Flooring fitter invoice template: per m² rates, prep work and CIS

Flooring fitter rates

Checkatrade's laminate flooring cost guide (table last updated March 2026) gives fitting labour of £15 to £40 per m² (average about £30), £240 to £300 a day, or £300 to £600 per room. Its extras table (June 2026) puts carpet removal at about £6 to £8 per m², door trimming at about £30 a door, and floor levelling screed at £6 to £30 per m². These are homeowner prices for laminate. Vinyl, LVT, wood and carpet each have their own rates, and subcontract rates from a flooring company or builder are usually lower.

Price the prep separately from the floor itself: uplifting old flooring, levelling, ply or hardboard, door trimming, thresholds. Prep is where jobs go over, and separate lines make extras easy to agree. For a homeowner, the free quote generator puts the labour, materials and prep on separate lines, and with an account you can save the quote and turn it into the invoice later.

What goes on a flooring invoice

• Each room or area with its m² and the floor type ("LVT, kitchen and hall, 18 m²").
• Prep lines: uplift, levelling compound, ply, door trimming, with quantities.
• Materials you bought (adhesive, underlay, threshold strips, levelling compound) on their own lines, with receipts. If the customer or a flooring shop supplied the floor, don't put it on your invoice.
• Day work for waiting time or extra prep, with the date and who agreed it.

CIS: it depends on the floor and the job

HMRC's manual CISR14240 is unusually specific about flooring:

One important catch: HMRC treats a contract as a whole. If a single contract mixes carpet with work inside CIS (say carpet upstairs and LVT plus screeding downstairs on a refurbishment), all payments under that contract are within the scheme. Separate contracts for genuinely separate jobs are treated separately, but splitting one job across two invoices doesn't change how it's treated. If you're not sure, check with the contractor, HMRC or your accountant before invoicing.

Worked example: a refurbishment for a builder

Sophie fits floors in a house a builder is refurbishing. The builder supplied the LVT and laminate; Sophie bought the adhesive and levelling compound. She is CIS registered (20%) and not VAT registered. The rates are illustrations within or near the ranges above, not market figures.

Check: 38 × £18 = £684; 24 × £14 = £336; plus £260 makes £1,280 of labour. 20% of £1,280 is £256. £1,422.75 − £256.00 = £1,166.75.

A month later the same builder asks Sophie, under a separate order, to carpet three bedrooms in a house that isn't being worked on. That invoice is carpet only, so no CIS should be deducted. If the carpet had been part of the refurbishment contract above, the whole contract would have been within CIS.

VAT

• The domestic reverse charge follows the CIS definition of construction work. So if you're VAT registered, flooring that's inside CIS, done for a VAT and CIS-registered contractor on standard-rated work, is normally reverse charged. Carpet-only work for a builder isn't, so you charge VAT in the normal way.
• Homeowner jobs are charged VAT in the normal way if you're registered. Registration becomes compulsory once taxable turnover passes £90,000 in a rolling 12 months.

Common mistakes

• Letting a builder deduct CIS from a carpet-only job. Carpet is excluded in all circumstances.
• Thinking two invoices for one mixed job take the carpet outside CIS. It's the contract that counts.
• Prep and levelling not on the quote, then argued about on the invoice.
• Putting a customer-supplied floor on your invoice, or mixing your adhesive into the labour line.
• No m² on the invoice, so the customer can't check it against the measure.

Free flooring invoice template

For builders, download the free CIS invoice template (PDF or Excel), with one row per area. For homeowners and carpet jobs, use the general invoice template (PDF, Word or Excel). Neither is flooring-specific. See CIS and reverse charge wording on the sample invoice. If CIS is taken off your pay, the CIS refund checker gives a quick estimate (not tax advice) of whether you may be due money back.

Related trade guides

Floors go down after the tiler, the joiner (boards, skirting, door trimming) and the kitchen fitter, so the order of work affects your dates. See all trade invoicing guides.