heaviest termite zone there is
The U.S. Forest Service maps termite infestation probability in zones, and all of Alabama sits in Zone 1 — "very heavy", the highest classification on the map. That is not a scare statistic, it is a building assumption: the residential code carries requirements in very-heavy zones that it does not impose elsewhere. Formosan subterranean termites, the more destructive species, have been confirmed in at least twelve Alabama counties, with most of the activity in Mobile and Baldwin.
Your termite letter never actually looked at the subfloor
The Official Alabama Wood Infestation Report — the letter almost every lender requires — is by definition a VISUAL and NON-INVASIVE inspection. An inspector looks at joists, sills and the underside of the subfloor from the crawl space where there is access, and reports what can be seen. Nobody lifts a floor. That is the correct scope for the document and it means a clean report is not a statement that the decking under your kitchen is sound.
The flooring job is when someone finally sees it
The one moment in the life of a house when the subfloor is actually exposed is when the old floor comes up — which is your flooring job. So the flooring contract is where this gets decided, and it should say so before anyone starts: what happens if soft or damaged decking is found, what the per-sheet replacement rate is, and who makes the call. A quote that is silent on that is not cheaper, it is unfinished. Two percent of weight lost to insects or decay can take up to half the strength out of a piece of wood, so this is a structural question, not a cosmetic one.
On the coast, the question is what happens when it gets wet again
Mobile and Baldwin have to plan for water as well as insects. It changes the material answer rather than just the inspection: tile and rigid-core vinyl can usually be dried and kept, carpet and pad essentially never are, laminate swells at the core and does not come back, and engineered wood depends entirely on how fast it was dried. If a room has flooded once it will likely flood again, and choosing for that is cheaper than choosing against it twice.
termite probability across the whole state — the highest there is
Alabama counties with confirmed Formosan termite activity
wood weight loss that can cost up to half its strength
between Birmingham and Madison at the median
Across Alabama
Nine Alabama cities, each with its own housing stock and its own answer. Every figure on these pages is that city's own Census number, not a state average.
Questions people actually ask
Does a clean termite letter mean my subfloor is fine?
No, and it is not meant to. The Official Alabama Wood Infestation Report is a visual, non-invasive inspection — the inspector reports what can be seen from the crawl space and around the structure, and nobody lifts a floor to look underneath it. A clean report is good news about what was visible. It is silent about the decking under your kitchen until something exposes it.
What should a flooring quote say about damaged subfloor?
It should say what happens if soft or damaged decking is found once the old floor is up: the per-sheet or per-square-foot replacement rate, whether joist repair is in scope, and who authorises the extra work. In a state where every county sits in the heaviest termite zone, a quote that does not address it is not a cheaper quote — it is one that will be renegotiated on the day, from a much weaker position.
Which floors survive a flood and which do not?
Tile and rigid-core vinyl plank can usually be dried out and kept if the water is removed quickly and what is underneath dries too. Carpet and pad are almost always a loss. Laminate has a wood-fibre core that swells and does not come back. Engineered wood depends entirely on how fast it was dried and whether it was glued down. This is the main reason the material answer on the coast differs from the rest of the state.
Is there hardwood under my carpet in Alabama?
Most likely in Birmingham, where 25.9% of the housing predates 1940, and in the older parts of Mobile at 13% and Montgomery at 10.3%. In Madison and Auburn, where roughly half the housing has gone up since 2000, there is essentially nothing under the carpet but subfloor. Lifting a corner in a closet takes two minutes and settles it.
Do I need a licensed contractor for flooring work in Alabama?
Alabama licenses residential home builders through the Home Builders Licensure Board, and the threshold and scope are worth checking with the board for your specific job rather than taking a contractor's word for it. For most floor covering work the checks that actually predict how a job goes are liability insurance, references from jobs at least two years old, and a written contract that covers the subfloor question above.