Price your wooden floor
Area and product type. Laying method follows the product.
How this calculator works
- Material = area × 1.07 × product rate. Seven per cent wastage is right for plank flooring, where offcuts start the next row.
- Underlay and moisture barrier = area × rate, both applied over the full floor.
- Laying = area × method rate. Floating click-lock is fastest; glue-down gives a more solid feel and is required for most engineered boards over 190 mm wide; secret-nailing to battens is for solid hardwood.
- Skirting = run × rate, at ₹120 for painted MDF and ₹180 for matching timber.
- All-in rate = total ÷ area, which is the number to check any quotation against.
- Expected life and water behaviour are looked up per product and reported, because those two facts decide the choice far more often than price does.
| Product | Material | All-in laid | Life | Water |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Laminate AC4 | ₹135 / sq ft | ₹245 – 280 | 10 – 15 years | Swells permanently |
| SPC / rigid vinyl | ₹165 / sq ft | ₹280 – 320 | 15 – 20 years | Fully waterproof |
| Engineered wood | ₹380 / sq ft | ₹540 – 620 | 20 – 30 years | Short spills only |
| Solid hardwood | ₹850 / sq ft | ₹1,090 – 1,200 | 40 years plus | Short spills only |
| Foam + film underlay | ₹35 / sq ft | — | — | Vapour barrier included |
| Acoustic underlay | ₹55 / sq ft | — | — | Needed on upper floors |
All-in laid figures assume floating installation with underlay and painted MDF skirting, over a 300 sq ft room with 70 running ft of skirting. Glue-down laying adds ₹60 per sq ft and secret-nailing to battens ₹110; swapping painted MDF skirting for matching timber adds about ₹14 per sq ft on that room. Solid hardwood is shown secret-nailed, which is the only honest way to lay it.
Design and build under one accountable roof
Worked example — 300 sq ft in engineered wood
| Line | Arithmetic | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Material with 7% wastage | 300 × 1.07 × ₹380 | ₹1.22 L |
| Foam and film underlay | 300 × ₹35 | ₹10,500 |
| Floating click-lock laying | 300 × ₹70 | ₹21,000 |
| Matching wood skirting | 70 ft × ₹180 | ₹12,600 |
| Total | sum | ₹1.66 L |
| All-in rate | ₹1.66 L ÷ 300 | ₹554 |
Which one belongs in a Mumbai flat
Humidity is the deciding factor, and it is why the honest answer here differs from the answer in Delhi. Mumbai swings from 45% relative humidity in March to above 90% through the monsoon, and every wood-based floor moves with it. Laminate has a high-density fibreboard core that swells irreversibly if it gets wet; one overflowing washing machine and a 20 ft run is finished. Engineered wood moves less than solid because the plies are cross-bonded, which is precisely why it is the sensible premium choice here and solid hardwood is not.
SPC rigid vinyl is the pragmatic option people dismiss because of the word vinyl. It is a stone-polymer composite core with a printed decor layer, it is completely waterproof, it is dimensionally stable through the monsoon, it handles a balcony door and a ground-floor flat, and the good ones look convincing underfoot. At ₹280 per sq ft all-in it does a job engineered wood cannot do at twice the price.
Where solid hardwood earns its place is a room you intend to keep for decades and refinish — a study, a master bedroom in a house rather than a flat. It needs battens, a moisture barrier, acclimatisation on site for a week before laying, and a client who accepts that it will move. On the fourteenth floor of a Mumbai tower with the windows open in July, it will.
Separate out what is ours from what is the market’s. The board, underlay and skirting prices are supplier prices and move with the shipment. The laying is Greenbox labour: ₹70 per sq ft for a floating click-lock floor is the audited October 2026 figure, taken off floors we have laid and invoiced, and it is the same number our flooring calculator uses. Glue-down at ₹130 and secret-nailing at ₹180 are our own rates for work the audited card does not list on its own line. Treat the output as a planning figure: accurate enough to brief a landlord, a bank or a family, and not accurate enough to sign a contract against.
What this tool does not cover
- Screed levelling. A floating floor needs a base flat to within 3 mm over 2 m, and most existing Mumbai floors are not.
- Removing the existing floor, at ₹42 per sq ft of breaking plus ₹4,575 for each debris run — the vitrified tile calculator prices that line.
- Door undercutting, threshold profiles and the junction with tile or marble.
- Acclimatisation — wood and engineered board should sit in the room for 5–7 days before laying, which is programme, not cost.
- Sanding and refinishing later in the floor's life, at ₹180–260 per sq ft.
- For hard flooring alternatives, see the vitrified tile calculator and the marble flooring calculator.
Selected work by Greenbox Design Studio. Tap any image to enlarge.
Frequently asked questions
What is the cheapest wooden flooring in India?+
Laminate at about ₹245 per sq ft supplied and laid with underlay and skirting. It looks good on day one and it has a fibreboard core, so a standing spill ruins it permanently. For a rental or a five-year plan it is sensible; for a floor you intend to keep, it is not.
Is engineered wood better than laminate?+
Yes, and it costs about twice as much. Engineered wood has a real timber wear layer over a cross-bonded ply core, so it looks and feels like wood, moves less than solid timber in Mumbai humidity and can be sanded and refinished twice. Laminate is a printed image under a melamine wear layer.
Can wooden flooring be used in a Mumbai kitchen?+
Only SPC rigid vinyl. Laminate and engineered wood both have cores that swell, and a kitchen guarantees standing water sooner or later. SPC has a stone-polymer core that is genuinely waterproof, costs about ₹280 per sq ft laid, and is the one product on this page we would put next to a sink.
Do I need underlay under wooden flooring?+
Yes. It absorbs small irregularities in the base, it provides a vapour barrier and it stops the floor sounding hollow underfoot. On an upper floor an acoustic underlay at ₹55 per sq ft also reduces the impact noise your neighbour below hears, which in a Mumbai society is worth more than it costs.
Why does wooden flooring buckle?+
Almost always because no expansion gap was left. A floating floor needs 8 to 10 mm clear at every wall, hidden behind the skirting, so it can move with humidity. Mumbai's annual swing moves a 20 ft run several millimetres, and a floor laid tight to the wall has nowhere to go but up.